How Pulwama Helped BJP Pursue Its Ideology
The Pulwama attack gave a tremendous fillip to this process and created an opportunity to magnify the post-‘surgical strikes’ jingoism to a new level. No element of the Balakot air strikes and the farce that followed with Pakistan’s retaliation and the capture of an Indian pilot, was subjected to any rational scrutiny, despite the fairly credible challenge to the Indian Government’s narrative. Instead, a veritable frenzy followed, giving the BJP an even larger majority in Parliament.
The Modi Government’s re-election in May 2019 was interpreted as a carte blanche to push the Hindutva agenda forward; the decisions of August 5, the dismantling of Article 370, the subsequent clampdown and acts of collective punishment in J&K – which produced a surge of schadenfreude in the majoritarian constituency – are all a continuation of this chain.
Through all this, the Government’s actions in J&K have been driven, not by any considerations…