From Hindu outreach to striking a chord with traders, Mehbooba takes BJP battle to Jammu

According to the PDP, the shopkeepers “appreciated” the development works undertaken during the Mufti-led government. They also complained of the

dip in their business following the current Union Territory government’s move to do away with the one-and-a-half centuries “Darbar tradition” of shifting the administration as well as records between Jammu and Srinagar twice a year.

A day earlier, Mufti, while addressing the PDP workers at the party’s Jammu headquarters, took a jibe at the local BJP leaders for claiming that the next Assembly elections would give J&K its first Dogra CM.

“While we Kashmiris have apprehensions of demographic change (under the BJP rule), the demography of Jammu has already changed,” the PDP chief claimed, saying “Look around and see where the Dogras are”. “The factories, central government offices, Lt Governor, his advisor, important posts like DGP, IG, SSP, Directors – how many of these are being held by Dogras of Jammu?” she asked.

“They (BJP) are directly ruling J&K over the past many years and when they had the opportunity to install a Dogra Lt Governor, they did not and now they are talking of Dogra Chief Minister to hoodwink the public,” she said.

The BJP dispensation has been bringing people from outside, Mufti said, labelling the saffron party the “West India Company” which has been controlling, she alleged, resources like minor minerals and the liquor trade. While the local industrialists and traders are jobless, the BJP has been encouraging industrialists and businessmen from outside to set up their units in J&K, she said.

Mufti also referred to the UT administration’s ongoing anti-encroachment drive, charging, “It is mostly selective and the BJP is trying to please a particular section for votes.” She said, “Many of those whom the BJP had earlier accused as land grabbers are now sitting in its lap as they left PDP and other parties after they were threatened with action,” asking her party workers to stand with the demolition-affected people without discriminating between Muslims and Hindus.

Pointing out that many in Jammu were the first to erupt in celebrations following the abrogation of Article 370 in August 2019 by the Narendra Modi-led Centre, the PDP leader appealed to them to rise above the “politics of polarisation”. “If you have to save J&K and the nation, you will have to stand up and fight for your rights without getting misled by any slogan,” she said.

Mufti also accused the BJP of using J&K as its “laboratory” to test its policies before their implementation in the rest of the country.

She asked Jammu’s majority community to wake up from the dream of some “(Hindu) Rashtra” being allegedly shown by the BJP as the latter, she alleged, just wanted to turn the country into a “BJP Rashtra”, where only those among the Hindu, Muslim or any other community will be accomodated who vote for it.

“The condition of Hindus who do not vote for BJP will be worse than Muslims,” the PDP leader claimed, asking the people of both Jammu and Kashmir divisions to take a lesson from the developments in Ladakh where the people of Kargil and Leh districts have joined hands to press for their constitutional safeguards and statehood.

This was Mufti’s first visit to Jammu in about five months during which besides tearing into the BJP she tried to connect with the region’s majority Hindu community by taking up some burning issues concerning them, including the anti-encroachment drive which has currently been halted by the administration. Although the administration has not targeted any poor or landless so far and has repeatedly assured them that the demolition drive would only be directed against the rich and powerful, including land mafia, there has been a sense of fear among the local residents on the matter.

To take advantage of such apprehensions, the mainstream Opposition parties have started making attempts to make inroads in the Hindu-dominated belts of the Jammu division, which are known to be the BJP’s stronghold.

The prevailing resentment among daily wagers in various government departments and the protest by unemployed youths as well as migrant Kashmiri Pandits and reserved category Dogra employees posted in the Valley are also among the issues which are coming handy to the Opposition in its battle against the BJP.