BJP-NC war of attrition heats up as J&K DDC polls draw close

A war of attrition has broken out between Union Home Minister Amit Shah and the parties in the People's Alliance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD) in Jammu & Kashmir with the National Conference picking up the gauntlet against the second-most powerful man in the ruling BJP after Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Shah took the PAGD head on Tuesday when he broke his silence for the first time after the alliance seeking restoration of Articles 370 and 35A and statehood for J&K was formed.

Shah tweeted on Tuesday: "The Gupkar Gang is going global! They want foreign forces to intervene in Jammu and Kashmir. The Gupkar Gang also insults India's Tricolour. Do Sonia ji and Rahul ji support such moves of the Gupkar Gang? They should make their stand crystal clear to the people of India."

Shah was referring to two developments those followed the formation of the PAGD.

One was NC chief Farooq Abdullah's statement in which he had sought help from China for restoration of Article 370. The statement was later denied by the NC alleging that the party president had been misquoted.

The second point raised by Shah is the statement by former Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti which she made after her party, the People's Democratic Party (PDP), joined the alliance. Mufti said unless the state flag of erstwhile J&K was restored, she would not pick up the national flag. It may be recalled that before the abrogation of the special status, J&K had a separate constitution and a separate flag.

The state constitution was operative concomitantly with the Indian Constitution and the state flag was hoisted side by side with the national flag at the Civil Secretariat, the seat of the Governor in J&K.

The third point mentioned by Shah is whether Congress interim chief Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul Gandhi supported these overtures of the PAGD since the Congress party has joined the PAGD in J&K.

NC leader and ex-CM Omar Abdullah has taken strong exception to the statement made by Shah. In his counter allegation to Shah's charges, Omar said, "We are not a 'gang' Amit Shah ji, we are a legitimate political alliance having fought & continuing to fight elections, much to your disappointment."

The PAGD has been alleging that the BJP believed and hoped that the regional political parties like the NC and the PDP would stay away from the district development council (DDC) polls and thereby the BJP and its purported ally - JK Apni Party of Altaf Bukhari - would sweep these polls.

Incidentally, Omar Abdullah has been calling JK Apni Party as the "King's party" to convey an impression that it is the B-team of the BJP, an allegation strongly refuted by Altaf Bukhari.