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| JAMMU Bandh: BJP RSS played dubious role | | |
EARLY TIMES REPORT
JAMMU, May 1: The BJP, the political organ of the RSS, ditched the people of Jammu and outraged their sensitivities in 1998, when it opposed on the floor of the Assembly the official bill that sought the establishment of Mata Vaishno Devi Technical University at Katra and Agriculture University at RS Pura. The BJP opposed the historical bill overlooking the fact that the people of Jammu had fought relentlessly for the establishment of these two universities for over 65 days and had also observed a 17-day-long continuous bandh. The government of Farooq Abdullah introduced the bill to restore law and order situation in Jammu and to save his office.
The BJP again exhibited its bias against Jammu in February 2002, when it gave unqualified support to the government of Farooq Abdullah on the floor of the Assembly and allowed the government to adopt an undemocratic, unconstitutional and patently anti-Jammu legislation that banned delimitation of Assembly constituencies for decades together, thus hitting the people of Jammu province below the belt. The people of Jammu had been struggling to obtain due share of representation in the Assembly since 1951.
In 2008, when the nation was witnessing a massive movement in Jammu over the Amarnath land issue, a number of senior BJP leaders hobnobbed with the Raj Bhawan and gave up the demand for the withdrawal of the state Governor. One senior BJP leader also played to the tunes of former Vice-Chancellor of Jammu University Amitabh Mattoo, who did his best to sabotage the Jammu movement and outrage the religious sensitivities of the people of Jammu. Interestingly, the Congress stick to its stand and its stand was that the state Governor must be recalled. Even Dr Karan Singh supported this demand put forth by almost all the Jammu-based Congress leaders, barring perhaps Mangat Ram Sharma.
The year 2010 witnessed the BJP crossing all the limits. When the Panthers Party gave bandh call to register its opposition to the official move aimed at snatching the citizenship rights of women of the state. Instead of supporting the women cause, the BJP leadership opposed the bandh call saying that "it is not our duty to make the bandh a success". On April 9, the BJP gave a bandh call on the issue of inter-district recruitment but without specifying the real reason behind the shutdown call. It surprised almost everyone and alarmed and irked the Scheduled Caste communities when 10 out of its 11 legislators walked out of the House, along with the PDP legislators.
The RSS political organ, BJP, again played a dubious role on the issue of appointment of a Jammu-based academician as first Vice-Chancellor of Central University in Jammu. It tried to sabotage the struggle and effort of the Jammu Provincial People's Forum (JPPF) by putting a rider: The BJP will support the bandh call only if it is given by the RSS-founded and controlled Central University Sangharash Samiti (CUSS), for which Bar Association president Sunil Sethi, Barahaman Sabha president DR Baru, Jammu state Morcha president Virender Gupta and a few others snubbed the BJP representatives who were taking part in the JPPF meeting, held on Friday morning at the Brahman Sabha. Sources close to one of the BJP legislators told this correspondent that the said legislator told "we have nothing to do with issue because it a matter that concerns only Kashmiris".
The let down people of Jammu province must be repenting for returning 11 BJP legislators to the Assembly. The role the BJP has been playing, particular since 1998, has made the people believe that it would be crime against them if they pin their faith in this patently anti-Jammu party. That they observed bandh -- which was by any standard an impressive show -- despite the negative attitude of the RSS and the BJP could be construed as a verdict against these two outfits.
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