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| Jammu leaders responsible for the neglect of Doda, Poonch & Rajouri | | | NEHA
EARLY TIMES REPORT
JAMMU, Jan 17: Moves appear afoot to weaken the movement in Jammu province for its political empowerment and help the Kashmiri leadership perpetuate its domination over the region and achieve what it wants to achieve. And, what it wants to achieve is not a secret. It wants to achieve a goal that drives the state away from India. Those who differentiate between freedom and autonomy/self-rule and say implications of freedom are different from those of autonomy and self-rule are blissfully ignorant. Or, they do it just to hoodwink and mislead the gullible elements in New Delhi.
There is no fundamental difference between freedom, autonomy and self-rule. The difference lies only in the strategy. The difference is that while the votaries of freedom want the state to become independent of India all at once, the protagonists of autonomy and self-rule want to achieve the same goal but in stages, step-by-step. That the protagonists of freedom, autonomy and self-rule are on the same page could be seen from their stand on the decision of the BJP to hoist the national flag in the Srinagar's Lal Chowk on the Republic Day. Is it not a fact that the Chief Minister, the PDP leadership and the separatists of all hues have opposed the move of the BJP? It is a fact. That's the reason a fierce controversy has been raging over the issue since days, notwithstanding the fact that the hoisting of national flag at Lal chowk is not something extraordinary.
Anyway, the issue under scrutiny is the opposition to the demand seeking trifurcation of the state and a concerted move on the part of communal forces to give a communal colour to the otherwise legitimate, democratic and constitutional demand. What has provoked the vested interests in Kashmir and their handful of supporters in Jammu to unleash a no-holds-barred misinformation campaign against the protagonists of the state's trifurcation and pit the followers of one religion against others in Jammu province is the clamour in Jammu for its empowerment through the instrument of a full-fledged assembly or a demand that seeks legislative powers for the people of the province, who have rendered voiceless and ineffective by the successive Kashmiri-dominated governments in the state with the help of certain vested interests in the province. The demand has been made by the Jammu and Kashmir National Panthers Party (JKNPP). In fact, the JKNPP has started a signature campaign in different parts of Jammu province with a view to mobilizing public opinion in favour of its demand.
The JKNPP is not the only Jammu province-based outfit that has virtually suggested trifurcation of the state as a lasting solution to the age-old Jammu problem. The Jammu State Morcha (Progressive) has been demanding trifurcation since years. Even the BJP and the Congress have been demanding empowerment of Jammu province. Their demands range from provincial council to regional council. It is, however, a different matter that the BJP and the Congress have not really put in any effort whatever in this direction except making statements on occasions that they are committed to obtain a rightful place for Jammu. But still the fact remains that both these national outfits know it full well that if they were to remain relevant in the Jammu province's political arena, they have no other option but to seek the province's empowerment.
It would not be too much to say that there exists some sort of consensus among the political actors in Jammu province that something concrete has to be done to ensure that the people of the province obtain what is their legitimate due in the country's political and economic processes. The demands put forth by these parties need to be viewed in this context. However, it is true that it is basically the JKNPP that has taken up the issue in right earnest. It will be seen if the JKNPP takes forward its movement. For, the JKNPP has on a number of occasions in the past raked up the issue of Jammu's political empowerment but abandoned the plank midway. At the same time, however, it has to be conceded that this time the JKNPP leadership seems committed in the sense that it has adopted an agenda for 2011 and the agenda clearly talks of the reorganization of the state and that it has held out a categorical commitment that it not take rest until it achieves its goal. (To be concluded) |
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