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| Autonomy Issue: Jammu Congress leaders in precarious situation | | |
RUSTAM
EARLY TIMES REPORT
JAMMU, Mar 8: It appears that the Union Government has finally made up its mind to accept the autonomy demand being put forth by its coalition partner, National Conference, and implement the Justice Saghir Ahmed report on the Centre-State relations. Justice Saghir Ahmed report has recommended autonomy for J&K ignoring serious objections of several Jammu and Ladakh-based representatives, who were also members of the working group, which was headed by Justice Saghir Ahmed.
Reports from New Delhi and the reference to the Justice Saghir Ahmed report in the Parliament on last Friday as well as sources close to the state government, including Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ali Mohammad Sagar, do indicate that if all goes well, the Union Government would grant greater autonomy to the state by the end of August this year. Ali Mohammad Sagar has disclosed that the panel constituted by Chief Minister Omar Abdullah for studying the Saghir Ahmed report and taking a final view on it has already completed most of the work and that the panel would soon submit its draft on the same to the Chief Minister. Ali Mohammad Sagar is the head of this panel.
Sources close to the National Conference have also indicated that Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, who met the Prime Minister in New Delhi on March 5, had - apart from several other things - also discussed the issue of autonomy. The Prime Minister, who considers autonomy to the state as a possible solution to the Kashmir problem, has, according to the same sources, was quite positive.
It is obvious that AICC president and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi is with the Prime Minister and Omar Abdullah on this issue. Another additional factor that has a positive bearing on the controversial issue is good relations between the Chief Minister and AICC general secretary Rahul Gandhi, who is also close to Minister of State in the Union Council of Ministers Sachin Pilot, Omar Abdullah's brother-in-law.
It appears that the Prime Minister, the AICC chairperson, the AICC general secretary and the Chief Minister are on the same page. That's the reason the sources close to the National Conference are very confident that autonomy for the state is not a distant goal.
There are also indications that behind the scene activities are on in order to bring the votary of self-rule, People's Democratic Party, on the board so that autonomy could be granted without any difficulty. The People's Democratic Party may finally yield because there is no fundamental difference between what the two Kashmir-based parties stand for. The only difference is that the People's Democratic Party is for a mechanism that gives co-equal powers to Pakistan with India in the Indian J&K and introduces dual currency (Pakistani and Indian currencies) in the state. The National Conference doesn't say so, but it also wants to cultivate Islamabad.
The developments as they have started unfolding one after the other creates a piquant situation for the Jammu-based Congress leaders, who simply cannot endorse the idea of the state getting more autonomy. The reason is that they are aware of the ground situation in the Jammu province, where the bulk of population abhors and hates the very concept of autonomy. For, the National Conference's concept of autonomy means withdrawal of all the Central laws and institutions from the state and reemergence of local oligarchy. To be more exact, it means the concentration of legislative, executive and judicial powers in the hands of a very small group of Kashmiri people and denial of even those limited and basic civil and political rights the people of the state presently enjoy.
The Jammu-based Congress are convinced that any move on the part of New Delhi to implement the Justice Saghir Ahmed recommendations would erode their support-base in Jammu province, which is also the core constituency of the Congress in the state. The Congress has no or little support-base in Kashmir. In Ladakh, the local Congress leaders, without any exception, have already registered their protest against the Justice Saghir Ahmed report and demanded separation from Kashmir, saying they do not want to have any kind of relationship with the "oppressive" Kashmiri leadership.
The fear of the Jammu-based Congress leaders is real. The people of this province have already rejected the Saghir Ahmed report and denounced it as Kashmir-centric, separatist-friendly, anti-Jammu and divisive. It would be impossible for the Jammu-based Congress leaders to carry along the people of Jammu province in case the Union Government makes common cause with the National Conference and endorses it autonomy doctrine, which is undoubtedly based on religious and sectarian considerations.
But the question is that will the Jammu-based Congress leaders, like the Ladakh-based Congress leaders, take cudgels with the Congress high command as they did during the days of Amarnath land agitation in Jammu. They will have to. Not to oppose the autonomy demand would surely mean their political death. The situation is difficult, but they have no other option but to surmount this difficulty and express their solidarity by words and deeds with the Jammu sentiment. They have to pass another test. Will they?
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