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| Defeated parties support Jammu cause | | 'BJP becomes a Kashmiri party' | | Early Times Report
JAMMU, July 27: Strange is the politics in Jammu region, which has been at the receiving end since October 1947, notwithstanding the fact that it is superior to Kashmir in every respect, including in terms land area, population, revenue generation and contribution to the process of the state's integration with India.
What is strange and mind-boggling is the fact that the winning parties in Jammu region overnight turn Kashmir-centric and in a most shameless manner and their ministers and MLAs join their Kashmiri masters to damage the Jammu cause and harm the general political and economic rights of the people of this region. It is true of the NC legislators from Jammu. It is true of the Congress legislators from Jammu. And it is also true of the PDP legislators from Jammu. It is not a new phenomenon.
Put in any amount of effort to find if any Congress, NC and PDP MLA from Jammu has ever dared to question New Delhi's or the Kashmiri ruling elite's discriminatory policies towards the people of Jammu region and he/she would come out of this exercise minus everything. For, there is hardly MLA or minister from Jammu region belonging to these three parties who has ever pleaded the cause of Jammu region in the real sense of the term. On the contrary, one would find them speaking for and on behalf of Kashmir and becoming parties to the anti-Jammu decisions taken in the cabinet meetings. One could cite the example of the former Congress minister Sham Lal Sharma, saying he did on a couple of occasions take up the Jammu cause during the cabinet meetings, but one would also has to admit that the intervention of the said minister produced no results whatsoever.
The fact is that the people of Jammu region had realized that by voting the Congress, the NC and the PDP, they actually voted against themselves. It was only in 2014 that they decided to give a massive mandate to the BJP on the ground that it had in the past consistently advocated the cause of Jammu and given them to understand that it stood for the state's complete integration with India. Actually, it was the Narendra Modi's leadership and his speeches across the nation which had influenced the political thought process in Jammu region. The result was that the people of Jammu region elected 25 MLAs. It was a history of sorts in the sense that the BJP hitherto in Jammu region was no more than a marginal outfit. They voted for the BJP despite the fact that most of the BJP MLAs never came up to their expectations. The fact of the matter is that most of them used to hobnob with the ruling elite in Kashmir for promoting their own and their families' interests.
The memory of what the then Chief Minister Omar Abdullah said at Jammu Club on June 16, 2014 about Ashok Khajuria and other BJP MLAs is still fresh to be forgotten. Describing the BJP MLAs as "sycophants", he had said: "If they had so much concern for the welfare of the people of Jammu, they would not have voted against their own party nominee to get the National Conference candidate elected during the Legislative Council elections in 2003. They have all praise for me and Dr Farooq Abdullah when they come to us seeking favours".
Omar Abdullah exposed the BJP MLAs when Ashok Khajuria said that "life of people has become a hell in Jammu as you are stealing their power despite scorching summer and supplying it to Kashmir Valley". BesidesAshok Khajuria, then leader of the BJP Legislature Party in the State Legislative Assembly, other BJP MLAs present on the occasion included Sukhnandan Choudhary, Sham Choudhary and Gharu Ram.
The people of Jammu region voted for the BJP in 2014 en-block obviously hoping that it defend and promote their genuine cause. But it was not to be. The BJP turned Kashmir-centric even before joining the government in Jammu & Kashmir. It handed over everything to Kashmir, including AIIMS. Right now, the local BJP leaders, including ministers, MPs, MLAs and MLCs, have all joined hands with the Kashmiri leadership and working overtime to defeat the ongoing movement AIIMS CC-sponsored non-political movement Jammu region over the AIIMS issue. They are, according to insiders, "approaching certain powerful constituents of the ACC so that they come out of it and weaken the movement".
On the other hand, the Congress and the NC, which suffered humiliating defeats in Jammu region, are overtly and covertly supporting the Jammu cause like the defeated and the marginalized BJP used to do before coming into power in the state. It is rightly said that those who win in Jammu and become part of the state government become Kashmiri representatives and spokespersons and those who suffer defeat turn Jammu-centric. |
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