No ''muscular'' approach to Kashmir, says Ram Madhav

Vibha Sharma
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, June 20

A day after he abruptly announced his party’s break-up with the PDP, BJP’s pointsman for Jammu and Kashmir Ram Madhav on Wednesday went on an overdrive to dispel notions while spelling out the BJP-led NDA government's four-pronged agenda for the strife-torn Valley.

It’s another thing that the four points happened to be the same that he, as the architect of the BJP-PDP alliance three years back, claimed would lead to normalcy in the state in six months’ time.

On Wednesday he once again claimed a marked difference in the situation in the strife-torn Valley in a couple of months with the help of these measures under the Governor’s rule. He also dismissed apprehensions that with Mehbooba out of the way, the Centre will follow what is now being called a “muscular” approach.

“We have not abandoned Kashmir, we have sacrificed the government for the betterment of people and larger national interest,” he said amid criticism over the BJP trying to sidestep its equal responsibility in the increase in radicalisation and extremism, the reasons for which it yesterday dumped the PDP

The first part deals with tackling terrorism with zero tolerance, he said. 

The second was about those taking to the streets—the stone-pelters—so focus on ground workers. Madhav said majority of those who participate in such activities are influenced by propaganda. 

The third is about the support network for terrorists and the fourth, of course, developmental activities and good governance, much of which had been said earlier, several times.

Significantly, he also said the BJP-PDP alliance was much more stable than NDA’s other alliances (read with the Shiv Sena and the TDP).

What Madhav aimed to do on Wednesday was to dispel the prevailing notion that with Mehbooba out of the way now, the BJP will use this new "muscular" approach to re-establish its nationalist image and as a party that does not bow down to others.

Notably, this is the first time in the four years in power at the Centre that the “new BJP” under Narendra Modi and Amit Shah have admitted that things did not work out the way they planned.

Obviously, the party is looking at much larger gains than the six Lok Sabha seats that the state holds. Alliance with the PDP has cost the BJP more losses than any gain, expect for adding up to the statistics of the list of States it rules. 

Leaders believe the party’s inability to defend on issues of Rohingya settlements and indiscriminate killings in border towns is not just affecting cadres in Jammu region but also other parts of the country. 

While the BJP has very little to lose electorally in the state (It just has three Lok Sabha seats, two in Jammu and one in Ladakh), the surprise decision was about the dispelling perceptions of the liaison with “soft separatist” party like the PDP while proclaiming “zero tolerance” on terrorism.