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| Justice Saghir Report: NC again walked into PDP trap | | | RUSTAM
EARLY TIMES REPORT
JAMMU, Mar 27: It was expected that the NC would take note of the controversy the anti-daughters' bill had created and not do anything that would further add to its difficulties. But it was not to be. The NC strategists and think tanks again walked into the PDP trap. The PDP wanted to pit the NC against the Congress and the vice-versa and lower the position of the NC leadership in the eyes of the people in Kashmir Valley and it succeeded.
The issue was again very sensitive and it was to ban or not to ban inter-district recruitment. The issue has a direct bearing on the future of the oppressed and extremely backwards Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe communities as far as their share in the government services (district-cadre posts) in Kashmir is concerned. Ban on inter-district recruitment automatically means the end of a policy under which the candidates belonging to the Scheduled Caste communities get eight per cent reservation across the state, including Kashmir and Ladakh. It also means the beginning of an era in which none from Jammu province would ever get employment in the Kashmir-based government offices. It also means communalization of services in Kashmir.
The NC think tanks should have weighed the pros and cons before taking a decision on the issue. But they thought it prudent to go with the PDP. The result was that the NC-led government declared that it would introduce a bill in the Assembly in the current budget session that seeks ban on inter-district recruitment. Senior NC leader and Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ali Mohd Sagar made declaration to this effect on the floor of the Assembly. Not only that, he told the Assembly that the proposed legislation was based on the report of the joint-select committee and the report enjoyed the backing of four Congress legislators, including RS Chib, all members of the joint-select committee.
Obviously, Ali Mohammad Sagar created an awkward situation for the Congress, thus making the shrewd PDP leadership laugh at the ruling coalition. His remarks brought to the fore the fact that there were serious differences within the Congress legislature party itself over the issue, with Deputy Chief minister Tara Chand, revenue Minister Raman Bhalla and Leader of the Congress Legislature Party Ch. Mohammad Aslam, according to insiders, expressing their unhappiness over the official declaration on the issue of inter-district recruitment on the floor of the Assembly. They are against the idea of banning inter-district recruitment for obvious reasons.
The declaration was bound to provoke protests in Jammu that is the abode of Scheduled Caste communities. It actually happened. It was not only the aggrieved Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe communities who denounced the official declaration, but the parties like the BJP, the JKNPP and the Jammu State Morcha also registered their protests against the official move calculated to harm the interests of the Scheduled Caste communities. These parties registered their anger both in and outside the Assembly and the protests are continuing unabated.
All these parties see in the official move an opportunity to win over these socially, economically, politically and educationally weak communities and paint the Congress black in the Jammu province. Theirs' is a well-calculated move. They can win over these communities by identifying themselves with them and their aspirations and compulsions. According to one estimate, the Scheduled Caste communities constitute around 20 per cent population in the Jammu province. These communities can make or mar the electoral prospects of political parties in Jammu province in several constituencies.
As for the PDP, it is out to take political advantage out of the whole controversy on the issue. It knows that it would not be possible for the NC to take along the Jammu-based Congress legislators. Its one-point agenda is to create an impression in the Valley that the NC has failed to up to the expectations of the Muslims of Kashmir and that it would fail them in future as well.
The NC leadership is indeed in deep trouble and it itself is responsible for the situation it is in. The very fact that its own legislators have been making common cause with the PDP over this issue and accusing their own government of adopting delaying tactics should indicate the nature of the trouble the NC is in. The case in point is what at least two NC legislators did in the Assembly on Friday in this regard. More than that, the NC leadership has created difficulties for the Congress party, whose Revenue Minister Raman Bhalla told the Assembly on Friday that "no power on earth can bring the Permanent Resident (Disqualification) Bill in the Assembly". That means the Congress has shown the NC its rightful place, notwithstanding the fact that both are the coalition partners. (To be continued)
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