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| Litmus test for Congress and Raman | | Dogra Certificate Issue | |
MINCING NO WORDS
NEHA
EARLY TIMES REPORT
JAMMU, Apr 21: The State Cabinet met yesterday to discuss – apart from other issues – the issue of Dogra certificate, which has snowballed into a major controversy in the state and further sharpened the regional angularities, but nothing came out of the meeting. After the meeting, an impression was created that the Cabinet could not take any decision on the issue because the matter had become sub-judice. (One Kashmiri has obtained a stay as far as the implementation of the government order regarding the issuance of Dogra certificates is concerned. The court would take up the case on March 30.) But some reliable sources have told this scribe that a number of Cabinet Ministers, particularly those hailing from Kashmir, expressed their unhappiness with Congress leader and Revenue Minister Raman Bhalla, whose department issued an order on March 25 empowering the tehsildars (territorial) to issue Dogra certificates to those desirous of joining the central paramilitary forces. According to the said sources, the main grouse of some of the “Cabinet Ministers” was that the Revenue Minister didn’t take the Cabinet into confidence before issuing the order. There are indications that the Revenue Minister did stick to his stand in his own way.
It is a litmus test for the Congress in general and the Revenue Minister in particular. There are reasons to believe that the Revenue Minister would hold his ground and not succumb to the pressure being put on him by the vested interests and anti-Dogra forces. Even otherwise, he and the Congress party as a whole just cannot afford any dilution in the order, as they are convinced that any move on their part to allow the vested interests to dilute the order would further annoy the already rather angry Dogras and cause an irreparable damage to the Congress party, particularly in the Jammu province, the land of the Dogras and the core constituency of the Congress. In Kashmir, the Congress has little or no support-base. The Revenue Minister has won over the Dogras and he would not like to fritter away the opportunity of turning the tables against the BJP, which has become thoroughly unpopular in the Jammu province because of what it did during the Legislative Council elections.
It may be noted that the Kashmiri leaders, both separatist and the so-called mainstream, have created the whole controversy, which is, undoubtedly, unwarranted, as there is nothing in the order whatever that could even marginally harm the interests of the Kashmiri Muslims. Their objective is to create a powerful counterpoise to the just and rational hopes and aspirations of the Dogras of Jammu province. The Dogras have been seeking justice and fair play since October 1947, when the then Prime Minister and the Congress government in New Delhi hatched a conspiracy against Maharaja Hari Singh and shifted the centre of power from Jammu to Kashmir to appease the rabidly anti-Jammu and essentially sectarian and separatist NC leadership.
This is the whole situation. One can only hope and pray that the NC-led government would see reason and not do anything that could cause political explosions in the otherwise peaceful Jammu province. As for the Jammu-based Congress Ministers, they must imitate the Kashmiri leadership and act in the manner their Kashmiri counterparts act when it comes to Kashmir and the Kashmiri aspirations, reasonable or otherwise. They are not their B-team; they are equal partners. Similarly, New Delhi, which is likely to be approached by the state government in order to dilute the order, needs to be very careful while handling the sensitive issue of Dogra certificate. It should not do anything that could ad fuel to the fire and disturb the Jammu province’s peaceful environment.
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