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| Panther’s roar for assemblies for Jammu, Ladakh hollow | | |
RUSTAM
JAMMU, Feb 17: On Monday, Panthers Party president Balwant Singh Mankotia asserted that his “is the only party in the Jammu province that consistently fights for the Jammu cause”. Besides, while he described the Congress and the BJP as Delhi-based national parties, he dismissed the National Conference and the People’s Democratic Party as Kashmir-based and Kashmir-centric parties.
Mankotia was right. The Congress and the BJP are indeed national parties and their priorities are different. It is, however true that both these national parties have failed to come up to the expectations of the people of Jammu province and Ladakh region.
As for the National Conference and the People’s Democratic Party, it is no secret that both these parties are Kashmir-based and Valley-centric and that the leadership of both these parties has on innumerable occasions publicly said “Kashmir is” their “core constituency”. That’s the fundamental reason the radical forces in Jammu province and Ladakh region raise from time to time slogan for their separation from Kashmir.
The most striking part of the speech that the Panthers Party made while inaugurating the party office in the Marh Block was his demand for the establishment of two separate assemblies, one each for Jammu province and Ladakh region. His contention was that the successive governments in the state have failed to dispense justice to the people of these two regions and that the creation of separate assemblies for them alone could solve the problems they have been facing since October 1947, when political power was transferred from Jammu to Kashmir. Jammu ruled over Kashmir between 1846 and 1947 and the Kashmiri Muslim regarded the Jammu rule over Kashmir as the rule by the aliens. The truth is that the Kashmiri Muslim leadership consistently struggled during all these 101 years to ensure the Kashmir’s separation from Jammu province.
It is not for the first time that the Panthers Party leaders have demanded separate assemblies for Jammu province and Ladakh regions. They have made similar demands in the past several times, but never ever tried to translate their thinking into action. In fact, the manner in which the Panthers Party leaders have been raking up this issue on occasions indicates that they are not committed to achieving separate assemblies for the provinces they otherwise talk about.
It may be mentioned that the way they put forth this demand shows that their approach to the issue is fundamentally faulty and vague. It appears the Panthers Party leaders are not aware of the meaning of the assembly.
Assembly means the highest law-making body in any state of the Indian Union subject to the condition that it can legislate on issues mentioned in the State List as contained in the Indian Constitution. There are three specific Lists – Union List, Concurrent List and State List. Each state in the country, barring J&K, exercises absolute legislative powers in the spheres enumerated by the Indian Constitution and so for as J&K is concerned, it enjoys not only absolute legislative powers but also exercises residuary powers because it enjoys a very special status in the Union under Article 370.
Assembly, in other words, means an institution that exercises legislative powers. It also means that you cannot have more than one assembly in one state. The Indian Constitution is very clear on the issue and for right reasons. You cannot have two or three assemblies in one state exercising co-equal powers as such an arrangement is fraught with dangerous consequences. It is hardly necessary to elucidate this point as even a lay man understand the implications of the existence of two or three assemblies in one state.
The constitutional position is that you can have more assemblies in a particular area if it is bifurcated or trifurcated. The Panthers Party leaders should take note of the constitutional position and then demand separate assemblies for Jammu province and Ladakh region. Not to do mould be simply mean that they are making castles in the air and befooling the people for the sake of petty votes. If the Panthers Party leaders are sincerely committed to what they are demanding, then they have to demand the division of the state. Are they prepared for that? They alone can answer.
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