Media outlets which are celebrating the “victory” of Gupkar Alliance should take a closer look at the numbers

The District Development Council Polls are being hailed as a victory of democracy by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), even as the Gupkar gang and a media subservient to them takes to downplaying the incredible performance put up by the BJP across the Union Territory in the same. Whether it is illiteracy or ignorance, or a toxic combination of both which is making the media claim that the BJP has lost in Kashmir is not yet known. A general sense of Hindutva-hatred it seems, is catalysing such fallacious opinions among a section of politicians and media.

In abundance, certain media outlets are taking it upon themselves to please leaders of the Gupkar gang by running fake stories of how the BJP was comprehensively defeated by the ‘Peoples Alliance’, which in itself is a conglomeration of six political parties, apart from them receiving tacit support from the Indian National Congress as well. Media outlets like TheQuint, NDTV, etc are ensuring that they convince their limited audiences of the fact that the abrogation of Article 370 did not auger well for the BJP electorally, in Kashmir particularly.

A historical study of the BJP would lead to such media organisations realising that the BJP does not take decisions for the pure purpose of gaining from them electorally, rather, it does what is needed to be done in larger national interest. The abrogation of Article 370 may not be liked or welcomed by Islamists of the valley. That in no manner discounts the importance of Kashmir’s special status being repealed.

In any case, the BJP has polled more votes in the DDC polls than the National Conference (NC), PDP and Congress combined. Furthermore, the BJP has emerged as the single largest party in the Union Territory. Despite the Gupkar gang mounting a consolidated fight against the BJP in Kashmir, the saffron party, for the first time ever, registered three victories in the valley. As much as the Indian Express would like to believe that winning the districts is what counts, it has completely ignored the number of votes polled in favour of the BJP, not to mention the party’s emergence as the single largest party across the UT.

Read more: BJP stuns poll pundits and Gupkar opportunists with an impressive 75 seats in DDC elections

No media outlet is willing to look at the fact that the Gupkar gang put up a respectable fight only because of them fighting the DDC polls in an alliance. Had all such Kashmiri parties fought the polls on their own merits, and alone, the results from the valley would have been starkly different. An anti-national, borderline-separatist and desperate front winning in the valley is no reason for celebration. Yet, Indian media, being shameless as it is, has taken to grooving at the Gupkar gang winning in the valley.

BJP sweeping Kashmir valley with the saffron hue will be a long drawn, yet, inevitable process. The three seats the party has won from the valley in these polls is a testament to the same. By convincing themselves that the BJP was ‘defeated’ by a gang of referendum-sympathisers in the valley, the media is digging a deep grave for itself, in which it will have to jump and sob in the near future. The BJP, rest assured, will go from strength to strength in the valley here on.