DISTURBING SIGNALS
Government recently did not allow PDP to have its first political meeting of leaders has shown that the “ground feedback” about Mehbooba Mufti and her party is still “disturbing”. “BJP has been even violating the SOPs due to the pandemic in Kashmir valley, holding big conventions and leaders coming from New Delhi. But main political parties have no space here, is the common saying by many of the mainstream political leaders including those of PDP.
BJP is the only political party working freely on the ground in Kashmir valley, especially at the grassroots. BJP leaders have been holding public meetings since 5 August last year when all the mainstream political parties were banned from any activity especially in the Kashmir valley. Recently, the government disallowed a closed-door political meeting of senior leaders of PDP in Srinagar, bringing the debate back in focus that BJP is doing cherry-picking while allowing mainstream political parties to conduct their meetings.
By providing no space to PDP by such curbs, the authorities both in Srinagar and New Delhi have not been able to explain the cherry picking of such behavior for a particular political party.
In the past 13 months, even amidst the pandemic, the BJP freely conducted political meetings even in the rural areas of Kashmir, sending a sense of alarm among the traditional political parties like National Conference (NC), PDP and Congress that they were pouching on their political space.
