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| Chief Minister goes scot-free, Health Minister on tenterhooks | | | RUSTAM
EARLY TIMES REPORT
JAMMU, Dec 13: J&K Chief Minister, who threw a bombshell on the floor of the Assembly on October 6 and who questioned the very status of the state, has gone scot-free. In fact, his highly controversial and unsettling accession/merger statement evoked a favourable response from none other than the Union Home Minister and Foreign Minister, both senior Congress leaders. Both of them endorsed the view of the Chief Minister and publicly declared that there was nothing wrong in what the Chief Minister said. The Union Home Minister even went to the extent of saying that J&K was a political problem that needed to be addressed politically. He holds this view even today. He said so on December 9 in New Delhi while asserting that "contours of a political solution to the Kashmir problem are likely to emerge in the next few months."
It would not be out of place to mention here that the Chief Minister's statement had caused a sort of furore in Jammu and even at the national level, with a number of pro-integrationist outfits demanding dismissal of the Chief Minister, saying he had violated the oath of office and gone beyond the constitutional confines. It would also be in order to point out here that the Chief Minister has been consistently demoralizing the Army and security forces ever since he became the executive head of the state. He has been demanding withdrawal of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act, saying it is this legislation that is responsible for the prevailing unrest in Kashmir. He has been asking the Union Government to lower its guard in the militant-infested Kashmir by reducing the number of troops. He has been openly saying that the Kashmir problem is neither economic nor is it the fall-out of the unemployment problem; it is a political problem; financial packages and employment packages would not end "alienation" of the people of Kashmir. He has been repeatedly demanding autonomy for the state and asking New Delhi to take on board Pakistan. In other words, he is question the very constitution of India.
What the Chief Minister has been saying and doing ever since January 5, 2009 is nothing less than a challenge to the very unity and integrity of India and yet the Congress-led UPA Government and the Congress high command have not taken any cognizance of his controversial activities. On the contrary, the Union Government and the Congress high command have given him unbridled freedom to do whatever he wants to do. This is one side of the story that shows that the Chief Minister is doing all that he could to unsettled the settled issue and going scot-free. This is highly disturbing.
The other side of the story is more alarming and disturbing. The case in point is a report in a section of print media that Health Minister Sham Lal Sharma may be dropped from the Council of Ministers or could be asked by the Congress high command to tender resignation within a couple of days. This report also suggests that the Chief Minister has been persuading Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and AICC president Sonia Gandhi to take action against Sham Lal Sharma.
What is the crime of the Health Minister? He has committed no crime. He has only exposed the separatist and anti-Jammu and anti-Ladakh Kashmiri leadership; he has simply said that Jammu and Ladakh are being consistently discriminated against; he has simply said that Jamuu and Ladakh get less funds for developmental activities as compared to Kashmir; he simply referred to what two members of the State Finance Commission Swami Raj Sharma and Sonam Dawa had said regarding discrimination with Jammu and Ladakh a couple of days before to make his point; he has simply expressed the view the people of Jammu province hold. He has only suggested a lasting solution to the problems being faced by the people of Jammu and Ladakh. He suggested trifurcation as a solution.
There is nothing wrong in his trifurcation formulation that seeks the status of statehood for Jammu province and that of Union territory for Ladakh. There is nothing unconstitutional in his suggestion. He has not demanded empowerment of Jammu and Ladakh outside the Indian Constitution. Yes, there was a report that the health Minister had suggested freedom for Kashmir, but he clarified his statement in this regard the same day saying he never said so and that since he spoke in chaste Dogri language, he was misunderstood.
The Congress high command should have gone by what the Health Minister said. But, according to media reports, the Congress high command is determined to take action against the Health Minister. It can take action, but it must remember that any action against the Health Minister would boomerang. It will not only make the people of Jammu province rally around him, but would also cause an irreparable damage to the Congress party in the Jammu province, its core constituency in the state. The Congress high command would do well to remember that the people of Jammu province have appreciated the Health Minister's bold, rational and democratic stand. |
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