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| Jammu leadership is again 'defeating' Jammu | | Shrill anti-India campaign in Kashmir | | Neha
Jammu, Feb 23: People of Jammu province are at the crossroad. There is no leader worth its name in Jammu who is prepared to take on and challenge the Kashmiri leadership, which has unleashed a no-holds-barred anti-India campaign in the aftermath of the lawful hanging of the Parliament terror attack case convict Afzal Guru and is challenging the very institution of the State. It is hardly necessary to reflect on what has been happening in Kashmir and what the Kashmiri leaders of all hues, without any exceptions, have been saying and doing in Kashmir and New Delhi ever since the hanging of Guru, as nothing is secret. Suffice to say that they have reiterated their dubious stand that India is an "oppressor" and Kashmiri Muslims are the "victims", notwithstanding the facts to the contrary. The victims of fanaticism and separatism are the people of Jammu and Ladakh; they are the real victims and sufferers; it is their nationalism and commitment that has led to their socio-economic and political degeneration, instead of their regeneration. And this can happen only in the so-called democratic and secular India.
It was expected that the Jammu leadership would rise above petty party politics, forget all its differences, oppose the Kashmiri leadership's anti-India tirade as one man and call its bluff saying that only 7 per cent of the State's land area, called the Kashmir valley, is under the baneful influence of the vested interests. It was also expected that they will educate the national opinion by telling it that the remaining 93 per cent of the State's land area is not only peaceful but which houses people who are being abused and insulted by the vested interests in Kashmir by suggesting that the attitude of their separatist and communal constituency in Kashmir and the liberal and nationalist constituency in Jammu province and Ladakh region to the Guru's hanging is identical. The Congress leadership in Jammu, like the NC leadership, has been maintaining an eerie silence, thus causing resentment among the people of Jammu province.
The BJP leadership in Jammu has, of course, behaved differently, but it too has failed to project the case of the nationalist constituency, which is being systematically rendered ineffective and unreal by the vested interests in Kashmir and New Delhi. It has failed to present its story of woes, thus again losing the God-sent opportunity to identify itself with the nationalist but neglected constituency and win over its trust and confidence. The JKNPP leadership, like the Congress leadership, too has disappointed the nationalist constituency by adopting a highly questionable stand on the body of Guru and on the issue of Jammu's empowerment through some definite political instrument. It, like the BJP, has come out with a solution which is no solution at all to the age-old Jammu and Ladakh problem. It has, instead of sticking to its "Agenda 2011", has suggested a very vague solution, styled "Confederation of Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh". The only silver-lining is that it has not changed its stand on Article 370 and that it has again urged the Indian lawmakers to amend Article 370 so that the Indian Parliament legislates on behalf of Jammu and Kashmir as it does in the case of all other States and union territories. This indeed is a very positive stand. Article 370, like the Congress, is the mother of all ills facing Jammu and Kashmir and an amendment to it on the lines suggested by the JKNPP would certainly go a long way in mitigating the problems and hardships of many in the State, especially the people of Jammu and Ladakh as well as over 1.5 million suffering refugees, all living in Jammu province since decades.
The people of Jammu province are watching the activities of their leadership and bemoaning their role. Yesterday, some radicals among them told this scribe that "India and Jammu leadership have been willfully defeating the nationalist people of Jammu province to keep Kashmiri people in good humour" and that "if this trend continues for some more time, the people of Jammu province would be left with no other alternative but to rise in revolt against India and demand an independent and sovereign Jammu State". Some of them even went to the extent of suggesting that "let the Indian State wither away, as it has failed to cater to the even basic needs of the people of Jammu province".
It is time for the Jammu leadership and New Delhi to take cognizance of the changing attitude of the people of Jammu and act before it is too late. It would be suicidal for them if they fail to act on time and assuage the hurt feelings of the nationalist constituency. |
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