Early Times Report
jammu, Mar 17: Some "very concerned" local BJP leaders and lawmakers were hoping that BJP national general secretary and in-charge J&K Ram Madhav's Jammu visit would help the BJP promote the cause of Jammu, but it didn't happen. He visited Jammu for two days, met the Chief Minister, party ministers and lawmakers and BJP office-bearers and returned to from where he came giving the message to the J&K unit of the party that it must support all the government actions and not go public to embarrass the Mufti government and the party at national level.
"There is no rift between the PDP and the BJP" statement of Ram Madhav clearly suggested that he had not come to Jammu to listen to the Jammu's woes, complaints, grievances, issues and demands, but to express solidarity with the party ministers and the PDP and to tell one and all in the party that the PDP-BJP government must complete its full term of six years at whatever cost," revealed a senior BJP leader, who was present in one of the "important meetings", which took place between Ram Madhav and local BJP leaders, ministers and lawmakers during his two-day visit.
"He had not come to Jammu to help BJP or to listen to the issues which had created a volcanic situation in the regions from Kathua to Nowshera. He had come to tell us behave, fall in line and do not oppose the government's anti-Jammu policies and the PDP," the BJP leader, who had played an important role during the Amarnath land row agitation, further said on the condition of anonymity.
"We wanted the party high command's support to the issues which had brought the people from Kathua to Nowshera face to face with the BJP. We wanted the high command to reject outright the February 14, 2018 directions of the state government to revenue and police authorities to not disturb those who had occupied illegally state and forest land, to not provide protection to the concerned officials who are duty-bound to get the encroachers evicted from the state and forest land and to allow bovine smuggling. We wanted the high command to reprimand that BJP minister who signed the minutes of the meeting of Tribal Affairs Department without reading the minutes. We wanted the high command to support our demand seeking action against the PDP minister and those in the government who tampered with the minutes of the meeting of the Tribal Affairs Department. We wanted the high command to take a definite stand on the demand of the people of Kalakote, Nowshera and Sunderbani seeking a district status for these areas. We wanted the high command's full support to the demand of the agitating people of Kathua and Samba districts seeking transfer of the case of the alleged murder of a Gujjar minor girl from the 'biased and Kashmir-dominated' Crime Branch to the CBI for a fair and transparent probe. But Ram Madhav remained unmoved. His only concern was that the PDP-BJP government must complete a full term," another senior party leader, who was part of the indoor deliberations, said.
'The party is doomed," he further said, adding that "if things continued like this for some more time, no BJP workers would be able to show his face to the alienated public". "Ram Madhav should have met the BJP people first, but he chose the other way. He first met the Chief Minister and then met us only to justify the unjustifiable," he said.
Indeed, the BJP is in serious trouble. The high command has turned insensitive to the issues facing the people of Jammu province, who gave status to a party in a state where it was just a marginal player. |
