Arun Joshi / DW Bureau / Jammu

Until this day, the discussions in the ongoing budget session of the Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly have mostly been on trading of charges between the ruling National Conference and main opposition BJP. That was expected given the animosity between the two parties before and after the 2024 Assembly polls, but what they have not done so far is to understand the complex challenges the situation in this territory poses.

Their behavior and expressions in the budget session confirmed worst fears that the political rivals were concerned about their vote bank politics than national interest.

They failed to advance the national interest as they continued to pursue and voice their partisan politics in a sensitive UT of J&K. Each and every word spoken in the Assembly has both national and international connotations.

Against the gory backdrop of 2025, when Pahalgam massacre of April 2025 and Delhi blast of November, with its roots in J&K, it was expected that the two sides would sound reconciliation on the issues of fighting terrorism, ensuring a firewall between radicalization and the people, and think of what next for J&K.

They are political rivals, but their narratives on development and fight against terrorism could have sounded identical. The Assembly was expected to send a united message to one and all that all sides are on the page of pursuing national interest. J&K Assembly’s words and actions are read all across, including in foreign countries, particularly Pakistan, China and the Western nations. Kashmir, in their eyes, is still a matter of interest. The geopolitical realities of yesteryear continue to be counted till date. It was a grand opportunity for both the treasury benches and opposition to grab the opportunity and identify and target the common enemy – terrorism and backwardness of the Himalayan territory.

Since the beginning of the session on February 2, the two sides have clashed as if they were enemies in a battlefield, BJP accusing the NC government of taking credit for all that has been done by the Central Government, accusing it of doing nothing for the welfare of the people. It was ironical, as J&K as a UT is heavily dependent on the Centre for funds and developmental activities. Its revenue-generating capacity and resources are severely limited. This prompted the NC leaders to charge Delhi with discriminating against J&K by denying it statehood, impairing its capacity to go in for developmental activities. Then J&K also had reasons to blame law and order agencies, which come under Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha, for having derailed the tourism sector in 2025. Pahalgam carnage has been cited as one of the reasons.

Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, while replying to budgetary discussions, as he doubles up as finance minister too, ridiculed BJP for talking less on the budget and more on their partisan politics. He accused the BJP MLAs, particularly the Leader of Opposition, a firebrand leader of the saffron party known for his extraordinarily right-wing views, for talking of other issues than the provisions in the budget.

In the course of his speech, the Chief Minister’s remarks that the BJP leaders were taken to task by the Union Home Minister for their lackadaisical performance sparked bedlam in the House. All the BJP MLAs were on their feet seeking an apology from Omar Abdullah, and thereafter the whole discussion was drowned in noisy protests. On Wednesday, the Chief Minister regretted his remarks against BJP and even urged the Speaker to “expunge his remarks if those were deemed to be unparliamentary.”

On Tuesday, February 10, 2026, BJP was already on the back foot as their charge against the Omar Abdullah government that it had given permission for the ropeway to Shri Mata Vaishno Devi backfired. The ropeway from Katra to Shri Mata Vaishno Devi shrine is being resented by the local population of Katra. They are worried over the adverse impact on their income-generating units and ponywallahs and wayside vendors. They have launched an agitation.

The Chief Minister clarified that it was not his government but Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha who had given the approval in September 2024, a month before the 2024 Assembly polls, thus hollowing out BJP’s claim.

During the course of the session, there have been heated exchanges between the two sides on the merits and demerits of abrogation of Article 370. The Chief Minister and other leaders of National Conference maintained that despite the hollowing out of the special privileges and rights of the people of J&K, the special position of J&K will get restored in due course of time. BJP, which has been indulging in swansong that abrogation of Article 370 has transformed J&K, finds it difficult to answer why terrorism is still continuing.

The landscape of terrorism might have shrunk, but the intensity of terrorism, as witnessed in Pahalgam in April 2025 and the Delhi blast in November 2025, establishes the fact that terrorism is not finished as yet.

The challenges before J&K are multiplying, and the politically fragile landscape can complicate matters. The divisions on political, economic and security issues are being watched closely. These are impacting the minds of the people, and they are also veering their thinking toward divisive ideas. National Conference might be having its vote bank in mind by repeatedly referring to Article 370 and the “injustice” its abrogation has caused to the masses in Kashmir, but it is also aware that it is moving away from realism and keeping the people in the dark. First, Article 370 cannot be restored by any political party. BJP that did away with it will not restore it. Secondly, no other party, including Congress, will ever dare touch this hot potato. Congress, an ally of NC, has already made it very clear that it is interested merely in restoration of statehood, not Article 370.

Since August 2019, when Article 370 was abrogated, BJP has spent most of its time calling National Conference and other Kashmir-centric parties separatists and advocates of anti-India forces. This is a deviation from its original agenda of sowing the seeds of the idea of India. The people in the Valley are willing to align with the idea and its practicality, but the saffron party did not correct its narrative. The result is more friction and fissures. One more opportunity is being lost.