The Hindu : Poll campaign or obstacle race?

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Aug 23, 2002

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Other States - Jammu & Kashmir

Poll campaign or obstacle race?

By Neena Vyas

NEW DELHI AUG. 22. The Bharatiya Janata Party's election campaign in Jammu and Kashmir could well end up resembling an obstacle race for it will have to cross at least two major hurdles and per force it will be speaking in two voices.

The main battle will be fought against the ruling National Conference, which is part of the Vajpayee Government at the Centre, and the NC president, Omar Abdullah, is in fact a Minister in that Government. Then, the Government has grandly rejected the trifurcation of J&K plank of the Jammu Morcha backed by the Rastriya Swayamsevak Sangh and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, and yet the BJP plans to go for seat adjustment with the Morcha. The party has said it agreed with the perception of the problem of uneven regional development but did not agree with the Morcha's solution of dividing the State into three.

"As long as the National Conference continues to rule from Srinagar, elimination of terrorism and militancy will not be possible,'' Rajnath Singh, BJP general secretary and overall in-charge of the State's political affairs, said today. Clearly, he was pointing an accusing finger at the NC for not handling the problem competently, or worse, even encouraging militancy.

How will the BJP sell this campaign line when the NC is a coalition partner in the Vajpayee Government? To this, Mr. Singh said that since law and order was entirely a State subject, the BJP was right in blaming the Abdullah Government for the situation in the State. But, "proper monitoring (of the terrorism problem) by the Centre has certainly decreased the threat'', he argued.

Although a final decision has not yet been taken, the BJP is likely to contest about 15 to 20 of the 46 seats in the Kashmir region, all four in Ladakh, and 27 of the 37 seats in Jammu, leaving about 10 seats to the Morcha. This would mean that the party would contest about 50 seats.

Several State BJP leaders have openly supported the trifurcation demand by the RSS and its other affiliates, although officially the party (and the Government) have opposed it, saying that division of J&K would, in fact, suit the Pakistanis (as it could be misread as a signal that India was prepared to part with Muslim-majority Kashmir and keep the predominantly Hindu and Buddhist Jammu and Ladakh).

When conducting a joint campaign with the Morcha, the BJP will have to make the fine distinction between its own plank of regional development councils for Jammu and Ladakh and that of the Morcha, which is expected to give full play to dangerously parochial and sectarian emotions.

Of course, the party general secretary, Arun Jaitley, is confident that the BJP will be able to make the distinction in its campaign.

"The perception of the issue of regional discrimination is shared, the solutions offered by the BJP and the Morcha are different'', he said.

In short, on both its main campaign issues, elimination of terrorism and regional discrimination, the BJP will be speaking in two voices, and the casualty will be its credibility.

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