This is an unprecedented situation we are faced with. While the rest of the country looks socially unsettled in the wake of the sharpening of the communal wedge following the murder of a Muslim villager in Dadri, and threats of violence reported on an almost daily basis in different parts of India, Kashmir and Punjab, the two crucial northern states bordering Pakistan that matter so much to the national security grid, are gripped in turmoil.
The social and political climate in Jammu and Kashmir has been febrile for some time on account of the inertia of the PDP-BJP government that came into being 10 months ago amidst some fanfare and not inconsiderable hope based on extravagant promises made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Matters became worse with the so-called “beef controversy”.
An Independent MLA, Engineer Rashid, was beaten up in the state Assembly by BJP MLAs, and later members of a communal outfit threw black paint on him in the national capital after he had finished addressing the media. Subsequently, a Kashmiri truck assistant died in a New Delhi hospital following a petrol-bomb attack on his vehicle near Udhampur by Hindu communalists earlier.
The Valley has been all but shut down for the past three days, and the preventive arrest in Anantnag on Tuesday of JKLF chairman Yasin Malik, who had gone to pay his respects to the family of the deceased trucker, has inflamed passions further. If the situation gets out of hand, the present government might find it difficult to handle as its goodwill seems to be fast diminishing.
A different story has been unfolding in Punjab for the past week — inflamed sentiments on account of the repeated desecration of the Guru Granth Sahib, the holy book of the Sikhs which is revered by Sikhs and Hindus alike in Punjab. Torn pages from the sacred text have been found strewn in all districts except Jalandhar. The Prakash Singh Badal government seems to be at its wits’ end. A senior police officer has spoken of a “foreign hand”. The Union home ministry has despatched BSF units to the state to cope with a situation of violence if this were to emerge.
The BJP rules not just the Centre but is a governing partner in the alliance governments in J&K as well as Punjab, and it appears to have no clue how to begin fixing the problem in the two sensitive states. Religious sentiments have been aroused. It may not be a bad idea for the saffron party to urge all parties to participate in a brainstorming session and send all-party delegations to the two states experiencing chaotic conditions. It is better to be humble than ineffective.
