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| Sagir Committee Report stir's hornet's nest | | Year 2010 would see if it snowballs into a major conbtroversy | | Early Times Report
JAMMU, Dec 31:Justice Sagir Ahmad's report on Centre-State relations has stirred a
hornet's nest for suggesting to examine National Conference's proposal of Greater Autonomy to the state. With BJP, Panthers Party, Panun Kashmir and individuals from Jammu and Ladakh regions vowing to oppose it tooth and nail terming it "anti-national", the issue may snowball into a major controversy in the New Year-2010, if not handled properly.
If the controversy takes a bigger form, this could an "unpleasant" gift of the outgoing year 2009 to the New Year-2010.
While people in Jammu and Ladakh described it "anti-national", political parties opined that the report was aimed at creating one more Pakistan out of India. Major political parties have already threatened to mobilise the public opinion against it and start a mass agitation if the Centre goes ahead with the Sagir Committee proposals.
They held mainly the Congress responsible for it. It was the Congress that had given special status to Jammu and Kashmir under article 370; and it was again the Congress under whose rule efforts were again being made to furth r take the state away from the national mainstream.
On Wednesday last, when BJP MLAs and Corporators demonstrated against the Sagir Committee proposals at the Raj Bhavan entrance here, several passersby had joined them too. They were full of energy and used every moment to air their anger against the central and the state governments, saying they wanted the state's full merger with India and not Greater Autonomy as proposed by the Sagir Committee.
Most of them did not know anything about the report. They rather didn't want to know. They only wanted J&K's full merger with India.The scribes covering the event were reminded of the two-month-long agitation in 2008 over the Amarnath land row when the same set of leaders had protested at the same place. On that day also, several
pedestrians, irrespective of which political party they were affiliated to, had joined the anti-government protest.
This incident also has the potential to attain a bigger form. Apart from political parties, the report has been widely criticised by the Jammu people who threatened to start a bham-bham bholey-type movement if the Centre pressed for the Sagir Committee recommendations.
So there is a possibility that the situation may worsen. People here feel that demands like NC's Greater Autonomy and PDP's Self-Rule are anti-national. The controversy has already started brewing with Panthers Party giving a call for Jammu bandh and people holding protests in the last week of the last month of 2009.
Soon after the prime minister's fifth working group on Centre-State relations, set up in 2006, made public the Sagir Committee proposals, which said the NC's proposal for autonomy to the state be examined, political parties and people were up in arms against the central and the state governments.
The report has been outrightly rejected by BJP, Kashmiri Pandit migrants, Ladakh Union Territory Front (LUTF), Panthers Party, Jammu State Morcha, Gujjars' Organisations, intellectuals and others. All of them have dubbed it as anti-national. Leela Karan Sharma, who led the two-month long agitation for Amarnath land restoration, threatened another stir if the report was implemented. "We condemn the report in the strongest possible words. It is even worse than the 1952 agreement," he said and added, "Our demand is to abrogate Article 370 and implement the Indian constitution, and not grant Greater Autonomy to the state."
Leader of opposition in Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley, who was the BJP representative in the group, dubbed the report as a "farce". He said the document had been prepared without consulting group members. "The group's last meeting was held in September 2007. Then to see the group's recommendations being set out like this confirms the view that this is a farce," he asserted.
LUTF, campaigning for a Union Territory status to Ladakh, rejected the report, saying it was Sagir Ahmad's personal agenda. The J&K Gujjar Bakerwal Joint Forum said the report was meant to accommodate a particular section of society. "The recommendations have been manipulated against the wishes of tribals of J&K," the forum's state president Haji Shamsher Ali said.
CPI (M) state secretary Mohammad Yousaf Tarigami, a member of the working group, said proposals put forth by group members had been ignored. The ruling coalition, however, was all smiles. "I have no difficulty with autonomy. As a Congress representative, I have always said that Article 370 is an integral part of the Constitution and cannot be abrogated," PCC president Saifudin Soz said.
BJP president Ashok Khajuria said the report had ignored the demands of Jammu and Ladakh. "We demand increase in number of assembly seats,
setting up of a Delimitation Commission and reducing term of assembly
from six to five years to bring it at par with other assemblies in the country, besides the abrogation of article 370," he added.
The BJP president said despite having less population and area, Kashmir had 46 assembly seats, while Jammu having more population and more area had only 37 assembly seats.
BJP had a firm stand that J&K's accession to India was final and there was no question of any autonomy or self-rule, he added.
Some individuals and presidents of Mohalla Committees have also aired the similar views.Under the prevailing situation, if the Centre implements Sagir Report
and BJP and other political parties, excluding Congress and NC, adopt agitational path to oppose it, Year-2010 was likely to witness a major controversy on the issue.
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