Jammu and Kashmir: Mandate for secular democracy

Jammu and Kashmir: Mandate for secular democracy

Jammu and Kashmir: Mandate for secular democracy

Editorial in The Hindu, 29 Dec 2008

Hindutva chauvinism hasn’t paid off despite the seemingly dramatic improvement in the Bharatiya Janata Party’s fortunes, which have taken its tally from just one seat in 2002 to 11 now. Claims that the BJP has ridden a communal tide in Jammu are empirically unsustainable. First, it must be recalled that the ultra-right Jammu State Morcha broke away from the BJP on the eve of the 2002 Assembly election. Had this division of votes not taken place, simple arithmetic suggests that the BJP would have won eight seats in that contest. The 2008 results mark an improvement in the BJP’s fortunes but only a modest one.

http://www.newageislam.com/jammu-and-kashmir--mandate-for-secular-democracy--/islam-and-politics/d/1079