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| BSP may upset the Congress's applecart in Jammu | | Telangana Effect | | Rustam
Jammu, Aug 3: Things in Jammu have started changing dramatically in the aftermath of the Union Government's decision at the behest of the Congress party to divide AP and create separate Telangana State. It was on July 30 that the UPA endorsed the demand. Ever since then, established political parties and groups in Jammu Pradesh have been urging the authorities to break the state into three states and give status of statehood to Jammu and UT status to the Cold-Desert Ladakh.
If on Thursday the Jammu State Morcha, which has been spearheading the statehood movement in its own limited way since 1990, held an impressive press conference to put across its point of view and convince the authorities that Jammu and Kashmir is an unnatural formation and it cannot be maintained as political entity. On Friday, it was the BSP which held a press conference to make its stand on the issue public. It said there is no alternative to separate Jammu state. It was none other than the national general secretary of the BSP Narinder Kashyap who addressed the press conference, thus clearly suggesting that the BSP supremo Mayawati is fully backing the statehood demand.
In fact, the BSP national leader not only declared that his party stands for smaller states but also announced that the party leadership would make it a big issue and move resolutions in both houses of Parliament demanding separate Jammu State.
The stand of the BSP on the statehood issue can upset the Congress's applecart in Jammu Pradesh where the Scheduled Castes and Other Backward Classes constitute more than 25 per cent of the Pradesh's population and spread across the Pradesh, barring Poonch district. These communities have a significant presence in at least 30 assembly constituencies as well as in both the Lok Sabha constituencies into which Jammu Pradesh is divided.
The Congress leadership would commit a political blunder if it takes the BSP lightly. If the Congress is to retain control over its constituencies in Jammu Pradesh, it has no other option but to fulfill the promises it made in 2002 and 2008. The best course for it would be to amend forthwith the Jammu & Kashmir Constitution and establish in Jammu regional council invested with legislative, executive and financial powers. Not to do so or to continue to treat the people of Jammu Pradesh as before would be only to help the parties like the BJP, the BSP and the JKNPP to capture its political space, which is already limited. The Congress represents only 13 out of 37 assembly segments in Jammu Pradesh in the Assembly. It must remember that the people of Jammu Pradesh are angry more with it than the NC, which has been in the driver's seat since January 2009. |
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