The Kashmir Valley’s regional political entity, the People’s Democratic Party, and BJP, the country’s ruling party, announced on Tuesday what is a historical agreement to form a partnership government in Jammu and Kashmir. This is the first time since independence that the Hindutva party has gained the opportunity to be in government in India’s only Muslim-majority state, which lies on the border with Pakistan and is in the process of recovering from the effects of Pakistan-driven terrorism.
The two parties are unlikely mates. Their ideologies should usually not lead to an expectation of success of their shared enterprise. But there has been a demonstration of open opportunism on the part of both to strike a deal only with one another, and not with the National Conference or the Congress, the other two key players in J&K.
Theoretically, hurdles may lie in their path. BJP’s mother organism, the RSS, could get up to undesirable tricks, as it has done in the rest of the country, on a regular basis. If the RSS sticks to the same tactical framework in the hope of consolidating its hold over the Jammu region there could be serious trouble. When PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti and BJP president Amit Shah officially declared on Tuesday that their alliance was going to be on, Ms Mufti loftily spoke of an entente cordiale between the Valley and Jammu, which have traditionally known only mutual suspicion. This spirit can be jeopardised if the RSS goes into battle mode. Just as likely, the Kashmir separatists can play a similar role on the other side.
No matter how it works, it is evident that the reality of India is biting, and the BJP has had no choice but to accept. Union home minister Rajnath Singh’s statement in Parliament on Wednesday that the BJP would not seek to tamper with the continuance of Article 370 — which has rightly been seen as the bridge between the Indian Union and J&K by all except the Sangh Parivar and other Hindu extremist bodies — has made BJP’s volte face on the issue clear.
Overturning this crucial provision was cited for six decades as an article of faith for the RSS, the BJP, and others of the saffron conglomerate, but its jettisoning by a BJP government tells its own story. Ensuring this in negotiations with the BJP, the PDP may have won itself a cushion in the turbulent political life of the Valley. But the BJP being defanged on the issue of Article 370 is just as well even if its anxiety to rush into government has trumped its long-held crucial ideological belief.
