BJP’s New J&K State President: Aggressive, Young And Controversial

The Bhartiya Janta Party’s new president of Jammu and Kashmir, 41-year-old Ravinder Raina, is an aggressive voice of the BJP in the State. Young and full of aggression, and a hardcore Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh man, the RSS has seen great promise in him as he has taken an extreme position on most of the issues. That is why the BJP nominated Raina as president of the party on Sunday though other senior leaders were also in the race.

Analysts say his challenge will be to take senior leaders of his party along. “At present, the BJP perceives that morale of its party workers in Jammu is down due to various reasons. There is anger among workers. The BJP wanted someone who can give voice to this anger. Ravinder Raina symbolizes anger and aggression,” says Zaffer Chaudhary, Jammu based senior analyst.

Raina’s appointment is seen as BJP’s move to regain the “lost ground” in Jammu, after the Kathua rape and murder case. The Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti-led government had earlier rejected the demand of various BJP legislators like Raina to transfer rape and murder case of eight-year-old tribal girl to the CBI. But Raina continues to stick to his demand to transfer the case to the CBI.

Raina has replaced soft-spoken Sat Sharma. On April 30, Sharma was inducted as Cabinet Minister in the Council of Ministers headed by Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti. As BJP president in the past three years, Sharma preferred to remain low key and was not in the habit of giving frequent statements. Raina, on the other hand, can always come up with controversial statements. From commenting on foreign affairs of the country to the local matters, he is the most sought after legislator by media in Jammu and Kashmir.

Here are few examples: He rejected the government’s amnesty to stone throwers, though the Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti and the Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh defended the decision, describing it as a step in the right direction. "No amnesty to stone pelters and each one of them will be put in jail,” he had said. He also opposed State government several times for calling for talks with Pakistan. In January this year, he said, “There is no need to talk to Pakistan. In reply to a bullet fired by Pakistan a BOFORCE shell should be fired.”

The Chief Minister of the coalition government for the past three years is insisting on the necessity of having engagement with Islamabad and separatists.

Raina was first to reject an FIR against the Army when the police filed a case against soldiers for killing three civilians in Shopian, saying, “Army has its own court and police FIRs don't have any relevance.” The FIR, filed on January 27, had accused a unit of the army of murder, attempt to murder and endangering life under the relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code. In Assembly as MLA this year he demanded that Jammu and Kashmir be declared a dry state and that alcohol and bars be banned.

In 2014, he won elections from Nowshera constituency of Rajouri. He was unemployed when he fought the assembly election. That time, according to the affidavit, he had a cash of Rs 21,000 and no other movable or immovable assets.

In March 2015, when the PDP and BJP formed the coalition government in the State, Raina took oath in the name of ‘Mata Vaishno Devi’. The step was opposed by the opposition National Conference. The NC had argued that there was no provision for a member of the House to take oath in the name of Vaishno Devi. In 2015, he along with other BJP legislators had allegedly assaulted Independent MLA Engineer Rashid inside the Assembly. They accused Rashid of hosting a “beef party” at the state MLA hostel in Srinagar.

Born in Nowshera 1977, Raina has a Post Graduate degree in the International Law and Human Rights. It is said he was advised by the former Prime Minister of India, Atal Bihari Vajpayee to join politics when he met him. Following “Vajpayee’s advice”, he decided to join politics. Thus in 2000, Raina left the Navy to become an RSS parcharak. As a parcharak, he worked in different areas of J&K. He had joined the BJP in 2010 and has been the state president of the party’s youth wing from 2012 to 2015.

“I think Ravinder Raina’s appointment is the indication that the BJP wants new blood and new faces for coming elections in Jammu and Kashmir. His appointment is just a teaser,” says Tarun Upadhay, Jammu based senior journalist.

He says Raina was part of the core group of the BJP during Amarnath Land Row in 2008. “He has not only taken a stand against the separatists but also against the mainstream parties like National Conference and the PDP.”

Upadhay says Raina would try his best to counter the impression that the BJP is not the team-B of the PDP as is the view in Jammu. “Raina’s has been consistency demanding that Kathua case is probed by the CBI instead of the Crime Branch will also go in his favour,” argues Upadhay.

However, Prof. Hari Om disagrees. Once considered as BJP’s ideologue in the state, Professor Om, who was the political advisor to the state president and BJP MP Jugal Kishore Sharma, says Ravinder Raina will not able to do anything. “Whether Ravinder Raina becomes president or any other person, as long as Delhi’s Kashmir policy will not change, J&K BJP president doesn’t matter,” he says. “Someone will loudly say I am radical or hardliner. It is of no use. The BJP works in a framework. At present the BJP’s framework is to give unilateral concessions to Kashmir based parties,” Prof. Hari Om argues.

The BJP is replacing senior leaders with hardliners.

Last month the BJP replaced its deputy chief minister Nirmal Singh, who was seen as a moderate figure with Kavinder Bhushan Gupta. Gupta was nominated as Speaker of the Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly in March 2015 and he would often say he is a proud RSS worker.

“There were a handful of people like Nirmal Singh or Sat Sharma and others who were of the view that there is need to engage with people of Kashmir. They have moderation in their voice. Raina is not that kind of person”, says Chaudhary. “Raina could be good lone loud shouting voice but not a great choice to be party president.”