Ahead of completing one year in office, the Union Government may have been hardselling ‘Brand Modi’ to shore up its image in the eyes of electorate through media blitzkrieg but here in Jammu and Kashmir an unpopular State BJP unit is set to rock the party boat even before the celebrations gather steam.
On a day when Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh is scheduled to attend ‘Jan Kalyan Parv’ to mark the nationwide celebrations on May 27 the ‘city of temples’ would remain shut.
Instead of participating in the celebrations, the people of Jammu are organising this silent protest against the muted silence of BJP ministers in the Mufti Mohd Sayeed-led alliance Government against the decision of shifting of AIIMS from Jammu to Kashmir and an announcement by the CM to abandon the dream project of construction of artificial lake over Tawi at a staggering cost of over 70 crores.
Significantly, the call for Jammu bandh has been given by AIIMS coordination committee, an amalgamation of about 70 socio, religious and political organisations.
The coordination committee was formed after J&K High Court Bar Association, Jammu decided to spearhead a campaign against the shifting of AIIMS to Kashmir Valley.
After the bandh call was made public on Saturday at the end of marathon meeting, the senior leaders of the BJP unit immediately went into huddle and launched an aggressive damage control exercise to clarify their stand before the common masses.
Instead of convincing the people the BJP leaders are inviting more criticism in the absence of any concrete proposal or formal announcement to address the common demand of the people.
The popular leaders of the State unit have virtually failed to convince the common man on the streets of Jammu as to why they failed to oppose the shrewd move by the PDP leaders to shift the ambitious AIIMS project far away from Jammu.
A senior political commentator and historian Prof Hari Om told The Pioneer, “While the BJP is gearing up its machinery to celebrate the anniversary the State unit of the BJP is facing a dilemma”.
He said the State leaders do not know how to contain the drift especially in the absence of clear cut directions from the party high command on how to tackle the issues closer to hearts and minds of people of Jammu region.
Another senior party leader not happy with the decision to shift AIIMS from Jammu said, “In the run-up to the 2014 lok Sabha polls the State unit of the BJP managed to organise impressive show of strength for their prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi and won three out of six lok Sabha seats for the first time in the electoral history”.
“Though the momentum continued even during the State Assembly polls held after a gap of six months but the BJP failed to achieve its target of 44 plus seats in a 87 member house. At the same time BJP for the first time won 25 Assembly seats in Jammu region and dethroned Omar Abdullah-led alliance Government. After a long wait of about two months when the BJP formed an alliance Govt on March 1 with the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) after drafting an agenda of the alliance Government several hopes were raised. People believed the BJP leaders would address the issue of regional discrimination and set the record straight. In contrast the reverse is happening”, the BJP leader said sharing his personal assessment of the ground reality.
Speaking to The Pioneer a senior citizen HC Gupta said, “despite being part of the ruling alliance the State unit of the party has become highly unpopular in a span of less than three months.
Two recent decisions announced by the Chief Minister Mufti Mohd Sayeed centering around two pet projects in Jammu region have greatly annoyed large section of population in the region, he added.
According to another columnist Pravin Kumar, “The popularity graph of the party leaders/ministers in the State has gone down after assuming charge of office as they have failed to come up to the expectations of masses in their own strong pockets. He said since people had high hopes from BJP leaders they too have failed to address the genuine problems of day to day life in a short span of time.
“In common parlance and broad public view they have been perceived to be toeing a line which is largely seen as anti-Jammu. Though section of State BJP leaders showed resistance and warned against testing the patience of local population those at the helm of affairs failed to take serious note of the ground reality and now paying heavy price as well”, he added.