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| Jammu at the crossroads | | | Early Times Report
Jammu, July 5: People of Jammu Province voted with great enthusiasm and in large numbers for the BJP both in Lok Sabha and Assembly elections in 2014, hoping their vote for the seemingly pro-Jammu and pro-nation party will undo the past wrongs and undertake steps to end the age old discrimination with them. It was for nothing that Jammu region returned to the Assembly 25 MLAs. It was a historic mandate by any yardsticks considering the fact that the party captured more than 70 percent seats from the region.
Sadly, however, the BJP utterly disappointed people of the region. It negotiated power sharing formula with the PDP, which was known for its bias against Jammu region. The agenda of alliance formulated and approved by the BJP and PDP was simply a negation of the promises the BJP had held out in the LoK Sabha Assembly elections. In fact, the Common Minimum Programme (CMP) adopted by the parties was nothing but a carbon copy of the PDP's election manifesto. It included everything that suited the PDP and further jeopardized the interests and rights of the people of the region. Apart from giving preponderant share of the representation to Kashmir in the council of Ministers as well as state cabinet and giving almost all the crucial departments to the Kashmir valley, the agenda of alliance envisaged everything the Kashmiri parties and separatist outfits had been clamouring for since years. As expected, the alliance between the PDP and BJP shocked the core constituency of the latter with the people across the region accusing it of "betraying" them and throwing in their lot with the Kashmiri leadership.
The worst part was that the BJP even before coming into power in Jammu and Kashmir accepted the Kashmiri demands seeking establishment of an additional AIIMS in Kashmir and incorporating in the agenda of alliance such pernicious terms such as Pir Panjal valley and Chenab Valley. The fact of the matter is that the BJP subverted the mandate in a most brazen manner and created an environment in the entire Jammu region that made the humiliated people dub the BJP as a Kashmiri party and the agenda of alliance as agenda of subversion. There is not a single social group or a segment of society in the region which is happy with the new experiment for the obvious reasons.
The prevailing discontent in Jammu region has to be viewed in this context. The situation in Jammu region has now climaxed to the point that the people are threatening a mass struggle to achieve for them a regime that treats them at par with their counterparts in the Kashmir valley. Already they have organized two massive bandhs, one equally impressive candle light protest march and chain hunger strike for making the biased authorities to see reason and establish forthwith the sanctioned AIIMS in Jammu and complete at the earliest the artificial lake project over River Tawi. Reports emanating from different parts of the region clearly suggest that a sense of uncertainty has gripped people and there is a possibility of the badly led down people taking recourse means which the authorities may not appreciate. The most significant aspect of the prevailing situation in the region is that the people are holding the Congress and the National Conference equally responsible for what is being done to them by the ruling coalition. Their specific charge is that the Congress and the NC have failed to play the role of a constructive and responsible role as opposition.
It is the hostile attitude of the ruling coalition and indifferent attitude of the opposition parties that has led to the formation of AIIMS coordination committee. The people have, it seems, pinned their faith in this newly formed non-political pressure group hoping that it would play the required role and help them achieve what they have failed to because of the negative attitude of the ruling coalition and the opposition parties. |
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