The Bharatiya Janata Party’s aggressive foray into Jammu and Kashmir politics in the current election suggests that it sees the State — the only Indian State with a Muslim majority — as the final frontier of Hindutva politics. “A Hindu Chief Minister in the State is part of our imagination though we will be careful” — that is how an activist of the BJP and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), who did not want to be named, responded when questions pertaining to their agenda in the State were asked.

BJP strategists list three factors to claim that its line on Kashmir is working: the best ever electoral turnout, the lowest impact of militancy and the best performance of the BJP, particularly its outreach into the Valley. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s rally in Srinagar on December 8 had modest crowds, but it was an act of daring for a Hindu nationalist party to organise one in the Valley. Mr. Modi stood on the dais without the protection of a bulletproof enclosure.

For the time being, the BJP is content with a triumphalist narrative of the wide participation in the State election as a victory of India, and a warning to Pakistan and separatists. These points are easily contestable and Ayesha Pervez (“Interpreting the Kashmiri vote,” The Hindu, December 13) has listed multiple reasons for the increased participation. A senior official in the State government said voting in Jammu and Kashmir could also be the result of a sense of dispossession and powerlessness.


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