Exposing the inhuman face

BJP state leader and MLA Ravinder Raina’s justification for Shopian killings is shameful demonstration of communal and inhuman mindset. Raina, in a video clip circulated in social networking websites, said that ‘army did right thing by opening fire”. Two persons were killed and around a dozen others were wounded when army directed the guns on residents of Ganaopora village in Shopian for their refusal to removed posters and banners of Hizbul Mujahideen on Saturday. This is quite inhuman on the part of BJP to hail the army soldiers for killing innocent civilians. Nothing can be more aghast than these heartless and ruthless comments, which have set the valley virtually on powder-keg. PDP’s criminal silence on BJP’s aggressive and anti-Muslim posturing is something that hurts more. One had expected that the chief minister would immediately call the cabinet meeting and inform its Hindutva ally to rein in this thoughtless moron or see the end of the coalition. But her “hota hai” attitude is the worst demonstration of her love for power. Mahbooba Mufti, who is seen as the builder of the PDP, is destroying the party by compromising on every position. PDP would have to bear the cost in any way. BJP, despite being a junior partner in the government, is making all the noises and non-sense things to vitiate the peace in the state. BJP did it before Mufti Mohammad Saeed’s time and is doing it again. Since Mufti was a man of impeccable integrity, who enjoys the trust of majority of people across India. He is regarded as the last man to compromise on principles. He demonstrated this during troubled times of his first stint as chief minister between 2002 and 2005. A general refrain was that for his astuteness and wisdom, Mufti can well keep the communal party under control. But the situation is fasting running out of his control. It goes without saying that PDP, despite having upper hand in and outside the government acts as surrogate. The BJP should have been shown its place on July 13 when the party and its ministers stayed away from the official Martyr’s Day ceremony. The Hindu extremist party, instead of paying tributes to the martyrs affronted them by saying they did not consider them martyrs. This was for the first that any party in power has boycotted the Martyrs’ Day ceremony in the state. PDP should have taken a serious note of this and the Hindu communal party should have been told in no uncertain terms that its anti-Kashmir and anti-Muslim tricks would not be allowed to go on. There is no denying the fact that the BJP as party and government has preconceived ideas about Kashmir. That came to the fore when Prime Minister Narendra Modi refused to declare Kashmir floods, in 2014, as national calamity. Despite the massive losses the floods caused in terms of men and material, Prime Minister showed nasty kind of reluctance to declare Kashmir floods as national calamity. His government appears to have made a new standard for itself. We are well within our rights to draw conclusions that New Delhi is beset with a definite kind of bias against Muslims, whether in Kashmir or in other parts of the country. A section of party’s think-tank has approached Supreme Court to seek the removal of Article 35-A of Indian constitution that safeguards the special status of Jammu and Kashmir. This is making things quite murky in the state and there is every likelihood of peace never returning to the streets in Kashmir. PDP should put its foot down and make it clear to BJP that its political hegemony and communal approach is unacceptable, even if it would mean walking out of the government. PDP has option of forming government with Congress and others while BJP has the only option of following PDP’s diktat. The only thing needed is that PDP muster some courage.