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| J&K policy under Shah will be different | | Parliamentary debate | | Early Times Report
JAMMU, July 3: One thing is crystal clear: Home Minister Amit Shah's policy towards J&K will be different from the policy which was followed by his predecessors, including LK Advani of his own party, and excluding Sardar Patel, who didn't handle J&K as the country's first Home Minister. Amit Shah's two speeches in the Parliament, one in the Lok Sabha on June 28 and the other on July 1 in the Rajya Sabha cleared all the confusion and established that he would deal with J&K differently.
The speeches of Home Minister Amit Shah have been described as "spirited" and "robust". The case in point was the decision of the Narendra Modi Government to extend President's Rule in the state for another six more months and the extension of 3 per cent reservations to the people living near and along the International Border (IB) in the state. The Amended reservation bill will benefit almost 4 lakh people of Jammu's Kathua, Samba and Jammu district. It was their long-pending demand. Hitherto, the people living along the line of Control alone were entitled to 3 per cent reservation in government jobs and educational institutions.
Home Minister Amit Shah used the opportunity to explain away his policy towards J&K on both the occasions. He spoke with clarity, coupled with assertions, on J&K's history; nature of relationship between the state and the Centre; menace of violence, terrorism and secessionism; the role of the enemy across the border, Pakistan; blunders of JL Nehru and the Congress; the prevailing situation in the Kashmir Valley and the negative role played by the Abdullah and the Mufti dynasties; the state of things in Jammu and Ladakh or the state's diversity; and on how democratic processes were subverted in the state leading to the alienation of the people.
Amit Shah left none in any doubt that he and the Narendra Modi Government will not allow anyone in Kashmir to do what did after 1947 or after the state's accession to India. He in unambiguous terms declared again and again that J&K was, is and shall always remain an integral part of India and those who would try to unsettle things in the Valley will be dealt with an an appropriate manner. Interestingly, all, including the Opposition Benches, endorsed his point of view. He said without mincing words that his would be a tough line on cult of terror and that "the Centre would not spare any element which sought to engineer violence Kashmir, including by going across the border if necessary".
One can only hope that the Narendra Modi Government would devise and implement a policy that not only empowers the neglected, marginalized and discriminated against Jammu and Ladakh but also ends the 71-year-old domination of Kashmir over Jammu and Ladakh. The 2019 mandate was all for this and the state's integration into India. |
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