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| Sham continues to rake up the discrimination issue | | Jammu Cause -- II | |
STARK REALITY
RUSTAM
EARLY TIMES REPORT
JAMMU, Dec 9: The Jammu-based Congress leaders should have rallied around Sham Lal Sharma, but it has not happened. On the contrary, most of those loyal to Union Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad have, like all the Kashmiri leaders, joined hands against Sham Lal and demanded a stern action against him. They have never spoken for the Jammu cause for reasons best known to them. They only believe in leg pulling. As for those loyal to JKPCC chief Prof Saif-ud-Din Soz, they have preferred not to speak against or in favour. However, sources within the Congress party do suggest that most of the Congressmen in Jammu province have appreciated what Sham Lal Sharma said on December 5 and thereafter on December 7 and 8. According to these informed sources, most of the Congressmen are of the view that what Sham Lal Sharma said was absolutely correct and that any action against the Health Minister would be suicidal for the Congress party.
Sources have further said that a section of leadership has not taken kindly to what Chief Minister Omar Abdullah said on Wednesday about Sham Lal Sharma. It is of the view that the Chief Minister has no moral and political right to question what the Health Minister said at Bani. To make this point, they are referring to his October 6 assembly statement. It bears recalling that Omar Abdullah had on October 6 dumbfounded and alarmed everyone in the state and elsewhere in the country by declaring on the floor of the assembly that the state had only acceded and not merged with India. The people had termed this statement as a rabidly “anti-India” statement and demanded his dismissal. The people of Jammu even observed a shutdown on the issue and organized a three-hour-long bandh only a few days ago.
Anyway, the crux of the matter is that the people, cutting across party lines, are of the view that the Kashmiri leadership has destroyed Jammu socially, culturally, economically and politically, that there are elements in Jammu who have been harming the general political and economic interests of the people by siding with Chief Minister Omar Abdullah and that time has come for the people of Jammu province to say goodbye to Kashmir. One cannot ignore this view. Indeed, there are elements in the Omar Abdullah’s Council of Ministers and his Cabinet who have been dancing to the tunes of the Chief Minister. If Omar Abdullah has been able to implement his Kashmir-centric and militant-friendly agendas, it is because of the support his formulations have got from the Jammu-based Congress ministers.
Now that Sham Lal Sharma has declared at Akhnoor on Wednesday that he would continue to highlight the plight of the people of Jammu province and that he would not deviate from the path he has chosen for himself, it is clear that he is in a fighting mood. It would be only appropriate to reproduce here what he said at Akhnoor and what he told a news channel the same day. He, among other things, told the news channel: “Whatever I have said I have said with a sense of responsibility. I am a disciplined soldier of the Congress party and I know what to speak, when to speak and where to speak. No one should doubt my credentials. I am not going to plead the case of Kashmiris, who are demanding Azaadi and raising many other slogans. I have only raised the issue of disparity with the Jammu province.” And, in Akhnoor, he said: “sau baar gaddar ki tarah jeene se achha hai ek baar sher ki zindagi jiyo (it is better to live like a lion for one day than to die 100 times like a jackal.”
His message is loud and clear and his message is that he would not backtrack. Now it is for other Congress leaders in Jammu to act in the best interest of their constituency as well as the country. In other words, time has come for them to do what they, along with Sham Lal Sharma, did in August 2008 for the promotion of the Jammu cause. They had defeated comprehensively the regressive, fundamentalist and anti-Jammu forces in 2008. They can do the same even now provided they are willing to take on the Omar Abdullah-led anti-Jammu government. The ball is in their court. If they would act in the manner Sham Lal Sharma has started acting, they would win the hearts and minds of the people of Jammu province and gain, and if they don’t, they would face the people’s wrath and put at stake their political career. (Concluded)
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