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| While Jammu simmers over 5th working Group's report Kashmir remains unmoved | | |
Early Times Report
Jammu,December 31 :-While Justice Sagir Ahmed Report,favouring resoration of greater autonomy to the state,has given a chance to political parties,especially the Panthers Party and the BJP,to register their presence in the political field in the Jammu region there has been hardly any impact in the Kashmir valley where people,besides politial leaders of different hues,had risen like a volcano protesting against the diversion of land to the Amarnath Shrine Board last year.
What is intriguing that the Kashmir Bar Association,which had been in the forefront of the agitation against the land diversion,has remained a passive spectator about the report of the fifth Working Group.Except for the National Conference all other political and public organisations have not been enthused by the report on the plea that greater autonomy was not the solution to the Kashmir issue.Even the separatists have preferred to ignore the report because their demand is settlement of the Kashmir issue through triangular dialogue.
Against this various political parties,especially the BJP and the Panthers,have started vocing their opposition to the report as loudly as possible.When the Panthers Party gave a call for Jammu Bandh on Monday it was supported by the Jammu Bar Association and other opposition political parties.Interestingly the BJP neither supported nor opposed the Bandh call.When vicechairman Panthers Party,Harsh Dev Singh,was asked about the reason for the BJP's passive attitude he wanted me to find out the reason from the BJP leaders.The BJP leaders were found to be confused over the issue.Party sources,however,said that since the BJP leaders had envisaged that the Panthers call for Jammu Bandh may not evoke any response from the people they preferred to keep away from it.But they were later disappointed when they found that the Bandh call had evoked good response.
The Panthers Party did not stop there.Its three MLAs besides the party Chief,Prof. Bhim Singh,have been in Delhi for the last two days.Their mission is to meet th Prime Minister,Manmohan Singh,and explain to him the serious repercussions restoration of greater autonomy could have on the state's security political stability.The Panthers Party leaders plan to submit a memorandum to the Prime Minister listing negative points of the Sagir Ahmed's report.The party leadership is sore over the way the report has not found favour with the demand for setting up fresh delimitation commission.
The BJP is also trying to cash on the Fifth Working Group's report.Its leadership believes that since majority of people in the Jammu region,BJP's strong base,were opposed to the recommendations of the report it wants to rebuild its base and strengtghen its vote bank.The leadership knows it well that its role played during the agitation against the scrapping of land diversion order to the Shrine Board had helped the party to win 11 Assembly seats in 2008 against one in 2002 it wishes to repeat the experiment by raking up the negative side of the report of Justice Sagir Ahmed.Even though it presented a poor show when it staged a demonstration and dharna outside Jammu Raj Bhawan on Wednesday it has decided to put up a united face.
Another fallout of the report is the resurfacing of the demand for union territory for Ladakh.The Buddhists have started demanding union territory status as they do not want to remain part of the two r egions if the centre agreed to restore greater autonomy.And those in Jammu have started raising the demand for statehood status.It had surfaced,though in a weak manner,soon after the centre planned to carve out a separate Telengana state from Andhra but the report of the fifth Group has encouraged pro-statehood forces to raise their vouice again.If not anything else the state unit of the Congress has been placed in an embarrassing position.Since it has a stronger base in Jammu than in kashmir it cannot afford to support openly Justice Sagir Ahmed's report.(eom)
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