Pulwama Attack Helped BJP To Play Its Ideological Game in Kashmir
The QuintIndices of violence resumed an upward trend once again, with a significant worsening of the ground situation once the BJP assumed power at Delhi and sought to project its ‘muscularity’ through intensifying kinetic operations. The formation of the ideologically irreconcilable BJP-PDP coalition government towards the end of 2014 worsened the situation, as each of these parties sought to appease its own communal constituency. Against this background, every act of violence in the State, particularly where lives of security personnel were lost, was an opportunity for the BJP to project its nationalism, drum up its rhetoric against Pakistan, and demonize the entire population of the Valley, a strategy that had demonstrable impact on a consolidating Hindutva vote across the country. The Uri attack of September 18, 2016, which resulted in the death of 19 soldiers of the Indian Army brought in a dramatic escalation in these processes.