BJP set to install new government; campaigns against ‘dynasty’ in Srinagar

There is method in the madness after all. While Governor’s Rule was imposed on the state on June 20, the Assembly was kept in suspended animation, which fuelled speculation that defections would be encouraged and a new Government put in place.

Within a fortnight of Governor’s Rule, the new arrangement has started taking shape. Disgruntled lawmakers from Congress, PDP and the National Congress are said to be ready to raise their banner against ‘dynastic rule’, encouraged by the BJP. It will be a government headed by the BJP, admit people involved in the plan.

Prominent Shia cleric, a senior PDP leader and a former minster in Mehbooba Mufti’s cabinet, Imran Raza Ansari,confirmed the development to National Herald.

“We want to get rid of the family rule of Abdullah’s and Mufti’s in Jammu and Kashmir.They (Abdullah’s and Mufti’s) have been deceiving people by promoting nepotism. We have likeminded people (MLA’s) in all parties, who are fed-up with the rule of these two families. They may well join hands to create a third force,” he said to this correspondent.

He hastened to add, “Personally, I am in favour of fresh elections. But if a government without these two families is formed, I will support it.”

Imran Ansari and his Uncle Abid Ansari, also an MLA from PDP, were the first to publicly accuse Mehbooba Mufti of giving key positions in the party to her kith and kin. They taunted their party head for “turning People’s Democratic Party (PDP) into FDP (Family Democratic Party).”

Another MLA of PDP Mohammad Abbas also declared his intention to part ways with PDP and others are said to be waiting on the wings to join him.

BJP is assured of the support of Sajjad Gani Lone of People’s Conference (PC) which has just two members in the Assembly at present. With 25 MLAs of its own, BJP requires support of 17 more MLAs to form a new Government, the halfway mark in the Assembly being 44.

While it is still not clear whether defectors from Congress, PDP and NC would form a new party or not, chances of these MLAs joining BJP or People’s Conference is not ruled out. The existing anti-defection law in the state, observers say, will not come in the way of the new formation as one-third of the MLAs will switch sides.

“BJP will use Kashmir as an ideological pawn in the run up of Lok Sabha polls,” CPI (M) leader Muhammad Yusuf Tarigami told National Herald.

BJP, after ending the three-year old power sharing arrangement with PDP, has been accusing PDP of “soft separatism” and of being favourably disposed towards militants and Pakistan.

BJP has also extricated itself from pledges it had made to protect Article 370, initiate a dialogue with Pakistan and the Hurriyat, revocation of Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA), de-notifying disturbed areas and return of hydro-power projects to the state—concessions it had accepted in the “Agenda of Alliance” with PDP.

BJP in fact has already started talking about revocation of Article 370.

“BJP is now free to once again call for the abrogation of Article 370, as it had been doing in its election campaigns,” says Prof. Noor Baba, an analyst and former head of Kashmir University’s Poltical Science department.

Former Union Minister Yashwant Sinha, who was recently in the Valley, also believes that BJP aims to use anti Kashmir and anti-Pakistan feelings for polarising voters in the run up to the 2019 parliamentary election.

In his latest report on Kashmir, Sinha writes, “The common perception was that the Modi government had nothing much to showcase in terms of its achievements for the 2019 general election. There were no new faultlines emerging in the Indian polity which could be exploited electorally. Hence, the BJP went for the fall-back option of using Kashmir to communally polarise the electorate in the state as well as in the rest of India.”

Indeed, BJP president Amit Shah delivered an aggressive speech in Jammu on June 23 when he accused the PDP-led state government of discriminating against Hindu dominated Jammu and Buddhist dominated Ladakh. He also declared at the same rally that BJP would remove provisions of the Constitution that guarantee special status to Jammu and Kashmir.