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| Hari Om questions BJP's stand on AIIMS issue | | |
Dear Shri Jugal Kishore Sharma Ji,
Namaskar!
1. On April 25, 2015, people of Jammu province, irrespective of their political affiliations, observed a bandh to persuade the concerned authorities in Delhi and Jammu and Kashmir to reverse the controversial decision under which the proposed AIIMS-like institute will be established in Kashmir instead of Jammu. The bandh was a massive affair and the people's participation in the event was voluntary. There was no coercion. People pulled down shutters and closed their business establishments on their own. That even autos remained off the roads and the bandh call crippled normal life across the Jammu province indicates the level of prevailing discontent and disenchantment in Jammu province. It was the first bandh ever organized by the people of Jammu province against the BJP which they used to hold in highest esteem till recently.
2. Those who organized the bandh only asked the authorities to honour the February 28, 2015 statement of Union Finance Minister Shri Arun Jaitley Ji that had said that AIIMS will be established in Jammu - a statement which was welcomed by one and all in Jammu, including our Minister of State in Prime Minister's Office Shri Jitendra Singh Ji. The local BJP leaders too had hailed the announcement. After all, this announcement was very significant for the people of Jammu province, who used to go to Delhi, Mumbai, Chandigarh, Ludhiana, Amritsar, Bangalore and other places in the country for getting medical treatment, as our Jammu medical College and Hospital was ill-equipped and under-staffed.
3. It was hoped that our senior leadership would take cognizance of the reasons that led to a complete shutdown in Jammu and take the required steps to conciliate the agitating people of Jammu province. Unfortunately, no attempt appears to have been made to reassure the people of Jammu province that the BJP, which is part of the Jammu and Kashmir Government and at helm of affairs in New Delhi under the leadership of Shri Narendra Modi Ji, will do the needful by implementing in letter and spirit the unequivocal statement of Shri Arun Jaitley Ji. What was done by the party, according to media reports, was to the contrary and the result is the condemnation of our party on an unprecedented scale.
4. Not one but many Jammu-based, Srinagar-based and Delhi and Chandigarh-based leading newspapers published reports based on the alleged statement of our senior leader and Deputy Chief Minister Nirmal Singh ji. The statements of Shri Nirmal Singh ji read: "Deputy Chief Minister and senior BJP leader Dr Nirmal Singh Friday said there is no question of snatching AIIMS from Kashmir and giving it to Jammu. National Conference and Congress are creating a regional divide between the two regions of the state. NC and Congress both are trying to create regional divide in the state in a bid to serve their political interests. We will not allow that to happen. We take Jammu and Kashmir as one entity and the AIIMS is being given to the state and not to any region". I can't believe that Shri Nirmal Singh ji could make such statements, but the fact remains that influential sections of media have attributed all these statements to him. I, or for that matter no one in the state BJP, do not think that this was our stand on the issue.
5. Since early morning, I have been receiving many phone calls and everyone is condemning these statements as well as the BJP and our leadership. They are using very strong words. They, without any exception, are terming the PDP-BJP coalition not only "anti-Jammu", but also "undesirable" and "against national interest". They have been suggesting that the alliance of the BJP with the PDP will cause "an irreparable damage to the national cause in the state as well as the Jammu and Ladakhi cause". I am also in full accord with them.
6. Even former Governor of Jammu and Kashmir Lt Gen (Retd) SK Sinha has expressed this view. In fact, he wrote an article in Asian Age (Apr 22). It was titled "No insaniyat for Pandits". Its operative part read: "In the present circumstance, the continuation of the PDP-BJP alliance will be disastrous in our national interest and also that of the BJP. It will not only strengthen the separatists in the Valley but also erode the BJP's support base in Jammu and its electoral prospects in the forthcoming Assembly elections". No sane person will disapprove of what Shri SK Sinha candidly suggested.
I am sure you and many other senior party leaders must also have received similar angry phone calls. Believe me, the outraged people of Jammu province are using unparliamentary language against our leadership. I sincerely believe that you will intervene in the matter and dissociate our party from the statement that has put the party in the dock and gave a long stick to our political opponents to beat us mercilessly from right and left. Your intervention has become absolutely necessary to win back our constituency that helped us become the second largest political force in Jammu and Kashmir.
With very warm regards,
Sincerely yours,
(Prof Hari Om) |
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