The idea that bombed

The logic of trifurcation means that over time not just regions but sub-regions would demand their own political and territorial identity — for instance, a Muslim Kargil would want nothing to do with a Buddhist-dominated Leh, and so on and so forth. It would be redundant to state that such a process would negate everything that the Indian state represents.

Therefore, the people of Jammu demonstrated great wisdom in convincingly rejecting the idea by refusing to support the RSS-backed Jammu Sangarsh Morcha (JSM), whose single-point agenda was the state’s trifurcation.

In doing so, they signalled that it is not trifurcation they want but the equal treatment for all regions — a slogan, incidentally, that the Congress rode to victory on.

For the BJP, the trouncing it received in Jammu — losing seven seats while barely managing to win one — should serve as a lesson that the politics of hypocrisy doesn’t take a political party very far.

While the BJP leadership in Delhi came out unambiguously against the trifurcation idea, the state organisation saw nothing wrong in forming an alliance with the JSM. If the BJP thought the voter would perceive nothing amiss in these cynical moves, it was sadly mistaken.

Hopefully, the party has learnt from this brutish encounter with the ballot box. One BJP leader even observed that with the people having rejected the party, the trifurcation issue has been buried. That, indeed, is reason for cheer.