New Delhi, June 20: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is envisioning a bigger role for itself in addressing the issues related to Kashmir albeit under the purview of the Indian Constitution. Though it is reluctant to move a step away from its stated position to address the basic problems of Kashmir, indications are that the party is not averse to adopt a more liberal approach in this regard.
According to the party insiders setting up of BJP’s J&K study group under the chairmanship of its senior leader and former president Rajnath Singh has been guided by its top leadership’s desire to play a more proactive role in the state both politically, to expand the base in the state, and in the larger context of the Kashmir issue.
Will the study group propose some “out of the box” solution to the existing problems? Or will it in any manner see beyond the BJP’s stated position on Kashmir? The group is still keeping its cards close to its chest.
The ray of hope for the party to play a bigger role in Kashmir has its genesis in the fact that the NDA government under Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee was able to strike a chord with the people in the Valley and elsewhere in the state. “In fact, this is the takeoff point for us. We found out during our six visits to the state that people still remember the positives of the Vajpayee government and its favorable disposition towards Kashmir. If it could happen at that time, why could not the same feeling be carried forward now?  And that is the main point of reference for the group,” Singh told Greater Kashmir.
Notwithstanding the current political turbulence which the BJP is facing vis-a-vis the issues related to the Presidential elections which has exposed serious fissures in the NDA, the party is visualizing the study group’s report, to be finalised during the next few months, as a vision document for its future thinking on Jammu and Kashmir.

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