BJP`s Pied Piper comes to Jammu

BJP`s poster boy for successful election result paid J&K one of the many visits he is going to make to the state. Speaking from Jammu`s district of Kisthwar, Narendra Modi made some tall promises, surprisingly not to the people of Jammu, but to Kashmir. He also indulged in the perfunctory act of discrediting BJP`s competition in the state and ironically talked of the importance of being secular.

Overusing the cliché, ‘Vikas’, his most vocal or rather the only plans for the state`s development had to do with bringing back the film industry and realizing the full hydroelectricity power potential of Kashmir. Although they both sound well meaning and seem to have a good intention behind them, the globetrotter failed to explain why any producer would want to risk not only his film but also the lives of people associated with it in a place where guns speak louder than reason or how he planned to construct big dams when the same has been prohibited under the Indus Water Treaty between India and Pakistan.

Speaking of a Secular State where the religion of an individual did not matter to the state, NaMo once again showed the glimpse of the identity crisis which BJP is going through, making India feel like a teenager going through the motions of identity confusion. It's high time that BJP decided and accepted its ideology without being embarrassed by it in some regions and proud in others.

Modi tried to woo the youth by claiming to create jobs for them while he did not deem it necessary to give any inkling of how is he going to achieve that. If he is banking on the film industry, which he, to some extent did have on his mind, then he will have to make the valley safe and that as a corollary has a lot of issues on which he did not throw any light, for reasons more or less obvious.

While he tried to paint a corrupt and despotic picture of National Conference and People`s Democratic Party, he seemed to forget that the later has been in power for a very short time. The accusation also seemed like a classic case of ' Pot calling the kettle black' as more than half of the ministers in his cabinet back at Delhi have criminal records and most are millionaires.

Almost completely divided within itself over the issue of Article 370, even its leader in the government, Modi,  did not think it necessary to clarify BJP`s stand on it. Maybe he was standing too close to Kashmir where a big chunk of his 44+ lie and thus not to irk the potential vote bank, he had  to be a little economical on the truth.   

BJP without any doubt is a very confused party and it’s unfortunate that a nation so huge and fragile, where it takes just an utterance to kick off a massacre, has chosen it as its unchallenged leader. The signs of tension are already visible, the increased communal tension at places turning into riots and coming as close to the secular heart of India, Delhi, are just warning signs to those who can still think for themselves in this country which is so crippled in the mind that it has to fall back on opinion leaders, of all kinds, for everything. 

As things stand now, Jammu seems quite convinced of Modi`s superpower, but what Kashmir has in store for BJP and Modi, votes or stones, will ultimately be decisive in the saffronization of the valley.