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| It's strange, ruling party bemoaning injustice with Jammu | | | NEHA
EARLY TIMES REPORT
JAMMU, Jan 8: Is the Congress party with whose support the NC is ruling or misruling the state helpless? Has the Congress leadership finally raised its hands and accepted that the NC would not dispense justice to Jammu and that now it has been left with no other option but to approach the Union Home Minister so that a regional council/regional development board is established in Jammu? Has the Jammu-based Congress ministers finely accepted that the Chief Minister and the other NC ministers are the chief factors in the government and that their role is simply to endorse the Kashmir-centric decisions?
If one goes by what transpired on Thursday (January 8) at Mahajan Hall, Shalamar Road, Jammu, during the one-day workers' convention organized by the Jammu District Congress Committee (Urban), then the answer is yes. The plight of the Congress party is indeed miserable. It's just not in a position to make the NC pursue policies that could cater to the basic needs of the people of Jammu province and make them feel that they also belong to the state. The Congress is itself responsible for the sorry state of affairs it is in. Those who do not assert are neither recognized nor listened to.
It may be noted that most of the party workers who spoke on the occasion complained both against the NC-led government and the Congress ministers. Their basic complaint was that while the "government has been denying the people of Jammu province their due share" and that it has also been ignoring the Congress workers, there is a disconnect between the Congress ministers and the Congress workers." The upshot of their whole argument was that if the Congress was to remain relevant in Jammu province or if the Congress leadership wanted to strengthen the party at the grassroots level, the party leadership would have to ensure equitable development of all the regions through the instrument of regional council or regional development board. The manner in which the otherwise helpless district-level Congress leaders and workers presented the case made the JKPCC chief say that "he knows everything", that "he would discuss the issue of establishment of regional council/regional development board with the Union Home Minister" and that "he would request the Home Minister to visit Jammu to listen to them and their complaints." This is one part of the story that does show that the district-level Congress leaders and workers are not really happy with the government and the Congress ministers.
The other side of the story is also very disappointing as far as the Congress ministers' say in the governance is concerned. The Congress ministers belonging to Jammu province, too, expressed a sort of helplessness. In fact, their helplessness could be gauged from what one of the ministers said while addressing the party workers. He said "a major issue raised regarding payment of Rs 500 per month to the C P workers of PHE in Jammu and Rs 3300 in Kashmir was a cause of concern. The issue will be taken up forcefully. He said both coalition partners have their own compulsions and the workers must realize it." The very fact that the minister asked the party workers to "realize" what he called "compulsions" of coalition politics must clinch the whole issue and establish that the Congress ministers belonging to Jammu province are just not in a position to remove even this anomaly - disparity in wages. It's indeed a very sad reflection on the Congress. It's indeed strange that the rulers from Jammu are questioning their own government's policies, expressing their inability to deliver and demanding justice for the region to which they belong. This is the way the world ends, not with bang but with whimper.
The fact of the matter is that the Congress party is finding itself in a piquant situation. It can neither assert because the Congress high command has applied the brakes nor can it openly speak for the deprived sections of society. The situation has reached a situation where the NC is openly confronting the state Congress leadership on the issue of rotational chief minister-ship, saying the NC would rule the state for a full term of six years and the Congress has no other option but to accept its dictates and endorse its anti-Jammu policies. It would be no exaggeration to say that the NC is taunting the Congress and exploiting the Congress' weakness to the hilt to strength itself in the Valley and weaken to the extent possible the Congress in Jammu province.
The message from the Mahajan Hall, in short, was that it was time for the Congress leadership to act and act very fast. |
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