Early Times Report
JAMMU, Aug 22: Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Sunday said many, many things while addressing a rally at Jammu's Smailpur, a historical town for various reasons. He said many things about Pakistan and on who created the Kashmir problem and who aggravated it subsequently. He referred to Pakistan, Nehru, the Congress and the NC and it was on expected lines.
Actually, Jaitley made three very significant statements. One, "Jammu province being the support-base of the BJP needs added attention".
He was right when he admitted that Jammu was the party's core constituency. It's, however, a different matter that the BJP, which got a massive mandate in 2014, betrayed its constituency by handing over everything to Kashmir on a platter and rendering Jammu unreal and ineffective for all practical purposes. It is hardly necessary to reflect on the kind of the deal it struck with the PDP. For, everyone in Jammu knows that Jammu got only crumbs and Kashmir walked away with almost everything.
Two, he said the "stone pelters in Kashmir are not Satyagrahis but aggressors". He hit the nail on the head and rebuffed those in Kashmir who had been describing the seditious and rock-pelting crowds as innocents fighting for the Kashmiri cause.
It was a rebuff to the Congress, to the NC, to the CPI-M, to the supporters of the Kashmiri separatist cause outside Kashmir, to Pakistan, the epicenter of global terrorism, and even to the PDP.
By terming the stone pelters as aggressor, Jaitley put things in perspective and also indicated that the authorities would deal with them in a suitable manner to end the cult of stone throwing on police, CRPF, BFP and Army. He did a great justice to the security forces by saying what he said about the dangerous stone pelters.
However, the most significant statement of his was on those created the present turmoil in Kashmir. He named three agencies - Pakistan, separatists and religious leaders.
It was for the first time in years that any central leader in the government brought in the religious factor in the Kashmir situation.
By saying that religious leaders were also involved in the sinister plot, Jaitley only vindicated those in Jammu who had been saying since long that the problem in Kashmir was neither political nor economic and that the problem in Kashmir was religious and the rise of Jihadis, theofascists and the like.
Indeed, Arun Jaitley said what was needed to be said. And what he said only suggested that the centre's stand is hardening by the day. It's a positive development. |
