A joint demand came up just a couple of days ago from elected leaders of Leh and Kargil for the restoration of full statehood and the original “state subject” domicile rules.
Like a sharp spotlight, that joint demand lit up the gleaming slipperiness of whatever the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) thought it gained from changing Jammu & Kashmir’s constitutional status.
The party and much of what passes for media had projected joy in Ladakh when those changes were made, on the basis of minor celebrations in Leh. That proved ephemeral. But the barely reported anger in Kargil was sustained. It spread. Two years on, both parts of Ladakh have united to seek reversal of those changes.
Even Jammu, the BJP’s bastion since 2008, is chaffing. People worry that “outsiders” might take their property and jobs, and that mafias might come in.
True, the BJP remains by far the first choice of Hindu voters, but only by default, because of the weakness of alternatives and the general acceptance for the basic Hindutva agenda.