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in Kashmir but also in various parts of India and the world. Both on Leaky and Sinking Boat The PDP leadership remained a mute spectator to all these crimes against the people or engaged in some eye washing measures like ordering enquires, filing the FIRs and the release of some prisoners. Mehbooba Mufti also proposed cease fire during Ramzan, the dialogue with the stake holders and also with Pakistan to find a solution to the Kashmir problem. But it never ventured to go into the heart of the problem and never tried to spell out its view based on the aspirations and rights of Kashmir people. The people of Jammu and Kashmir are well aware of BJP’s policy of negating the aspirations and rights of people. The people know that BJP openly stood by the suppressive policy of the Indian govt. and sought to combine this policy with the politics of communal division. Here is what a senior BJP leader of Kashmir has said about the state of BJP and PDP at the time of break up: “The situation in the state has become such that both our core constituencies have alienated from us. There was no way the alliance would hold till 2019. We were facing huge back lash from Jammu and Ladakh, the areas that voted for us, and the valley was hitting out against the PDP. We have an idea that the PDP would pull out of the govt. by Sept – October, well before the February announc ement of General Elections. By pulling out first, we can still hope to retrieve ground.” True, both were in a leaky and sinking boat and BJP has shown the smartness of jumping out of the boat first. But both refuse to see the real causes placed them in such a state at the time of break. July - 2018 What Next ? The PDP may try to retrieve its support base by presenting itself as a ‘martyr’ which lost the power because it stood by the Kashmir people and for the resolution of Kashmir problem. But it cannot work. The PDP leadership cannot convincingly explain its opportunistic alliance with the BJP. The people will not believe it because it cannot adopt a policy in line with the genuine aspirations and rights of Kashmir people. BJP’s future course in Kashmir is clearly spelt out in the following words of BJP’s leader Ram Madhav. He said: “ We have put in place a four– pronged approach. One is utter toughness on terrorists. Secondly, go after the overground operatives of terrorists via the legal course; thirdly, to engage with different sections of the society, fourthly, to focus on development.” This approach will continue under Governor’s rule also.” He even said: “ When you (we) are pulling out of the government, it does not mean we are leaving the state. The Centre will administer the state. So it’s the Governor as the representative of the President of India who will govern the state.” This is a method of running the govt. by back door without being in power in the state. By contd from page 8 the last 25 years, the US imperialism has been at war continuously, beginning with the invasion of Iraq in 1991, followed by military intervention in Haiti, Sudan, Afghanistan and Iraq and air strikes on Yugoslavia. The new millennium saw launching of “war on terror” and occupation of Afghanistan in 2001 followed by the invasion of Iraq in 2003, war on Libya in 2011 and then raking up civil war in Syria in 2012. breaking the govt. the BJP has freed itself from the responsibilities. It is free to pursue the policy of ruthless suppression against the people in Kashmir under the cover of fighting terrorism. This policy will only aggravate the crisis and widen the gulf further between the Kashmir people and the Indian rulers. The Indian rulers and the BJP leaders may rest assured that their policy will only prove to be a monumental blunder and will boomerang. The parties in the opposition in Kashmir can help the Kashmir people little if they show interest and enthusiasm in reaping the electoral gains from the present political crisis. The people of Kashmir, who are in a great difficulty and threatened by the intensifying onslaught, expect a clear policy and definite action on the part of political forces which can help the Kashmir people to withstand the onslaught and seek to find a just and lasting solution to their problem. The political and democratic forces in Kashmir as well as India must realise that a just and lasting solution to Kashmir problem can be found only by ensuring the necessary democratic and peaceful conditions for the Kashmir people to express their views and aspiration and decide their future. The astronomical levels of military spending has been accompanied by ever greater concentrations of wealth in the hands of few corporate and attacks on living standards of working people and on their democratic rights. The root cause of this war and poverty is the obsolete and crisis- ridden imperialist system, which ought to be destroyed and build socialist society. 13