Naidu makes right noises in the Valley

As sun broke through a heavy cloud cover, the Municipal Park echoed with BJP zindabad as a mixed crowd listened in rapt attention to Naidu, lapping up every word he said. ‘‘All these years, you couldn’t think of venturing out in the state. But the change is so obvious as to have prompted a senior PDP leader to invite Atalji to contest elections from here. I welcome the statement as it’s politically significant and thank him for the invitation.’’ said Naidu, in a pointed reference to J-K Law and Finance minister Muzzaffar Beig’s Republic Day invitation to Prime Minister A.B. Vajpayee.

Playing down the party’s anti-Muslim image and harping on Vajpayee’s hand of friendship to Pakistan, Naidu asked the audience to try the BJP once. They wouldn’t be let down, he assured them. ‘‘Come and be part of Atalji’s vision and I promise you a safe future. He extended a hand of friendship to Pakistan despite the Lahore and Agra setbacks and even went to attend SAARC Summit to engage Pakistan in a dialogue. Ballot is more powerful than the bullet, let them give up guns and we’d talk to them.’’ he said.

Rattling off the Centre’s Muslim-centric policies, he said: ‘‘In the last five years, we have started a direct Haj flight from Srinagar to Jeddah. We have started computer training at madarsas. And we have sent Muslim governors to Maharashtra, Kerala and an ambassador to Saudi Arabia.’’

All of this seemed to go down well with the mostly rural crowd, converging here from villages across the Valley. If he’s to be believed, nobody prodded 66-year-old Abdul Samad Lone to come from Ganderbal. He was here to express his solidarity with the BJP. ‘‘Dirty politics has ruined our lives. But for the first time, I am hoping that the Kashmir dispute could be solved. And Vajpayee is the only sincere man who can do it. I wasn’t lured to this rally, I only came to express my solidarity,’’ he said.

With support like that, the BJP has reason to feel smug. Predicting not less than 300 seats in the forthcoming Lok Sabha election for his party, Naidu asked the public to send BJP representatives to Parliament. ‘‘The Congress has nobody and nothing to offer. We have a leader like Atalji and prosperity to offer to you. Even members of the Gandhi family, Maneka and Varun, have joined us, so join us for a better future,’’ he added.