Now not only eye watchers and civil society groups in Kashmir but people keeping an eye on the performance of last four years of Narendra Modi led BJP government at the centre and BJP’s poll plan for 2019 Lok Sabha election also hold the view that the “withdrawal of support is a part of a grand strategy of the BJP with an eye on the 2019 general election. The general perception about the intents of the BJP to pull out from the Mehbooba government is now endorsed even by the concerned group of citizens of India on Jammu Kashmir headed by former BJP veteran Yashwant Sinha as the group at the end of its recent visit to Jammu & Kashmir said “ Narendra Modi government had nothing much to showcase its achievements for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections and , there were no new fault lines emerging in Indian polity which could be exploited electorally – hence the fall-back option of using Kashmir to communally polarize the electorate in the state as well as the rest of India”. True it is that Mehbooba Mufti as Chief Minister is responsible for the killings of hundreds of civilians and blinding of thousands in crowd control policy but BJP too can wash off its hands from Mehbooba government’s failures in addressing the core concerns of equitable development in three regions of the state. Undisputed fact is that PDP lost its connection with the people at grass roots in Kashmir because of its massive support to Modi government’s operation against the militants and use of lethal weapons in crowd control policing by government forces for last more than two year and similarly BJP went into disrepute because of the central high command’s patronage to ministers who were facing massive charges of corruption.
While dejection was not the response of people to the fall of PDP-BJP government in Jammu , the expectation of respite and relief was not the response of the people in Kashmir valley.
The general perception among people in Jammu & Kashmir is that the BJP is now virtually using as a pawn for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Neither people in Jammu nor in Kashmir are ready to buy the argument of the BJP that support to Mehbooba government was withdrawn for its failures in restoration of peace and order in Kashmir and ignoring Jammu and Ladakh in execution of development projects and programs. The statement of the BJP President Amit Shah by all standards of political understandabilities was sufficient enough to indicate that the BJP played very smartly and announced withdrawal of support to Mehbooba government in an attempt to save itself from getting embarrassed in other states of the country ahead of 2019 Lok Sabha elections . Shocking for the BJP it is that while the people in Jammu did not shed tears over the fall of BJP-PDP government, the people in Kashmir valley not surprised by the saffron party’s pull out announcement in Delhi as they expected it to happen sooner or late. While dejection was not the response of people to the fall of PDP-BJP government in Jammu , the expectation of respite and relief was not the response of the people in Kashmir valley.
