Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) National President Amit Shah's high-profile rally in Jammu on Saturday to observe the death anniversary of Syama Prasad Mookerjee — founder of the BJP's predecessor party Bharatiya Jana Sangh — might indicate an end to the special status of Jammu and Kashmir, which Mookerjee died demanding. If it comes to that, it could lead to great turbulence in the Kashmir Valley.
Shah's assertion that one of the chief bases of the BJP's coalition pact with the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was that the state would be an 'a-bhin' (undifferentiated) part of India could be read by Kashmiris as a signal that the Centre is heading towards removing the constitutional provisions that guarantee the state its special status.