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| Empowering Jammu imperative: its plight worse than Telangana | | | Neha
JAMMU, Mar 11: The discriminated against people of Telangana in Andhra Pradesh have been up in arms against the powers-that-be since years. Yesterday, they took the law of the land into their hands and turned violent. They organized what they called the "Million March" - march similar to the one the revolting Egyptians had organized last month against their ruler, who had yielded. They attacked the Congress party, which had failed to honour the commitment made in its election manifesto that the party, if returned to power, would confer the status of statehood on the Telangana region. The most significant aspect of the whole situation as it developed in the Telangana region yesterday was the remarkable unity it witnessed. All the political parties operating in the region, including the Congress, joined hands and the result was that everything came to a grinding halt.
Their charge was that the authorities in New Delhi and their henchmen in Andhra Pradesh have gone back on their solemn commitment. It's true. The authorities in New Delhi and their men in the state have undoubtedly been resorting to delaying tactics and provoking the people of the Telangana region to take to radical means to achieve their goal. It can be said that the people of Telangana have come to believe that the authorities listen only to those who create a law and order problem and ignore those who take to constitutional methods to put across their point of view. However, to say all this is not to suggest that people need to take to violent methods. They should not. Constitutional method is the best method. But the question is: What should the people do when they are left in the lurch and when the solemn promises are broken on flimsy excuses.
Anyway, what happened in Andhra Pradesh yesterday should make the Congress, the BJP, the JKNPP and the Jammu State Morcha (JSM) leadership to sit up and devise a policy that honours the commitments they solemnly held out during the 2008 Assembly elections. They need to study their respective manifestos and do something concrete to give effect to what they promised to the people of Jammu province, who are dissatisfied and angry and whose patience is ending very fast.
The BJP had held out a categorical commitment that a vote in favour of the BJP would mean Jammu's political empowerment. In other words, it had assured the discriminated against people of Jammu province that it shall work for their political empowerment. Political empowerment means a mechanism that empowers the people to exercise power to legislate and nothing less nothing more. The Congress had held out a commitment that the party, if voted to power, will make the authorities amend the State Constitution so that the state polity is federalized and Jammu province gets an adequately empowered regional council. It had acknowledged in unequivocal terms that the people of Jammu province had never ever got their legitimate due share in the state's political and economic processes.
The JKNPP and the JSM had also contested the last assembly elections on the Jammu plank and promised that they would leave no stone unturned in order to secure empowerment of Jammu province. They have been making some noises on occasions, but in practical terms they have not done anything substantial in this direction. It is, however, true that while the JSM has demanded statehood for Jammu province, the JKNPP has demanded regional assembly for this province. And, that's all.
It needs to be noted that these parties had captured as any as 28 seats out of a total of 37 seats in the Jammu province. The people of Jammu had voted for these parties hoping they would join hands against those responsible for the Jammu all-round degeneration and neglect and work for their empowerment. They have not done anything. The Congress has allowed itself to be guided by the NC, which is rabidly anti-Jammu. The BJP has diluted its stand and demanded a development board for the province - Development board means a meaningless sham or a toothless instrumentality.
They have already wasted more than two years and the result has been widespread resentment and discontent in Jammu province. They need to take cognizance of the Jammu mood and act accordingly. In fact, if they wish that the angry people do not replicate Telangana in Jammu province, they have no other option but to rise to the occasion and fulfill the promises they made in 2008 and in the past. Not to do so would be only to provoke the already rather provoked people of the Jammu province. In other words, it would be suicidal to take the people of Jammu province for granted. Act before it is too late. The plight of Jammu province is worse than that of the people of Telangana. Don't forget it. —Early Times Report |
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