BJP keeps its calm on Mufti’s remarks

Besides Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s assurance to the Upper House on Tuesday that his party’s alliance government in Jammu and Kashmir will not deviate from Parliamentary resolutions and the Common Minimum Programme (CMP), the hotheads in the ruling dispensation maintained a studied silence on their ally’s provocative statements in the border State.

The PM’s statement was a carefully muted response to the demand for convicted terrorist Afzal Guru’s remains to be sent back to the Kashmir Valley and new Chief Minister Mufti Mohammed Sayeed’s remark that the Huriyat, the militants and Pakistan should be given credit for the successful conduct of elections in the State.

Sources in the State BJP said that this studied silence from a party with strident views on Kashmir is owing to two reasons — one that the BJP’s alliance with the PDP gives the former a unique opportunity to enter the Valley politically.

The second is that Sayeed is the only representative of the Central government in the Valley. If he is not allowed to soothe ruffled feathers in the Valley that overwhelmingly voted to defeat the BJP, the threat of another wave of militancy looms large.

Former J&K Chief Minister Omar Abdullah underlined the politics behind the sudden ratcheting up of the rhetoric behind the PDP and its patron, Sayeed. “Who says Mufti isn’t clever! He’s got everyone talking about Pakistan & Afzal Guru where we should be talking about the hollow CMP released,” Omar tweeted.

The BJP believes that despite the compromise on Article 370 and a token assurance on a framework for withdrawal of the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, the party has achieved a unique advantage in striking a deal with the PDP.

The CMP gives the BJP a foothold in the Valley as a party in government just like the Congress did after the Rajiv Gandhi-Farooq Abdullah accord in 1986.

The danger for Sayeed, at the same time, is that while the BJP stands to gain entry in the Valley besides having swept in Jammu this time, the PDP will face the wrath of its constituents who voted unequivocally to keep the BJP out.

“Mufti is a seasoned player. He is talking the language of peace and militancy simultaneously so that the Valley remains peaceful. We have to face the fact that he is India’s best chance to keep Kashmir stable. We cannot undermine him by constantly neutralising his stand,” said a BJP source.

Accordingly, the BJP’s usual rhetoric on militancy, terrorism and Pakistan is uncharacteristically missing in the face of the PDP’s shrill stand.

That is because the BJP perceives the PDP’s current positioning as the necessary groundwork for laying down the red carpet when the State government shifts its seasonal headquarters to Srinagar in May. And the BJP will enter the Valley as a ruling party for the first time.