The Kathua Rape Case- The Politics Of Horror

The kathua rape-murder case has backed the bjp into an embarrassing corner and is testing its creaky ruling alliance with the pdp in kashmir

- Asit Jolly

The swelling public outrage and protests nationwide against the brutal gang rape and murder of an eight-year-old girl in Jammu and Kashmir is what it took for Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to swing into damage control, if only to salvage its increasingly tenuous alliance with the Mehbooba Mufti-led People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in the state.

On April 14, when Ram Madhav, the BJP general secretary in charge of J&K, flew in to Jammu to execute the high command’s directions on sacking Chaudhary Lal Singh and Chander Prakash Ganga, the two BJP ministers who reportedly rallied support for those accused of perpetrating unspeakably horrific violence against the child, he clearly wasn’t happy about it. After dispatching the resignations to Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti in Srinagar, Madhav claimed his ministers were innocent and, at worst, guilty of “indiscretion”. According to him, Ganga and Singh joined the Hindu Ekta Manch’s rally in Kathua on March 2, only to “dispel misgivings about the [police] investigations and reassure people there will be no harassment of any innocent”.

Madhav hinted at a grudging political compromise: “We have done our bit to address or allay fears and misconceptions in the minds of people not only in Jammu or Kashmir but the entire country.” But he insisted that his leadership hadn’t acted under any pressure: “Nobody dictates any agenda to us. We are both equal and responsible partners.”

In an apparent bid to minimise any adverse impact the climbdown might have on the party’s following in Jammu region, it later (on April 17) emerged that Madhav had secured the resignations of all 10 BJP ministers to allow for a portfolio reshuffle. Analysts, however, suggest the move was driven by political optics—to demonstrate that the BJP in J&K functioned beyond the PDP’s control.