Anil Anand
Just over two years after Jammu and Kashmir was given its new demoted status of a Union Territory (UT) as a result of the Constitutional changes leading to partial abrogation of Article 370 that provided special status to the erstwhile state, the things unfolded in a rather stranger way for the ruling BJP. Since the party in power has been claiming credit for the Constitutional developments, all eyes were on Centre and the Lt Governor’s administration in the UT to deliver on the promises including restoring pride of Jammu.
So when a bandh call was given by the Jammu Chamber of Commerce and Industry for September 22 to protest against what they described as the anti- business and trade policies of the Government none had fathomed the kind of spontaneous response the call would invoke. Least of all the BJP as it has been over the decades widely acclaimed that only the saffron party, which has strong hold among traders, businesses and industry, can ensure a complete shutdown.
This myth has since been exploded. The total and voluntary response to the shutdown in the entire Jammu region has come as a serious setback to the BJP. Ostensibly the party managers both in Delhi and Jammu had presumed that the call, without their backing, would not evoke any worthwhile response in their stronghold. However, it proved to be the other way round.
Nursing the after effect of this blow a worried BJP went into huddle three days later as a leading English Daily headline screamed that the Jammu bandh and its aftermath to dominate the BJP’s core Group meeting. Although this Group holds a meeting on monthly basis to discuss organisational and current issues, it was different this time as a baffled BJP leadership shaken by the stupendous success of the shutdown mulled over as to where do it go wrong.
It is obvious that the ruling party could not have either given a bandh call against its own Government/ administration or supported the call to highlight its failures on what the proponents of the bandh described as the “anti-traders and anti-people” policies. It is another matter that the party’s local leaders are at a loss to explain why were both the Centre and the Lt Governor’s administration failing to remove discrimination against people of Jammu region. This was one of the many promises held out by the Narendra Modi Government (read BJP) while hurriedly revoking Article 370.
The two developments that have unnerved the BJP managers and rank and file in the UT in view of the coming assembly elections, despite the hype taken on Articles 370 and 35 A, are the successful Jammu bandh and prior to that elections held to the Jammu and Kashmir High Court Bar Association, Jammu, in which the BJP-RSS sponsored candidate had to eat a humble pie. The ruling dispensation had pulled all stops to win the lawyers’ body election to show it as a mark of their supremacy in the region and on way to assembly elections.
Has the BJP stranglehold in its pocket borough Jammu loosened? Are the two developments directly or indirectly related to August 5, 2019 Constitutional changes? Should the successful bandh be read as rejection of the Government’s policies and the failure of the ruling dispensation to deliver what was promised?
Definitely the successful bandh with wider participation of all sections of the society is clearly a negation of the Government’s policies. It has come as a strong protest on non-delivery of lofty promises made by the powers that be.
These are important questions not only in the context of the UT but hold significance even for a national discourse both from the point of view of the BJP as well as the opposition parties. Jammu region’s demonstration of protestations against a dispensation for which the people have voted over half-a-dozen times, from Lok Sabha to civic elections, during the last seven years in the hope that “ache din” will finally come from them and they will be saved from discrimination at the hands of Kashmiri leadership, is a writing on the wall.
After all the BJP’s anti Article-370 discourse had its foundation in Jammu before it assumed proportion of being one of the core issues of the party at the national level. Using the oft-repeated cliché of the BJP leaders the people of Jammu were spoon-fed over the last 70 years that all their problems would end with the eradication of the controversial Articles. What has ultimately happened has left the people frustrated and the party shaken?
On the face of it the traders had given the shutdown call against the local Government’s move to permit opening of 100 Reliance retail stores in Jammu. However, it was an excuse or a trigger as plethora of bread and butter issues have been troubling people of the region which is mostly the fallout of wrong policies.
Apart from the bread and butter issues of traders, farmers, youth, lawyers and other sections of the society, the core issues of political empowerment of the region through removal of discrimination have become more pronounced. On the contrary the Government’s focus has been on Kashmir which BJP while in opposition had been opposing while seeking “justice” for Jammu.
The proactive stance of the Centre and the UT Administration is visible in headlines and through the high-profile visits of nearly 75 Union Ministers and over 200 MPs to Jammu and Kashmir. Since majority of these visits were scheduled for Kashmir, it created an adverse feeling in Jammu region and instigating the people to voluntarily make the September 22 bandh a total success. Even the hardcore Modi and BJP supporters have described it as appeasement at the cost of Jammu.
While BJP’s Core Committee spearheaded by its central leaders when discussing the fall-out of a successful expectedly put the entire blame on the bureaucracy for adopting anti-Jammu policies. It expectedly remained tight-lipped on the role of the Centre and the Lt Governor’s administration in this connection as also the local leadership.
What could be the immediate impact of a successful Jammu bandh and the BJP sponsored candidate poorly losing the Jammu and Kashmir High Court Bar Association elections?
The two developments have certainly acted as a reality test for the BJP ahead of the assembly elections. The party circles are abuzz with the possibility of elections being held early next year after the Delimitation Commission submits its report. It seems there could be rethinking among the BJP strategists whether to go for early elections in the backdrop of the party losing popular base in its stronghold of Jammu region. And despite all out efforts it has not been able to make any dent in Kashmir Valley.
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