India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has pulled out of a key alliance with the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in Jammu-Kashmir, three years after the two parties came together following a hung assembly in 2015. The decision to end the alliance was made by the BJP president Amit Shah in New Delhi today. Minutes after the announcement was made, Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti handed over her resignation.
Why now?
Why did the BJP pull out of its alliance with the PDP at this juncture? With less than a year to go for the 2019 general elections, BJP understood that the alliance with PDP was becoming more of a liability than anything else. The alliance remained in what was called a ‘forced marriage’ all along despite the hiccups, because of the incentive to stay in power. Now that the next general elections loom, the latest move can be dubbed as BJP’s surgical strike on the PDP. It found the state party expendable.
After ruining it, BJP pulls out of Kashmir
— Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) June 19, 2018
The two parties agreed on little – from issues like the Kathua rape case (which was viewed differently in both Jammu and Kashmir provinces) to major ideological issues (on which both parties didn’t see eye to eye). So this divorce could actually benefit both parties – Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti will act like a martyr, and seek to regain lost ground in Kashmir (her party is currently unpopular in Kashmir – but let’s not forget public memory is fickle). BJP, now that the masks have finally slipped, will do what it does best: take out its nationalistic card and attempt to consolidate its Hindu vote bank in Jammu.
An eye on 2019
The end of the alliance can also mean a stick less for the Congress and opposition to beat the BJP with at the national level when it comes to Kashmir. PDP would hope that would be the same case when it goes back to the electorate for votes.
And so it has come to pass........
— Omar Abdullah (@OmarAbdullah) June 19, 2018
Already the BJP is making noises in an effort to evade responsibility for the disastrous situation in the valley today. Ram Madhav, BJP general secretary, while announcing the split from PDP spoke about the Agenda of Alliance but many commentators note that it is the BJP which willfully sabotaged it by not implementing its provisions.
The opportunistic BJP-PDP alliance set fire to J&K, killing many innocent people including our brave soldiers. It cost India strategically & destroyed years of UPA’s hard work. The damage will continue under President’s rule. Incompetence, arrogance & hatred always fails.
— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) June 19, 2018
By playing second fiddle, the PDP perhaps allowed itself to be outfoxed by the BJP in many areas. Notwithstanding the immediate trigger of the fall-out – disagreements over Ramadan ceasefire extension, spike in violence and the recent killing of the widely respected editor Shujaat Bukhari – the endgame of the ‘unlikely’ alliance in J&K was a catastrophe only waiting to happen.
The @BJP4India is pulling out of its alliance in J&K because of the rising threat to FoE and fundamental rights, and the state’s inability to deliver what it promised. Do us a solid, guys, and pull out of the Centre on the same grounds.
— Mitali Saran (@mitalisaran) June 19, 2018
