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| Regionalism within Cabinet: It is better to divide Jammu and Kashmir | | |
RUSTAM
EARLY TIMES REPORT
JAMMU, May 2: What happened during the Cabinet meeting on April 29 was not something new. Ever since January 5, 2009, when the National Conference-Congress duo formed coalition government, the Cabinet ministers belonging to Jammu province as well as those belonging to Kashmir province have been conducting themselves in a similar fashion. Each one of them has been trying to prove that he/she is concerned more with the regional sentiment or regional requirements than the requirements of the state. In other words, the Jammu-based and Kashmir-based Cabinet ministers are guided solely by the regional, as opposed to the state, interests.
When the issue of establishment of Central University in the state created a fierce controversy, the Jammu-based ministers stood solidly behind those in Jammu who had urged the authorities to set up the said university in Jammu. Though the Jammu-based Congress ministers did not say anything publicly in this regard, they did mount pressure on the authorities in New Delhi. The result was a compromise formula: Two Central Universities shall be established in the state, one each in Jammu province and Kashmir division, but the state would not get the sanctioned Indian Institute of Management (IIM). Had the authorities in Delhi and Jammu and Kashmir not evolved this formula, the state government would have collapsed. In other words, regionalism influenced the decision-makers.
Again, when the issue of gender equality heightened regional tensions or when the people of Jammu province raised a banner of revolt against the National Conference-led coalition government, the Jammu-based Congress ministers upped their anti and identified themselves with the Jammu sentiment and the popular demand in Jammu. The issue was the move of the Kashmir-based political parties, including the National Conference, People's Democratic Party and CPI-M, to deprive women of the state of their fundamental rights to own or inherit ancestral property in the state and obtain government job who had married the non-state subjects and who would marry non-state subjects in future. Though one of the Jammu-based Congress Cabinet ministers had reportedly allowed the introduction of the anti-daughters' bill in the legislative council at the behest of the Chief Minister and Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister, both from Kashmir, the same minister, along with other Jammu-based Congress ministers changed their stance taking into consideration the opposition in Jammu to the controversial bill. It was because of their changed attitude that the Kashmir-based National Conference ministers had to review their stand on the bill to save the government. The result was not just the collapse of the bill but also the rise and growth of politics of one-upmanship in Kashmir, with the People's Democratic Party legislators and National Conference ministers blaming each other for the negation of the controversial bill.
The Jammu-based Congress ministers behaved in a similar fashion when the people of Jammu province raised hue and cry against the highly controversial move of the Kashmir-based ministers and legislators to put a ban on inter-district recruitment. It was the pressure of the people of Jammu province that forced the Jammu-based Congress ministers and Congress legislators to review their stand on the issue and identify themselves with the protesting people of Jammu province. The attitude of the Congress ministers and Congress legislators changed dramatically despite the fact that at least four Congress legislators had given their consent to the controversial bill. And, it was the changed attitude of the Jammu-based Congress ministers and Jammu-based Congress legislators that forced the National Conference Cabinet ministers to review their stand on the bill that had the potential of marring the government itself. In fact, it was the pressure of the Jammu-based Congress ministers and legislators that forced the alarmed Kashmir-based ministers, including the Chief Minister, to agree to a compromise formula: Ban on inter-district recruitment with the rider that the candidates belonging to the Jammu-based Scheduled Caste communities shall continue to get 8 per cent reservation in the district cadre posts across the state, including the Kashmir's twelve districts, Leh and Kargil districts included. (To be continued)
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