How BJP is trying to get stronger in Kashmir and Ladakh since August 15?
More than 100 days of Kashmir lockdown later, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) office remains shut. Lying under the changing shadow of Chinar trees in Srinagar’s Lal Chowk area, the gates are blocked by heaps of razor wire coils.
The stationed paramilitary forces don’t want us there.
“Patarkar ho?” (“Are you a journalist?”) asks a voice peeking out of a brick sized window of a bunker with a gun barrel pointing towards the road. Upon affirmation, the voice says, “You can’t be here, don’t click pictures of this building?” After some convincing, they let us capture a few visuals for this story.
“How does an office run with all its members under supposedly preventive detention,” the PDP Spokesperson Tahir Sayeed asks.
On 5th of August 2019, the government of India revoked Article 370 from which ensured special status and autonomous powers to the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir.
Since then Kashmir is under a perpetual Internet blockade and half of the mobile phones don’t work. General traffic and majority of business establishments remain shut. Peaceful protests aren’t allowed on the streets and are either detained, arrested or made to sign a bond of release.
With the scrapping of article 370, the government of India has bifurcated and downgraded the state into less powerful Union Territories (UTs) of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh.
“The way things are turning out since August 5 is nothing less of a joke on democracy, I call it ‘demon-crazy’.” says Sayeed, a PDP Spokesperson, who is one of a very few politicians who have not been detained.
Even the pro-India politicians from Jammu and Kashmir’s main political parties viz National Conference (NC), The People’s Democratic Party and the Peoples’ Conference are under detention or arrest and not allowed to meet other party members or engage in political activity. This comes after the mass crackdown and arrest of thousands of Jamaat-e-Islami members - the largest socio-religious organisation in Kashmir.
On the contrary, India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Parties (BJP)’s regional office in Srinagar is abuzz with workers and other visitors. Outside the office, there was a cavalcade of vehicles, the General Secretary of BJP for Jammu and Kashmir Ashok Kaul is visiting the office and people are waiting to meet him, most of them BJP workers.
Mr. Kaul says, “From last few years, we have been working on organisational structure of our party in Jammu and Kashmir, and now we are seeing a shift towards us and I can see this in our Srinagar office. Whenever I am here, I have Kashmiri visitors, who want to be part of BJP and are joining us in heaps and bounds.
While BJP continues its work to strengthen its base in Kashmir, Tahir Sayeed of PDP says, BJP is making a mockery of the democratic setup of this country.
He adds, “It looks like BJP is more oriented toward party interest than national interest. If they really cared about the nation, they would’ve never barred any political party or any political activity. Even the main opposition party The Indian National Congress is not allowed a meet. It’s a joke on democracy.”
Since 90s the BJP has failed to win any single seat from Kashmir when it comes it Assembly or parliament elections, but now they intend is to create its cadre at the grass root level.
Ashok Kaul of BJP says, “In 2015, we had around 2.5 Lakh members in Kashmir, then we again had a membership drive from July 06, 2019, till the time internet was working, we got around 46,000 new members via online. Post internet shutdown, we transferred our online membership to offline. Yesterday we were collating the numbers and we have around 60,000 by offline means, making it a total of around 3.5 lakh members in Kashmir valley alone.”
The membership drive is over and now BJP plans to formalise its structure right from booth level, which BJP will do for the first time in Kashmir valley.
“These 3.5 lakh workers will take part in election for BJP’s booth president, this is to be done for 5000 polling booths. This will be followed by elections for constituency presidents and then district presidents, we intend to have results by the end of December 2019,”Kaul adds
Rashida Mir is a member of the BJP’s state executive body, she has been part of the BJP from the last three years and she seems optimistic about the future of BJP in Kashmir.
She says, “After scrapping of article 370, we are facing difficulties in convincing people on ground, but when we explain to them how its going to benefit them, then people do understand this”
When asked about opposition being detained and BJP getting more space to campaign, she quickly responds, “Anyone being guilty will always be detained, but its true that we have got an opportunity to strengthen ourselves in Kashmir”
While BJP is set to have its formalised structure in the coming months, opposition parties are yet to reorganise themselves post the abrogation of Jammu and Kashmir’s status.
Three former chief ministers, political leaders and workers from Kashmir’s mainstream political parties except BJP are still under detention since August 5.
Aijaz Ashraf Wani, a political Science Asst. professor at Kashmir University says, whenever there is a controlled guided democracy, ruling parties always have an upper hand.
He says, “If you don’t have political competition, it does not occur well for any democracy. In case of Kashmir, it is unprecedented that you don’t allow a strong competitive democracy to emerge or you have what you can term as controlled guided democracy that usually Kashmir has seen, in such cases BJP will grow stronger. It has happened to Kashmir in past also, before this Congress was doing it and now it’s BJP.”
He further added, “In Kashmir, BJP will be more powerful as there is a sense that all the regional parties had a historical manifesto on Kashmiri identity that’s article 370, now there is no scope for that. There is also a sense that, Kashmiri leadership has betrayed the people of Kashmir as they have always been promising that article 370 is cemented, but that didn’t happen actually. Now if they start selling that we are going to work on the restoration of article 370, I don’t think anyone will buy it.
Akbar Lone is a member of parliament for National Conference from North Kashmir’s Baramulla district says no sane person from Kashmir will join BJP and that those who say they have joined are just making fake claims.
He says, “Future of our party is secure. They are saying people are joining BJP, who has joined them? The only people joining them are either from IKHWAN (former militant renegades) or some naive miscreants.”
He further adds “In Ladakh also, people are not joining any party, carder of National Conference and Congress are sticking to their parties. Some people from Peoples Democratic Party in Kargil have joined BJP but PDP had a very less presence in Ladakh, it’s not going to change anything.”
The Union Territory Ladakh, which was formed after the bifurcation of state of Jammu and Kashmir on August 5th has divided feelings about the government of India’s step.
Despite Kargil’s protest against government of India’s move, around five big political names from PDP have joined the BJP in Kargil.
Katcho Gulzar is one of the PDP members joining BJP. He was PDP president in Kargil region, he says everything has changed in Ladakh since the bifurcation.
He says, “Since the the state’s division, PDP has lost its base in Kargil. Now Ladakh is a union territory and a political party which is Kashmir centric cannot have a presence in Ladakh.”
He further added, “we have always been against the bifurcation of Jammu and Kashmir, now it has been done without consulting anyone from Ladakh or Kashmir, we are not left with any option than to join BJP. Even if leaders in PDP would have been free, there presence in Ladakh has nearly come to an end.”
Murtaza Fazli, a journalist from Kargil says “PDP is totally out blown and BJP has got stronger in Kargil since August 5th.”
He further adds, “in the recent BDC elections, two BJP candidates were able to win on BJP symbol and two independent candidates are also supporting them, it’s a very good number for BJP when compared to last few elections. The abrogation of article 370 was a strategic moment for BJP, it was only after this, people like Haji Inayat Ali including other PDP members joined the BJP. So slowly the political democracy of Kargil is changing and in Leh it has already happened.”
The Kashmir politics is going through an ambiguous phase, where no one can predict its future.
P.S: This piece was originally published on BBC News Hindi- ?????? ?? ?????? ??? ???? ???? ???? ??? ?? ??????