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| NC's 'Greater Autonomy' proposal as good as dead | | | Syed Junaid Hashmi
EARLY TIMES REPORT
JAMMU, Sep 2: National Conference's principled political plank "Full Autonomy" is as good as dead going by the congress led UPA government's officially declared stand on the issue.
Significantly, it in consonance with the stand of BJP led NDA, of which NC was a part even after it had contemptuously rejected the autonomy proposal. Moreso, the leadership of National Conference which is sharing power in the state with congress has almost shut the talk on its favourite pre-election autonomy slogan. The fact that NC leadership is justifying the absence of any common minimum programme (which is a requisite of any coalition) with congress shows that it is conscious of its inability to purport its principled stand and also enjoy power which is courtesy New Delhi.
Union Home Ministry in its annual report for the year 2006-07 said "In literal terms, autonomy can be defined as the freedom to plan / work independently. If this definition is applied in constitutional term, then autonomy means independent powers to make legislation on various subjects. The State of J&K already enjoys autonomy."
Explaining the autonomy being enjoyed by the state, the report further says "Jammu and Kashmir is the only State which has its own Constitution and is related with the nation through Article 370, which enables the State to determine the extent to which the provisions of the Constitution of India could be made applicable to J&K."
It maintains that "State List is not applicable to J&K. A number of entries in the Union List and Concurrent List have are not applicable to J&K and some have been applied with modification. The power of legislation in respect of residuary matters lies with the state, whereas for other states, this lies with the Parliament."
Elaborating on its argument that state already enjoys autonomy, the report which has been drafted by union home ministry of the congress led UPA government says that electioneering process, appointment of judges to the high court and power of the state legislature to make laws relating to permanent residents are all indicative of the autonomous status of Jammu and Kashmir in comparison to other states of the country.
Home Department regards Annual Report as a "sacred compilation of facts with regard to commitment and resolve of improving security scenario across the state". Going by this yardstick, Congress led United Progressive Alliance has seemingly copied the stand of its predecessor BJP led National Democratic Alliance. Home Ministry which was headed by Bharatiya Janta Party's current Prime Ministerial candidate Lal Krishan Advani in its Annual Report for the year 2003-04 says "Autonomy in literal terms can be defined as freedom to work/legislate independently. If this definition is applied in constitutional term, then autonomy means independent powers to make legislation which the state already enjoys."
Thereafter, the report has repeated what the home department in the current regime has said about autonomy. To be more precise, barring the alignment, placing of paragraphs and choice of words, the congress led UPA regime has seemingly used "Control C and Control V option" of the computer on the similar reports released during NDA regime while defining autonomy of the state.
Interestingly, BJP led NDA government which rejected the autonomy resolution passed by the then National Conference led government had conveyed to then Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah that "though the resolution passed by the assembly had not been accepted but wherever the state government felt that there should be greater powers with them and that with these greater powers they would be able to serve the people better, the government of India would be willing to consider their proposal in that regard."
The Annual Report for the year 2003-04 makes a mention of this assurance of the central to the state government. The assurance was given to the state government at a time when Lal Krishan Advani was Home Minister as well as Deputy Prime Minister of the country. It is important to state here that NC led government had on June 26, 2000 passed a resolution in the state legislative assembly "Accepting the recommendations made by then state autonomy committee in its report and demanded that the union government and the state government should take positive steps for implementation of the same."
The Union Cabinet headed by the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee in its meeting held on July 4, 2000 did not accept the resolution passed by the Assembly on the grounds that its acceptance would have set the clock back and reversed the natural process of harmonizing the aspirations of the people of J&K with rest of the nation and would have also reversed certain constitutional safeguards and provisions extend to J&K. The congress led UPA government including Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has also given similar assurance to the state government but done nothing. |
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