Non-NDA political parties in Jammu-Kashmir questioned BJP president Amit Shah’s purpose behind his recent visit to the state. They asked whether he came to address a public meeting in connection with the death anniversary of the Jana Sangh ideologue Shyama Prasad Mukherji or make a “confession” of the failure of BJP to remove discrimination with the Jammu and Ladakh regions.

Although the BJP has withdrawn support to Mehbooba Mufti after sharing power with her for more than three years, the reasons for quitting the coalition listed by Shah are being taken with a pinch of salt here.

Why did the BJP wait for the Lok Sabha elections to come and then quit the coalition instead of taking the step early when Mehbooba was not listening to the BJP ministers and discriminating with the two regions is the question that is being asked by the people here.

An impression has gone around that Mehbooba gained out of the Agenda of Alliance (AoA) hammered out by top leaders of the BJP and PDP before coming to power. She is accused by the BJP of implementing various provisions of the AoA that favoured Kashmir Valley and provided step-motherly treatment to Jammu and Ladakh. The inexperienced ministers of the BJP were unable to get the party’s commitments fulfilled.

Mufti’s detractors claim that while she withdrew police cases against nearly 10,000 Kashmiri youth who pelted stones at men of the Army, CRPF, J-K Police and other security forces, the FIRs against about 250 persons of Jammu who had participated in the Amarnath Shrine land agitation in 2008 were not scrapped. Mufti has claimed that the cases against the Kashmiri stonepelters have been withdrawn with the consent of top BJP leadership.

While the PDP chief rejected Amit Shah’s allegations against her, the state Congress chief GA Mir accused Shah of trying to polarise and communalise the situation before the 2019 Lok Sabha polls by trying to “hide the failures of BJP behind the slogan of nationalism and patriotism”.

“Amit Shah’s speech in the rally was more of a confessional statement of the utter failure of BJP on all fronts”, he said.

Mir accused Shah of again trying to befool the people of Jammu by shifting the blame on Mufti for deterioration of situation in Kashmir. “Why didn’t the BJP, which was sharing power in the state, take corrective steps for over three years?” he asked.

National Conference provincial president Devender Singh Rana also pointed out that Shah had made a “candid admission” of PDP-BJP government’s “betrayal” of Jammu and Ladakh regions.

Rana pointed out that there was no conviction in the BJP leadership’s claim while first forming the government with PDP in the “national interest” and now withdrawing support to them also in the “national interest”.