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| Regional Councils: Cong itself competent to do what it asked interlocutors to consider | | STARK REALITY | | RUSTAM
EARLY TIMES REPORT
JAMMU, Oct 29: The Jammu-based Congress leaders have, it appears, woken up. They have, it seems, realized that if they remained dormant and devoid of political activity much longer, their party would be entirely submerged under the rising tide of integrationist and empowerment slogans being raised by the BJP, the Panthers Party and other Jammu-based social and political groupings. The meeting of senior Congress leaders, including veteran Mangat Ram Sharma, Dharmpal Sharma, Amrit Malhotra and others, with the visiting controversial interlocutors on Thursday in Jammu needs to be viewed in this context.
Talking to reporters after meeting with Dileep Padgaonkar and Radha Kumar, little known MLC Amrit Malhotra revealed that the Congress leaders told the interlocutors that “Jammu and Kashmir is an integral part of India”; that they opposed the demand seeking pre-1953 politico-constitutional status for the state; that they “demanded an amendment in the unitary J&K Constitution so that the state polity is federalized and three regional councils, one each for Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh, are established”; that they were not opposed to solution to the Kashmir issue but Jammu and Ladakh must get their due share; and that the Kashmir issue could not be resolved during all these 63 years because Jammu and Ladakh were not included in the process.
The Congress leaders took a right stand. But the question is: Where was the need for these Congress leaders to approach these interlocutors, who in Kashmir queered the Indian pitch by making highly controversial, unsettling and pro-separatist and pro-Pakistan statements; who even shamed the Indian nation by knocking at the doors of the extremists? There was no need for them to meet these interlocutors and put forth before them their demands. Whatever they told the interlocutors was what they could themselves do very easily. Their party is part of the state government. In fact, the Omar Abdullah-led government could not survive even for a moment if the Congress withdrew its support to it.
That these Congress leaders didn’t do anything to make their government do what they asked the interlocutors to consider while devising a solution to the so-called Kashmir problem does create a doubt about their intentions and commitment. They should have asked their ministers in the government to take up these issues during the cabinet meetings and forced Chief Ministers Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, Ghulam Nabi Azad and Omar Abdullah to do what they asked the interlocutors to consider. They and the Congress ministers and legislators in the assembly should have also opposed tooth and nail what Omar Abdullah said on the floor of the assembly on October 6 and what he had been saying day in and day out since January 5, 2009 to demonize the Indian Army and the Indian institutions, help the Pakistani cause and promote the cause of Kashmiri separatists. At least, they should have asked their legislators in the assembly to move private member’s bill seeking the establishment of regional council for Jammu. They should have also moved a resolution in the assembly on the political status of Jammu and Kashmir. That they didn’t do so and, instead, approached the controversial interlocutors to tell them what they stood and stand for does create an impression that they are not really committed to what, they claimed, they believe in.
However, to point out all these lapses on the part of the Jammu-based Congress leaders is not to undermine the significance of the stand they took during their meeting with the interlocutors. They deserve appreciation. Their action must have pleased the people of Jammu and Ladakh, and even the Indian nation. They must ask their ministers and legislators to do what they asked the interlocutors to consider. They can do so. They simply have to take on and force Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, who has been consistently damaging the Congress party in the Jammu province by preaching highly controversial views. They must remember that the people of Jammu and the people in the rest of the country consider the Congress leaders in the state a party to whatever the Omar Abdullah-led government has been doing to unsettle the settled in Jammu and Kashmir. |
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