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| Panthers Party’s Jammu-specific slogan to jeopardize interests of Congress, BJP | | Separate Assembly For Jammu | |
MINCING NO WORDS
NEHA
EARLY TIMES REPORT
JAMMU, Mar 14: Panthers Party’s chairman Bhim Singh has once again reiterated that his outfit is determined to ensure reorganization of the state and obtain for the people of Jammu province a dispensation under which they will have their own assembly and chief minister. He reiterated his stand yesterday while talking to reporters in Jammu and what he told them was nothing but a reiteration of the agenda it adopted a couple of months ago during a seminar, organized at Ashoka Hotel, Jammu. The agenda that was adopted that day was styled as “Agenda 2011.” That day, the Panthers had resolved to work for the establishment of a separate assembly in Jammu province. In other words, they had resolved to work for a change that would end the 63-year-old domination of Kashmir over Jammu and empower the people of Jammu province to administer matters according to their specific needs and aspirations, independent of Kashmir. The agenda recognized the fact that the successive Kashmiri-dominated government in the state, in collaboration with its men in Jammu, had exploited the people of Jammu province to the hilt and enabled Kashmir to make progress on an unprecedented scale at the cost of the people of Jammu province.
In between, the young Panthers held a number of meetings to further mobilize the already mobilized public opinion in Jammu province and organized at least four demonstrations at different places to bring to the notice of the authorities their Jammu-specific demand. It now appears that the Panthers are really committed to achieving the stated goal. Although the Panthers have refrained from using the word trifurcation, yet what they have been saying doesn’t mean anything different. The very fact that the Panthers have been talking in terms of separate assembly, separate chief minister, separate public service commission, separate recruitment boards, separate planning commission and so on does establish that they know it full well that such a dispensation is possible only in a region that enjoys the status of statehood. For, you cannot have two assemblies and two chief ministers in one state. It is for the Panthers Party to explain as to why the party leadership is refraining from using the term state.
In any case, the resolve of the Panthers to have a separate assembly and a separate chief minister will have its impact on the Congress and the BJP because the situation in Jammu province is such. For, the agenda of the Panthers Party is as clear as it has the potential of attracting the neglected and marginalized people of this province. The BJP does talk in terms of regional development board but it is unlikely to attract the people of Jammu because their problem is essentially political. They believe, and rightly, that their problem could resolved only if they get a definite political instrument and that instrument only could be a separate assembly. For, it is the assembly and not the development board that exercises the legislative powers. Similarly, the 2008 Congress manifesto talks in terms of an amendment in the Jammu and Kashmir Constitution that federalizes the state’s polity and sets up a regional council in Jammu. There is no fundamental difference between the regional development board and regional council, as these instruments do not enjoy legislative powers. Such institutions only deal with some development-related issues. The people of Jammu province do not want such toothless institutions.
The fact of the matter is that neither the BJP not the Congress has any attractive wares to put in the political arena for sale. On the contrary, the Panthers Party’s agenda appears quite attractive. The Panthers Party could surely turn the tables and jeopardize the interests of the Congress and the BJP if it puts in sincere efforts and extend its area of influence across the Jammu province. If the Congress and the BJP wish to compete with the Panthers Party, they have no other option but to come out with a clear-cut Jammu-specific agenda. To continue to talk in terms of regional development board or regional council would be only to help the Panthers Party grab the political space the Congress and the BJP currently occupies in as many as 24 out of 37 assembly segments in Jammu province, notwithstanding the fact that the Panthers’ chairman has never been consistent in his approach.
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