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| Justice Saghir, Arun Jaitley try to push issues raised by J&K working group report to PM’s court | | The report to be submitted to the PM on Dec 29 | | ABID SHAH
NEW DELHI, DEC 25: The report of the Working Group on relations between Centre and Jammu and Kashmir would be submitted to the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on 29 December.
This is what the head of the working group and author of the report Mr Justice Saiyed Saghir Ahmad told over telephone today to this correspondent while declining to speak at the moment about apprehensions being raised about the report that discusses the issue of autonomy for Jammu and Kashmir.
“It would not be proper for me to speak about the report now. Let this be first put before the Prime Minister as it is expected to be on December 29. I may speak thereafter. I have submitted the report to Chief Minister Omar Abdullah whose predecessor Ghulam Nabi Azad had appointed me when Azad was Chief Minister. Though I would like to say a few things in the wake of apprehensions being raised about the report, but I think I should not say anything now. Better wait until the report goes to the Prime Minister,” said Mr Justice Ahmad on being contacted over telephone this evening.
He indicated that he may be present when the report is submitted to the Prime Minister and assured that he may well answer and try to dispel most apprehensions or misgivings being raised since yesterday after the report was submitted to Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Thursday.
Mr Justice Ahmad declined to comment about the points and objections made by members of the working group headed by him. Asked about the sharp reaction of the BJP leader in the Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley and discomfiture of Communist Party-Marxist state general secretary Mohmmed Yusuf Tarigami, Mr Justice Ahmad said that “first let the report reach Prime Minister and then I shall speak.” Both Jaitley and Tarigami have been members of the Working Group led by Mr Justice Ahmad.
Unlike them the National Conference through its Ministers expressed vindication yesterday over the recommendations made in the report while Mr Justice Ahmad had pointed out the inability of the main Opposition party of Jammu and Kashmir, the People’s Democratic Party, in filing its point of views before the working group. The PDP’s response to this has been that the party did not get enough time to make written submissions sought by the group.
Moreover, the report has been giving way to fears that regions other than the Kashmir Valley, or Jammu and Ladakh to be precise, may not get a fair deal in case the recommendations of the working report are to be implemented. In case of Jammu the delimitation of Assembly and Parliamentary constituencies may not be possible in near future leaving the status quo in favour of the Valley and to the detriment of Jammu. And as for Ladakh the demand for a separate status of a Union Territory is said to have not been taken into account by the group.
A virtual storm rose courtesy leaders from these regions besides the Opposition when on Friday a newspaper published a few details of the recommendations made by the Working Group led by the former judge of the Supreme Court who has also earlier been the Chief Justice of Jammu and Kashmir High Court. As per the newspaper the report recommended that the Centre could consider proposal of autonomy of J&K to the pre 1953 position and “the matter being over 60 years old should be settled once and for all”.
The BJP saw a dilution in this of India’s position on the border state of Kashmir. And Arun Jaitley today shot off a letter to Prime Minister today and shared its contents with the media here questioning the functioning of the Working Group, its competence, mainly that of Mr Justice Saghir Ahmad in deciding about a political matter that involved sovereignty of the country instead of adjudication for which judges are mainly trained.
In the light of this as also Mr Justice Ahmad’s insistence on speaking only after submission of the report to the Prime Minister, it appears that the issues raised by the report are fast slipping out of the hands of Chief Minister Omar Abdullah and they are poised to land up soon in Prime Minister’s court.
And as the report is heightening passions on regional lines in Jammu and Kashmir, the Prime Minister’s office may well bide a few day’s time at least before formulating a suitable response to the diverse positions taken by parties like mainly BJP besides other Opposition parties of Jammu and Kashmir as against that of the National Conference. In this Christmas and Moharram holidays have, indeed, come greatly to the aid of the Government, and the PMO.
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