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| BJP's 370 stand: emblematic power syndrome | | | NIRBHAY JAMMUAL
Jammu|Sep 6: The meeting of the controversial working group on Center-State relations which concluded recently in the union capital after enormous delays has exposed the bankruptcy of conscious prevailing among some political parties –more particularly the Bhartiya Janta Party.
Out of the five working groups constituted by the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at the end of second Kashmir roundtable conference held in Srinagar in May last year, the fourth working group on the center-state relations has been the most controversial ones for the obvious reasons. This is the reason that four working groups formed their recommendations within the stipulated period while this group is still in the process of consultations.
As already expected, the political parties which were invited in the meeting of this working group demonstrated their rigid stands on the center-state relations viz-z-viz the special status of Jammu and Kashmir. The Peoples Democratic Party and the National Conference called for devolution of more powers while the Congress adopted a middle path by making suggestions to keep the Indira-Sheikh accord of 1975 as basic talking point on the center-state relations.
The most self-contradictory of them all was the BJP which strongly called for the abrogation of the Article 730 and doing away with the special status of Jammu and Kashmir in the Indian union. Its senior leader Arun Jaitly was the most vocal voice on the issue. There are many who toe the BJP line and call for full integration of Jammu and Kashmir with the Indian Union but one wonders which was the most appropriate time to this –if at all this had to be done.
It may mentioned here that abrogation of Article 370 –which gives Jammu and Kashmir some special powers and status –forms the basics of the foundation of the BJP as a party. The BJP in various avatars like the Jana Sangh has always championed the cause of abrogation of Article 360. Dr Shyama Prasad Mukherjee –the Jana Sangh leader and the guiding spirit behind the BJP struggled for doing away of the special status of Jammu and Kashmir and it was this cause that he lost his life in August 1953 in a Kashmir prison.
Ever since, the BJP has based all its campaigns and mobilized the national opinion for abrogation of Article 370. However, it is interesting to note here that when BJP was in power for full six years at the Center the party never talked about the special status of Jammu and Kashmir. Now when it is out of power and is looking for some issues for public consumption voices are again being raised on this issue. But one asks why it remained quite when it was in power.
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