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| ‘Will speak when there is some Improvement’: Justice Sageer | | |
ABID SHAH
New Delhi, Dec 30: As Chief Minister Omar Abdullah today presented the fifth Working Group’s report to the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, the author of the paper on center-state relations, Justice Sageer Ahmed was conspicuous was his absence.
The former Supreme Court judge told Early Times today that he was away from Delhi and, thus, was not present at the time the report was given to Manmohan Singh. “I was not there,” he said to this correspondent on being contacted this evening over telephone.
He excused himself from commenting on different reactions, including some of the angry ones like yesterday’s Jammu Bandh, which his report have kicked off. Nor he was willing to discuss the contents or recommendations made in the report.
Yet he said that he would speak “when there is some improvement in the matter” without specifying either their nature or about those who may bring about such improvement.
This indicates Mr Justice Ahmad’s understanding that the Government might improve upon the report given by him by either adding or incorporating some of the things based on his recommendations. By improvement he may also mean that the Government could act upon his recommendations among which he suggests the possibility of greater autonomy for Jammu and Kashmir.
Sharply divided positions that have thus far been taken between various political groups are linked to their support base or strongholds in the State. The people of Jammu fear that the internal autonomy or the lack of it for Jammu would get further aggravated in case greater autonomy comes to Jammu and Kashmir where the leaders of the Valley would benefit with more power.
Jammuites indicate that by autonomy the Valley leaders would like the restoration of the pre-1953 position when the State had Sadre Riyasat equivalent to President and Wazire Ala or Prime Minister as political heads of the State. Before 1953 such positions have only been with the leaders from the Kashmir Valley.
Similarly the people of the Ladakh region are opposed to autonomy since they have been asking for the status of a Union Territory controlled directly by the Centre for long and have already succeeded in getting Ladakh Autonomous Council.
And beyond the confines of Jammu and Kashmir there is resistance to the autonomy move for the border State since the province has been prone to secessionist movements giving way to violence where Centre’s control over Kashmir has been thought to be necessary by the most parts of the country.
Strangely, separatists too are averse to greater autonomy for the State since they see this as a sop offered by the Centre to the people of the Valley to win over their demands of independence without a truce with Pakistan on the issue of Kashmir since the region and its inhabitants cut across the borders of the two countries.
Given such a vexed state of affairs the Government both in New Delhi and Srinagar appear to be treading cautiously. There is no hope on a consensus in the Valley or between Kashmir Valley and Jammu.
The People’s Democratic Party which is the main Opposition party in the State too have been having reservations about Justice Saghir Ahmad report since the party feels that its own autonomy plan has not been incorporated in the report.
Such sharp divisions among various political forces of the State have led the Centre and State Governments to refrain from making public statements even as the report has been presented to the Prime Minister today.
There was no Press release after the presentation of the report until the evening except that the Prime Minister’s office confirmed to reporters that Omar Abdullah has given the report to Manmohan Singh.
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