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| BATTLE LINES DRAWN BETWEEN NATIONAL CONFERENCE-PDP OVER SELF-RULE | | |
Srinagar,September 22 :- The battle lines between the PDP and the National Conference,two main political foes,are drawn over the divergent stand taken by the former against the latter despite peoples’ indifference to the slogans of self-rule and restoration of greater autonomy.
Finding that the PDP leadership has started cashing on Gen. Parvez Musharraf’s idea of self-rule,which also finds support from the All Party Hurriyat conference,by having set up a committee under the chairmanship of Mr Muzaffar Hussain Bai,a former Deputy Chief Minister,for preparing the document on self-governance,the National Conference President,Mr Omar Abdullah,and its patron,Dr Farooq Abdullah,do not miss any opportunity in blaming the Muftis for “misleading people by raking up the idea of self-rule.
Mr Abdullah has gone to the extent of saying that the National Conference has not only prepared a document on the restoration of greater autonomy but got it passed by the state Legislature when the PDP had neither drafted the document nor explained the contours of self-rule .He has said that as such the PDP slogan on self-rule was a mere “Tamasha” for “hoodwinking people of the state.”
It is in this context that the PDP patron Mufti Mohd.Sayeed has asked the drafting committee to bring out the document as early as possible. The Mufti has countered the National Conference argument that greater autonomy was the idea solution by saying that its demand did not find favour in Jammu and Ladakh regions.He also stated that mere change of nomenclature of Governor to Sadr-i-Riyasat and Chief Minister to the Prime Minister could not solve the Kashmir issue.
Inside reports said that the document on self-rule,being prepared by the PDP, lays emphasis on promoting regional federalism so that each of the three regions of Kashmir,Ladakh and Jammu,enjoyed equal political and financial powers.The Mufti said the idea of selfrule was to create a situation in which people belonging to the Jammu region needed not travel to Srinagar for solving their problems in the civil secretariat.
The PDP document also says that the 1947 accession of the state with India be made the bottom line of the concept of self-rule thereby allowing Article 370, which gives special status to Jammu and Kashmir in the Indian union,to be come permanent feature of the constitution.Mr Nizamuddin Bhat,PDP General secretary,told Kashmir Independent Press on Friday that the party document on self-rule was to lay emphasis on restoring the original spirit of Article 370 which has been eroded over the years.
He said once the constituent Assembly was constituted in the state in 1951 Article 30 of the constitution of India “cannot remain a temporary article.”
Mr Bhat said that another vital clause in the self-rule document was that all central laws,extended to the state before and after 1952,which have proved “irritants” to the people needed to be scrapped.In reply to a question he said that if the concept of promoting regional federalism there should be no harm in having regional councils for Jammu,Ladakh and Kashmir,each council having legislative powers.
If the idea of self-rule,as conceived by the PDP,was to promote regional federalism, seek scrapping of some central laws
and restore the original spirit of Article 370,it means that the idea is not altogether different from the one being floated by the National Conference.However,as two main political rivals,the PDP and the National Conference seem to be engaged in belittling each other over the ideas they hold dear.And the main purpose behind it was to draw political mileage.What seems to dismayed the PDP leadership is the way the Congress leaders, including the Chief Minister,Mr Ghulam Nabi Azad,have been describing self-rule as a “selfish rule.” The Congress leaders besides the Governor,Mr S.K.Sinha,continue to shout loud that self-rule “already exists” in Jammu and Kashmir.
However,Mr Nizamuddin Bhat,is of the opinion that once the document on self-rule was made public its critics were likely to have a second thought on it.
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