To grab a few extra votes!But there are no surprises
It is a straightforward deduction from the government’s general conduct.In short, those who matter in Delhi, and their bailiffs in the Valley, are playing with fire.The government’s decision to not permit civilian traffic on the 300-km Jammu-Srinagar national highway on Wednesdays and Saturdays attracted resistance from unusual quarters. Many elections have been held in Kashmir and the need to keep civilians off the highway was never felt. After Pulwama, we may recall, Kashmiri students pursuing their studies in other states and Kashmiri traders outside the Valley were demonised as terrorists and set upon by communal goon squads, with BJP-run state governments acting dumb for the most part.
The main security guys — the Indian Army — don’t need the people to be kept off the road.Keeping the people of Kashmir off the road which is their lifeline is, for a party like the BJP, a way to inform its core constituency across the country in the election season that it is capable of acting tough with "anti-national" elements, unlike its political opponents, whom it seeks to represent as being hand-in-glove with Pakistan and with terrorists. The other — and perhaps no less significant — reason is that these people are of a religious faith with which the thinking of the saffron group has never been in accord, not to put too fine a point on it. It is like the Punjabi being set upon in Chandigarh or the Tamil being hounded in Chennai.The present ruling party at the Centre, its fount of inspiration, the RSS, and the government of the BJP, are all about shouting from the rooftops that they act "strong" when it comes to national security. Acrylic letter signs Suppliers V. Malik (Retd), under whose command the Kargil intrusion by Pakistan was beaten back, was forthright in his language when he criticised the idea of restricting the use of the highway for civilians.
The media, citing military sources in the Valley, has suggested that the Army had not even been consulted in arriving at the decision. It wants to be able to use the road connecting Jammu to Srinagar on all days of the week if needed. It has no problems if the local people use it too. And for what? To grab a few extra votes!But there are no surprises here.But this is surely someone’s imagination running riot.From the BJP’s perspective, the people of Kashmir appear to qualify just so perfectly for the "terror" tag because, on account of the Centre’s adamant refusal to bring politics into play (so unlike the Vajpayee and the Manmohan Singh governments), some of their youngsters are running an insurgent campaign.P. To make Kashmir an issue in the national poll campaign by punishing the ordinary Kashmiri for no crime committed is to play fast and loose with the unity of the country and its integrity.While the Army made no formal comment, its unhappiness was evident from press reports. That is how it has always been..Recently, when announcing that the highway — which is the lifeline for the people of the Kashmir Valley — will not be open to civilians on two days of the week, it was officially stated that this was necessary from the security point of view since preparations had to be made for the Lok Sabha elections, during which period, it was said, more troops will be needed.
A former Army chief, Gen.In BJP-controlled Jammu, a curfew had to be imposed to protect the Kashmiri people living in the largest city of their own state. And on the security side, the Army is currently the most important stakeholder in Kashmir, especially since south Kashmir is in flames, thanks to policies which are not just shortsighted but dangerously misconceived. Besides, even the Army does not think of it as necessary. The Indian Army deployed in the Valley was not pleased — and this gives the game away. This is not a complex theorem from Euclid’s geometry. Who does then? The government, who else? And, why? Because of the election, quite clearly
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