MANORAMA HORTUS

Assembly elections: Ram Madhav says J&K's integration with India now complete

BJP national general secretary Ram Madhav said that National Conference's win in the 2024 Jammu and Kashmir Assembly elections held after Article 370 aborgation was no loss at all for the BJP but, instead, was the "greatest achievement" of the central government led by the BJP. Ram Madhav, who is also a member of RSS National Executive, also expressed the hope that Jammu and Kashmir would one day have a Hindu Chief Minister.

Ram Madhav was speaking on the theme 'The Evolving Indian Identity' with the editor of Week R Prasannan at Manorama Hortus, an art and literary festival that began in Kozhikode from Friday, November 1.

"Politicians in Delhi might want to tell you that the results were against the centre's move to abrogate article 370," Madhav said. He sought to prove that the results proved otherwise. "The National Conference (NC) went to polls saying that it will bring Article 370 back. Twenty-three per cent of people voted for them. We (BJP) went to people saying that Article 370 will never come back. Twenty-six per cent of people voted for us," he said.

He called this an "important development". "The people in Kashmir have accepted the new status," Madhav said. Though BJP had the popular vote, it could win just 29 seats as opposed to NC's 42. Universal participation was another reason for Madhav to claim victory.

"This is a very significant election in the sense that all sections of Kashmiri society have happily come forward and participated in the election," he said. "There used to be groups that boycotted every election. Even if you held a panchayat election, they would boycott it. They will say that they will not accept the Indian constitution and, therefore, will not recognise this election," he said.

It was in a triumphant tone that he used the phrase "do you know". "But do you know that the chairman of the Hurriyat Conference Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, he used to lead the boycott campaign. Mirwaiz issued a statement just before the Parliament elections saying that boycotts have no meaning and our people are mature enough; we want them to participate in the election," Madhav said. It was the first time that "traditional boycotters" said no boycott, he said.

He also spoke of Jamaat e Islami's decision to participate in the Assembly polls. "This was one party that had always followed the diktats of Pakistan and had never participated in an election. Not only did it not participate, it always used to threaten people that if they voted they would face the consequences. And in its stronghold, voting percentages had been abysmally low, just two to three per cent," he said.

Again, he used the "you know" triumphant tone. "But what happened this time, you know, they issued a statement saying that the Indian electoral process is transparent, and peaceful and so we would want to encourage people to join the election process," Madhav said. JeI's 11 candidates also contested.

Result: "The highest ever voter turnout for a Jammu and Kashmir election ever." "You might have had complaints about elections in Haryana but not about elections in Jammu and Kashmir," he said. And the message: "Jammu and Kashmir is an integral part of India."

Further. "It was a slap on the face of our neighbour that had always tried to disrupt the democratic process in Jammu and Kashmir."

Though he rebuffed suggestions that the BJP had openly called for a Hindu CM for J&K, Madhav said it could be a possibility in future. He lamented the poor representation of Jammu in the Omar Abdulla cabinet.

"Unfortunately, the mandate reality is such that in that government, there is very little representation from Jammu," he said. "There is only one independent MLA who was absorbed in the cabinet (Surinder Kumar Choudhary who had jumped from the PDP to the BJP and then to the National Conference)," he said.

Nonetheless, Madhav admitted that Jammu could not be accommodated because, according to him, "of the electoral reality". "Jammu voted for the BJP wholesale," he said.

"This is a peculiar situation. We are sure the Chief Minister understands this situation and gives proper attention to Jammu also. Our 29 MLAs will make sure that Jammu is not neglected," Madhav said. It was in this context he spoke of a Hindu CM for Jammu.

"There could be a desire among the people because, after all, this state has Hindus and Muslims. There could be a feeling among some sections why not, let a Hindu be a CM," he said.

He indirectly hinted that this was the BJP's new project. "Before Article 370 was repealed, our priority was to see how Jammu and Kashmir were fully integrated with the Indian state. Today, 370 is not there, and Kashmir is fully integrated with India. Our concern now is to integrate Kashmir with Jammu. The people of Jammu and Kashmir should live together as one people and as one state. That is the priority," he said.

And for that, he said Jammu should get good participation in the government. "That is how the feeling that all are one can be encouraged in the state," he said. "Which religion will have the chief minister is just a secondary question," he said, and added that since 1952, J&K had seen 14 chief ministers, and only one among them (Ghulam Nabi Azad) was from Jammu.

The dynasty argument that the BJP had exploited to oust the Congress was invoked. "Always from two families, Abdulla family or Mufti family. That will change one day," he said.