India: Shaky BJP eyes Kashmir, RSS infusion spells dangers beyond imagination (Anuradha Bhasin Jamwal in Kashmir Times, 23 Nov 2014)

Kashmir Times - 23 nov 2014

Shaky BJP eyes the Valley, RSS infusion spells dangers beyond imagination
By Anuradha Bhasin Jamwal
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The BJP may sketch a lofty dream with its slogan of 44+ but it is well aware that its saturation point in its stronghold of Hindu majority constituencies of Jammu region does not go beyond 20, to be fair it would get anything between 17 to 20 seats in the forthcoming assembly polls in Jammu and Kashmir. And that is why it has moved on to Ladakh, emboldened by the parliamentary seat that landed in its kitty after the BJP candidate just scraped through with a victory, and Kashmir Valley, where it has never had any base. That explains its hectic campaigning for the first time in a region where the electorate and the party have always mutually treated each other as pariahs.

The robust campaign interestingly exists less on the ground, though RSS cadres are on the prowl co-opting groups including clerics, and is seen more in the media inclusive of the local media which is gleefully joining in the hype about the historic role that BJP is trying to carve for itself in the Valley. The methodology appears to be similar to the one employed across India in run up to the recently held parliamentary polls. But would it yield similar dividends in this part of the world where masses, enamoured by the slogan of independence and totally disillusioned by the politics of all Indian mainstream parties, are mostly indifferent to electoral politics other than for their day to day needs?

Elections in recent decades has been a story of boycott calls, coercive voting, voluntary voting and amidst that has come the more recent trend of increase in polling percentage, mostly voluntary. Boycott calls and brisk polling co-exist. BJP and RSS ambition to make their footprints in the Valley, however, has started a new discourse even among those who have always been staunch supporters of poll boycotts - 'dangers of allowing BJP-RSS to succeed in its mission' versus 'it makes no difference'. The proponents of the first theory find boycott calls becoming handy tools in the hands of the powers that be to manipulate polling in their favour in some constituencies where electorate size is too less and voter turn-out too poor. The proponents of the second theory advocate continuum of boycott as a strategy to highlight the popular perception of farce of Indian democratic process. It is reasoned that when it comes to Kashmir, all mainstream regimes follow a certain degree of Hindutva policy and turn out to be equally repressive. Many point out to recent years of atrocities under the Congress rule in New Delhi and the NC-Congress coalition in the state. The cynicism of the average Kashmir has pushed some to pedal out the theory that if Congress or any other party can be just as ruthless as what BJP is supposed to be, then at least they can have the promised development model to look forward to.

While it is undeniable that heavy voter turn-out is no indication of Indianisation of the masses in Kashmir, such assertions that tend to equate the BJP and other parties including the Congress with its soft-Hindutva approach, are built on half-truths, distortions and an incorrect understanding of what the saffron brigade with its semi-moderate face of BJP stands for. Right from the times of Nehru, for Kashmiris, Congress remains a symbol of deceit and repression, for making promises and not fulfilling them, for hollowing out the Article 370 to rob the specialness of the special status granted to the state, for controlling politics and imposing local leaders and unleashing a war against its people. The last Congress regime along with its local counterpart in the state proved to be the most ruthless one, pushing people to the brink by crushing all forms of dissent by ways of brutal action against peaceful protests and random arrests, thus reinforcing the discourse where gun is once again being glamourised as the sole tool of resistance. The arrogance of power was brutally stamped in 2008 during Amarnath land row, 2009 in Shopian rapes and murders, 2010 through over 120 killings and in 2013 by sending Afzal Guru to the gallows. The Congress' policy of repression cannot be denied but to imagine there could be no worse form of repression than that would be a major folly anyone would commit.

BJP-RSS is known for preaching Islamophobia, of openly preaching ruthless crushing of Kashmiris in the name of so-called 'national interest'. Its ideological basis stems from a communal and fascist foundation. The present prime minister Narendra Modi who entices everyone through his well oiled propaganda machinery as an avatar of development is known for facilitating, if not engineering, gruesome murders in Gujarat. He is different from the oft reverently quoted previous BJP PM, Vajpayee, who talked of resolving Kashmir within the ambit of 'Inasaaniyat' and did what he could only under compulsions of both coalition politics and the geo-political situation during his tenure. The present situation is different. Modi's BJP is in brute majority at the Centre and the demands of global politics today are different, allowing Modi a free hand to pursue his more hate soaked Hindutva agenda in Jammu and Kashmir, the shape of which could be uglier than imagined, especially so if the state unit of the BJP is in a position of great strength.

Even in its most benign form of developmental agenda, the Modi government's designs in Kashmir would be far less benevolent as they seek to pander to the interests of the corporate through usurpation of land and resources that belong to the people, already embittered by the water treaty and the power sharing agreements and a complete stonewalling of mechanisms for ensuring economic independence of the state. The development model is also ecologically vandalizing in nature, thus aimed at robbing the state of whatever little it possesses in terms of resources and the rich green gold.

In short, if Congress was a disaster, BJP rule spells catastrophe. It would be an ill-afforded luxury to be fooled by notions that BJP's rise in the state would not make a difference or even to hang on arrogantly to traditional strategies of boycott, despite which polling happens, for whatever reasons. Eventually, the mighty powers with a loyal media will get to project it whichever way they like. Caught in these very difficult times, the Kashmiris would have to grapple with the dilemma of whether they should display their anti-Indian loyalty by keeping away from the ballot or try their best to save whatever little they are left with. That BJP is eying the Valley is in itself historic. But whether such attempts will translate into any small or big additions to the mandate that the party gets will only depend on how the electorate, disenchanted with India's ballot politics and angered by the successive repressive regimes in New Delhi and within the state, responds. The choice eventually is not of deciding the political future of Jammu and Kashmir but of choosing between the lesser of the evils as their immediate rulers, even as their powers remain limited and remote controlled.


News Updated at : Sunday, November 23, 2014