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| Opportunity for Congress to capture BJP’s political space | | Dogra Certificate Issue | | MINCING NO WORDS
NEHA
EARLY TIMES REPORT
JAMMU, Apr 20: Chief Minister Omar Abdullah has, according to a report, accused Hurriyat Conference (G) of “cheating the Kashmiris on Dogra certificate issue. He said if Geelani wants to snatch the right of people, the state government will not allow him to do so. If the Dogras of Jammu had protested on the certificate issue, they would have been justified. Dogras are a small section.” The report is both positive and negative. Positive because the Chief Minister has called the Geelani’s bluff and negative because he has said the “Dogras are a small section.”
Dogras are not a small section as compared to the ethnic Kashmiris. The fact is that the Dogras outnumber the ethnic Kahmiris. Only parts of Kashmir province house ethnic Kashmiris and most of those who inhabit the hilly and mountainous areas of Kashmir province are ethnically non-Kashmiris. They are Gujjars and Bakerwals, Pathowari-speaking people, Dards, Baltis, Pathans and so on.
On the contrary, the Dogras inhabit the entire Jammu province – from Lakhanpur to Pir Panjal – an area no less than 26,000 sq kilometers. Parts of Himachal Pradesh, including Nurpur to Kangra and parts of Punjab, including Pathankot to Gurdaspur, also house thousands and thousands of Dogras. Hence, to call the Dogras a small community would be to suppress the truth and undermine the strength of the Dogras, whose role in the history of Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir had been spectacular. The Dogras did and achieve in the region no other community could achieve and the Dogras have produced two of the four world famous generals, General Zorawar Singh and General Baj Singh. It is, however, true that some ethnic Kashmiri also inhabit parts of Jammu province adjoining Kashmir province. They are found in the erstwhile Doda district and parts of Poonch and Rajouri district – all migrated from the Valley from time to time, particularly owing to the political instability in Kashmir.
Anyway, the issue under discussion is the controversy generated in Kashmir because of the issuance of order under which the Dogras have been entitled to obtain Dogra certificates. The credit for the order goes to the Union Government and the Congress leader and Revenue Minister in the Omar Abdullah-led government Raman Bhalla. The Revenue Minister has so far refused to succumb to the pressure being put by the likes of Geelani. His stand is rational and correct. He and other Congress leaders, particularly the Jammu-based Congress ministers will have to remain firm and defeat the nefarious designs of Geelani and others of his ilk in threir own interest and in the interest of the Jammu province.
The fact of the matter is that the issue of Dogra certificate has come as a great opportunity for the Congress party. Using it, the Congress can turn tables against the BJP, which has already become an object of contempt and ridicule because of what it did (political debauchery and murder of democracy) during the legislative council elections and further erode its support-base in the Jammu region. And, this, notwithstanding the fact that the political conduct of the Congress and the National Conference was no less anti-democratic. The BJP displayed naked political dishonesty because the Congress and the National Conference induced the BJP to enact an act of treachery.
It is for the Congress to exploit the people’s mood, which is undoubtedly anti-BJP. It would hardly matter even if the BJP high command takes action against the erring BJP MLAS because their political debauchery has caused an irreparable damage to the party. And, the Congress can render the BJP irrelevant in Jammu province by not allowing the anti-Dogra forces to withdraw the order concerning the issuance of Dogra certificates. Let’s see what the Congress would ultimately does as far the crucial and sensitive issue of Dogra certificate is concerned.
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