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| Fearing defeat, Azad takes up the migrants' issue | | Ceasefire violations | |
Rustam
JAMMU, Sept 2: The Congress leadership is desperate to win some seats in the upcoming Assembly elections. It has started raking up issues which the NC-Congress government could have tackled on its own to an extent, but it didn't do that. What things have changed for them and they have come to realize that they have to go many miles to make up the loss. Hence, convinced that their indifferent attitude towards the people would further harm their electoral interests, the Congress leadership has thought of a methodology that could, according to them, harm the poll prospects of their arch political rivals in the Jammu province and improve the poll prospects of the Congress party. Obviously, their targets are the BJP and the PDP. They target the PDP because they didn't like the PDP's somewhat soft corner for the BJP. That the fear of defeat has influenced the thinking of the Congress leadership to a considerable extent could be seen from the letter senior Congress leader and Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad sent a letter the other day to the Prime Minister, Union Home Minister, Defence Minister, and even to the Chief Minister of J&K Omar Abdullah highlighting the hardships of the border migrants as well as their demands. The letter urged the powers-that-be in New Delhi to mitigate the hardships of the border migrants and concede their demands at the earliest. The letter said that the residents of border belt were "subjected to immense hardships on account of intermittent firing and shelling by Pakistani forces" and that it would be only appropriate if their plight was taken a serious cognizance of and steps taken to meet some of their immediate needs.
The Congress leader had visited a number of border villages of R.S.Pura, Chandu Chack, Joura Farm, Saie, Abdullian, Chakrohi, Arnia, Sallehar, Treva, as also some makeshift shelters, on August 28. He said he undertook the tour to have an on-the-spot assessment of the situation and personally listen to the complaints of the affected people. In his letter, Azad asked the authorities in New Delhi to pay "adequate compensation" to the effected people and start "special recruitment drive in Army and paramilitary forces". He also urged the State Government to allot 5 marla plots to the uprooted people, grant of "RBA" status, establish "parity" in the ex-gratia relief between "those killed in Pakistani firing and terrorist violence" and start special recruitment drive in the state police and so on.
Where was the need for Azad to write a letter to the Chief Minister and urge him to do the needful? The Congress is part of the government and the Deputy Chief Minister belongs to the Congress party. He should have asked the Chief Minister to spend some time in the affected areas to see for himself what Pakistan did to the poor, unarmed and peaceful civilians, including women and children. He didn't do that. Nor did he ask the Chief Minister and others in the government to focus their attention on the problems of the people. It is pertinent to mention here that when the Pakistani shelling was creating havoc in the border belt, Omar Abdulla and his men remained busy in playing pro-Pakistan games both in the Legislative Council and Legislative Assembly. But Azad didn't have the audacity to ask the Chief Minister and his men to desist from doing what they had been doing since August 25 and, instead, he played politics. Such tactics are unlikely to cut ice. If the Congress really means business, it has no other option but to force the Chief Minister to act and act very fast, as the time at its disposal is very limited. Model Code of Conduct could be in place in the state anytime from now as the Assembly elections are just round the corner. |
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