Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Jammu on Friday to mark the hundredth birth anniversary of eminent J&K Congress leader, the late Girdhari Lal Dogra, who presented as many as 26 state budgets, the most for any finance minister in the country.
But the PM’s visit is unlikely to be remembered for a BJP leader commemorating a leading Congress figure. Probably the Prime Minister’s trip would not have come about had the late Jammu leader not been the father-in-law of the country’s present finance minister, Arun Jaitley.
To BJP ranks the Prime Minister’s Jammu visit showed his talked about proximity to Mr Jaitley and underscored the factional lines at the top levels of the ruling party. We only need to recall here the observation not long ago of Arun Shourie, a minister in the first NDA government led by Atal Behari Vajpayee, that the present dispensation was being run by just three individuals, Mr Modi, Mr Jaitley, and BJP president Amit Shah.
For the people of J&K, the Prime Minister’s visit transmitted other signals. He did not make any references to a special financial package for the state, which most were anticipating. Kashmir Valley is yet to benefit from a largesse from the Centre to help mitigate the devastation caused by last year’s flood. Two, on this account the idea may be reinforced that the BJP really still cares only for the Jammu region, where its state MLAs come from, and not the state as a whole.
