It is no secret that alliance-ending talks were in motion when the centre summoned all J&K BJP ministers to the National Capital on Monday. But what has everybody taking a double take in the Valley is a newspaper report claiming that the two most important people when it comes to Kashmir, Home Minister Rajnath Singh and the Centre’s special representative to Jammu and Kashmir Dineshwar Sharma, were kept in the dark about the party’s decision to pull the plug on the alliance in the state.
Most mistook the early morning meeting between BJP chief Amit Shah and National Security Advisor Ajit Doval as being related to the preparation of Amarnath Yatra. But now it is clear that before taking the final decision of ending the alliance, Shah wanted to have full knowledge of the situation in the terror-struck valley.
It was after meeting Doval that Shah met the BJP state leaders and apprised them of the party’s decision to break the alliance. A news report said after his party’s decision, the home minister drove home, while two officials said, “they felt Rajnath had so far been unaware of the impending decision”.
Dineshwar Sharma was in fact in Srinagar to meet CM Mehbooba Mufti to discuss the situation in the state. By afternoon, when he was asked for his opinion on BJP’s decision to pull out of the alliance, he was taken aback. “I have no idea about this and the decision of the Central government. I came to know through TV news; I don’t want to comment on this,” Sharma said in a hurry.
National Conference working president Omar Abdullah did not waste time in taking a dig at the same and tweeted, “If this story is true & @HMOIndia didn’t know about the impending demise of the BJP-PDP alliance then the fact that it caught me & my colleagues by surprise is really no big deal.”
It was he who had announced the suspension of combat operations in the Valley during the holy month of Ramzan and was deeply involved in the state affairs. He was tasked with the responsibility of holding a meeting of key officials to take the suspension of counter-insurgency operations forward, but the increasing rate of violence towards the end of Ramzan and the murder of Shujaat Bukhari changed the scenario completely.
“Rajnath was concerned about the situation in Kashmir. He was personally in touch with the PDP leaders to see to it that the government headed by Mehbooba was being run smoothly. He was the only Central minister who had started to appreciate the necessity of adopting the politics of compassion in Kashmir over a muscular approach — this resulted in the suspension of operations,” a senior PDP leader said.
The home minister, despite wanting to get rid of militants and secessionist forces in Kashmir, wanted to approach the problem in a different and moderate way. “That his own government kept him in dark illustrates the kind of politics that has poisoned our country where there is no space for moderation,” the PDP leader said.
“I have just seen the newspaper report about Rajnathji,” PDP leader Rafi Mir said, “It proves Mehboobaji‘s point that New Delhi wants to rule Kashmir with an iron hand and there is no space for voices of moderation and sanity.”
Under Governor’s Rule, the forces are likely to be given a free pass to deal with the existing crisis, paving way for more bloodshed on the streets.
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