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| Jammu, Ladakh could again punish Congress in Assembly polls | | Saga of broken promises | | Rustam
JAMMU, June 27: The general view in Jammu and Ladakh is that it is the Congress party that has done more harm to the people of these two regions and that it has never honoured any of the commitments made in 2002 and 2008. This view is not ill-founded. Nor can it be termed as a manifestation of their bias against the Congress party.
Indeed, the Congress has never kept any of the promises it made to the people of Jammu and Ladakh in 2002 and 2008, despite the fact that it has been in power in the state since November 2, 2002. The people of Jammu province and Ladakh together return to the Assembly 41 members and, hence, they constitute one the two most important political factors in the state politics. It is not a secret that the Congress had made a number of solemn commitments with the people of Jammu and Ladakh that it, if voted to power, will end discrimination with them and hand down a regime that would treat them and the people of Kashmir, who are also heterogeneous and vertically divided into several groups, equally at all levels and in all spheres, but utterly failed to fulfill any of the commitments.
On the eve of 2002 Assembly elections, for instance, the Congress had held out many promises, but threw its manifesto into the dustbin after coming to power. Some of the broken promises included (1) establishment of regional development boards for Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh to remove regional imbalances; (2) extension of full powers to the Autonomous Hill Development Council, Leh, that was "deprived of its legitimate powers" by the NC Government; (3) establishment of airport at Kargil to connect it with Jammu, Srinagar and Delhi; (4) extension of ST status to the Pathowari-speaking people; (5) consideration of the "long standing demands" of all the ST communities; (6) proportional representation to Scheduled Castes in the Ministry and in the Legislative Council; (7) establishment of a "clean, transparent and responsive administration at all levels; (8); appointment of experts to look into the causes responsible for the creation of inter-regional tensions and suggest corrective measures; (9) empowerment of Backward Classes, Scheduled Tribes, Scheduled Castes and people living below poverty line; (10) implementation of 73rd amendment of the Indian Constitution to empower the elected panchayats; and (11) constitution of a minority commission to look after the minority communities.
The Common Minimum Programme (CMP), which was made public by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in Delhi on October 27, 2002 during the press conference, made several commitments. These, inter-alia, included (1) adequate financial assistance for the relief and rehabilitation of the migrants from various disturbed areas of Jammu and Ladakh as well; (2) construction of permanent shelters in all the vulnerable areas close to the Line of Control to prevent loss of life and allotment of alternative land to such families in safe zones; (3) compensation to those people from border areas of J&K who suffered losses of crop and cattle due to security operations near the LoC and international border; (4) grant of full powers to the Autonomous Hill council for Leh; (5) constitution of a delimitation Commission to redraw the Assembly constituencies to meet the demands of the people; (6) employment and welfare of youth; and (7) appointment of a minority commission. The Congress did nothing whatever to honour any of these solemn commitments. The Government left the people, especially those from Jammu and Ladakh and minority communities high and dry. On the contrary, the Congress-supported Government pursued policies which further alienated the people.
In 2008 as well, the Congress held out several commitments on the eve of and during the election campaign. It manifesto for J&K, among other commitments, committed itself to (1) restructuring the Constitution of J&K into federal set-up by setting up separate regional councils for J&K; (2) opening of Damchok-Kailash Mansarovar route to promote religious tourism and trade; (3) introducing a bill in the new Legislative Assembly seeking to constitute Delimitation Commission for delimiting the Assembly constituencies as required by law; (4) adopting a comprehensive employment package for unemployed educated youth and granting stipend to the unemployed educated youth; (5) meeting all the pending demands of refugees of 1947, 1965 and 1971; (6) resolving the problem of the West Pakistan refugees (mostly Dalits) of 1947; (7) addressing grievances of different groups of minorities in all the three regions of the State by establishing a Minorities Commission; (8) retrieving the lakes like Mansar and Surinsar in Jammu; (9) evolving a mechanism and position to monitor reservation policy in Government jobs provided for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes; and (10) granting ST status to Pathowari-speaking people.
The Congress, which has been sharing power with the NC since January 5, 2009, has not done anything to fulfill the promises it made almost six years ago. The prevailing discontent and unrest in Jammu and Ladakh need to be viewed in this context and if it is any indication, then it can be safely said that the people of these two regions may punish the Congress in the way they punished Jammu and Ladakh in the just-held Lok Sabha election. The time at the disposal of the Congress is limited; just three to four months. It should make an optimum use of this available time to rectify past meets to conciliate the alienated Jammu and Ladakh. |
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