Jammu-centric parties realise that supporting the alleged killers of the victim will get you votes, supporting the call for swift justice won’t.
Several people have asked why the horrific fatal gangrape of eight-year-old girl in Kathua in January hasn’t seen even a fraction of public anger in Jammu that was seen in the case of Nirbhaya in Delhi in December 2012. Here is a simple answer: vote-bank politics.
Simply put, Jammu-centric parties realise that supporting the alleged killers of the 8-year-old will get you votes, supporting the call for swift justice won’t.
And since Lok Sabha elections are just about a year away and the local MP – minister of state in the Prime Minister’s Office, Jitendra Singh – is likely to be battling Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad again, polarisation seems to make sense.
In the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, which he won by about 60,000 votes, Singh had a lead of 43,000 votes over Azad in Kathua assembly segment of the constituency, over 35,000 in the neighbouring Hiranagar, and 30,000 in Bilawar.
Supporting the 8-yr-old or, to be more factual, opposing her killers could be seen as being anti-Hindu, something that neither the BJP nor the Congress seems to want at this juncture.
Talk to people in Kathua and they will tell you that the ongoing stir, which started out as apolitical, is drawing support from all the parties that want to attract Hindu votes.
Consider this: Wednesday’s Jammu bandh call by the Jammu Bar Association was to raise the issue of CBI probe in the case. The association has now gone back on it and claimed that the bandh call wasn’t just about the CBI probe. It drew an overwhelming response in Hindu-majority Jammu, Udhampur, Kathua, and Samba districts, but the response was so-so in other districts like Rajouri, Poonch, Reasi, Ramban, Kishtwar and Doda, where Muslims are either in majority or have a formidable presence.
The 8-yr-old, a Bakarwal Muslim, was residing with her family in what happens to be a predominantly Hindu area.
And, before someone starts to assert that it is only the BJP that is whipping up passions in the area and supporting the accused, here’s another fact: the Jammu unit of the Congress is on the same page as the BJP in seeking a CBI probe in the matter.
Jammu and Kashmir has a history of discord between citizens living in the regions – with Kashmir being almost completely Muslim and Jammu having a Hindu majority. But, the discord has seldom been about religion; it has mostly been about Jammu being allegedly discriminated against by the politically more powerful Kashmir.
The change in the discourse – from Jammu versus Kashmir to Hindu versus Muslim – can also be attributed to what many feel is an unnatural alliance between a Kashmir (Muslim)-centric PDP and Jammu (Hindu)-centric BJP. Since coming together, both parties have been losing ground to their opponents.
The BJP, which won 25 seats in the last assembly elections, has been facing backlash from its core voters, who feel the party has been too accommodating to the bigger partner in the alliance. Ironically, chief minister Mehbooba Mufti’s PDP is also facing similar questions from its core support base in Kashmir, many of whom accuse of her playing second-fiddle to the BJP.
It is in this political disquiet that the opposition National Conference and the Congress see a breach, one that they can exploit to return to power in the next elections.
Because it is a politically motivated misuse of rape.imcident by SOLD OUT media
Whatever may be the political dynamics at play in Jammu, Kathua and Unnao, between them, have delivered a one two punch. The issue is stoking a national fire.