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| Congress may replicate Telangana in Jammu | | Rotational CM | |
STARK REALITY
RUSTAM
EARLY TIMES REPORT
JAMMU, Jan 14: Telangana in Andhra Pradesh is in turmoil. Almost all the political players in the Telangana region are up in revolt against New Delhi. All the Congress MPs and all the Congress MLAs in the region are also in a confrontation mode. All have rejected out-of-hand the Justice B N Srikrishna Committee report and demanded in one voice full-fledged Telangana State. They would not accept anything short of separate Telangana State, they have stated. The Congress MPs and MLAS have even threatened to resign on the issue of Telangana. Everyone in the region is of the view that separate Telangana State alone could end discrimination with the region and empower its people to manage their own affairs themselves in a meaningful manner and as per their specific needs and compulsions. There are reasons to believe that the people of the neglected region would achieve their goal sooner than later.It cannot be avoided.
The developments in the Telangana region have had their impact on other ignored regions of the country. Jammu region, which has suffered enormous losses during the past 63 years and which is no more than a colony of Kashmir in political terms, is one such region. The developments in the Telangana region have in particular impacted the Jammu-based Congress leaders and cadres. Leave aside the factionalism in the party. For, factionalism, personality clashes, struggle for power within the organization and ego clashes have become an integral part of the Indian political parties. It is true of all the political parties and, hence, the state of affairs in the JKPCC is no different.
The Congressmen in Jammu are, of course, not demanding separate state. They are demanding an amendment in the state constitution so that the state polity is federalized and Jammu got a separate political instrument powerful enough to take care of the people’s legitimate needs and general political and economic rights. They are soliciting the support of the Union Government and the Congress high command in favour of their demand that seeks the establishment of regional council. All or nearly all of them are convinced that the successive governments in the state have treated the people of Jammu province unfairly and that it is primarily because of the discriminatory policies that the inter-regional relations between Kashmir and Jammu have always remain bitter and full of animosity and rancour. This is one of their two most definite but no-so-well-articulated demands. They are meeting the Central leaders and Union Ministers with a view to persuading them to do the needful so that the Congress party is able to hold its own in Jammu province and also able to take on the aggressive BJP and the JKNPP, which have unleashed a no-holds-barred propaganda blitz against the Congress with a view to painting it black and convincing the people of the region that it is the Congress, and not the NC, which is the real villain and which is actually responsible for the utter neglect of Jammu province. Right now, most of the Jammu-based Congress leaders are camping in New Delhi and sharing their views with those who matter in the Congress.
The other demand of the Jammu-based Congress leaders and cadres is the rotational Chief Minister-ship. They believe, and rightly so, that the rotational Chief Minister-ship is not only in the best interest of the coalition partners, but also is needed the most considering the manner in which the Congress is losing its support-base in the Jammu province at an alarming speed. Their argument is that the 2002 power-sharing formula between the Congress and the PDP had worked well and helped both the parties to strengthen their respective constituencies. In other words, their argument is that the NC must abdicate the office of Chief Minister after it completes three years in office and that the Congress should hold the highest executive office during the next three years. Such an arrangement, they say, and very rightly, would help the Congress restore the ground it has lost over the period and enable the Congress leadership to undertake measures needed to meet the legitimate needs and aspirations of its constituency in the state without in any way jeopardizing the interests of Kashmir and the NC.
It appears the patience of the Jammu-based Congress leaders and workers has ended and that they are contemplating a coup against the NC-led coalition government. It would not be too much too opine that they might replicate Telangana in Jammu but in a modified form. In other words, they may create a situation that forces the Congress high command to revive the 2002 power-sharing formula and hands down to the people of Jammu province a political instrument in the form of a regional council.
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