news details |
|
|
| BJP to move bill on Telangana State in Parliament | | What About Jammu? | | Rustam
EARLY TIMES REPORT
JAMMU, July 6: Two BJP MLAs hailing from the Telangana region in Andhra Pradesh (AP) resigned yesterday. They resigned to express solidarity with those spearheading movement for the establishment of separate Telangana State. Not only this, just a day before when over 96 MPs, MLAs, including 13 ministers and MLCs hailing from the Telangana region resigned, the BJP central leadership announced that the party would move a bill in the coming Monsoon Session of Parliament on separate Telangana State and assured the Congress-led UPA Government of its full support as far as the Telangana issue is concerned. This shows the BJP has joined hands with Telangana Rashtriya Samiti (TRS), the Congress, the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and CPI for the creation of Telangana State. All the four CPI MLAs belonging to the region also resigned yesterday. The total number of MPs, MLAs and MLCs who have resigned so far is more than 100.
The resignation of the BJP MLAs is significant in the sense that it has acknowledged that the people of Telangana region could not obtain justice within the State of AP and that separation of the region is the only panacea available for the discriminated against people. Fair enough. Telangana region needs the status of statehood and the demand is rational and democratic. At the same time, however, the support of the BJP for the Telangana issue raises several questions and indicates the BJP's double standards. Take, for example, the attitude of the BJP to the age-old demand in Jammu province for its socio-economic and political empowerment. There was a time when the BJP used to demand reorganization of the state saying that the Kashmiri leadership had never dispensed justice to the people of Jammu province and that the people of the province needed a definite political instrument invested with adequate legislative, executive and financial powers. In other words, the BJP used to demand division of the state. Between 2001 and 2008, the BJP adopted at least three unambiguous resolutions demanding reorganization of J&K State. Earlier, the BJP used to demand regional development board/regional council for Jammu province. As for Ladakh, the BJP supported, and continues to support, the idea of the trans-Himalayan region getting the status of Union Territory.
It was in October 2008 that the BJP dropped the demand for the political empowerment of Jammu for reasons best known to it. This, notwithstanding the fact that hitherto the BJP had contested all the elections in the state on two specific planks - full merger of the state with India and empowerment of Jammu province. If one looks at the role the BJP has been playing in the state since the formation of the NC-Congress coalition government on January 5, 2009, one would take no time to reach the conclusion that the so-called nationalist and pro-Jammu party has completely abandoned the people of the province with some people not only dubbing the Congress party as the "B-team" of the NC but also accusing most of the BJP MLAs and leaders "hobnobbing" with those who matter in the NC and the NC-led coalition government in order to "fulfill their personal ambitions."
That the senior BJP leaders were hand-in-glove with the NC and Congress leadership and that they had no regard whatever for the people of Jammu province became quite clear during the 2009 Rajya Sabha and Legislative Council elections and during the 2011 Legislative Council elections. During these elections, most of the BJP MLAs voted for the NC-Congress candidates. However, it is true that the BJP crossed all the lines in April 2011, when 7 out of 11 MLAs voted for the coalition's candidates. The party's own candidate got just 4 votes and it is still not clear who voted for whom. The fact of the matter is that all the 11 BJP MLAs are in the dock and that all of them, plus the party leadership itself, have fallen from grace.
What the BJP did in 2009 and 2011 and its failure to take up the Jammu-specific issues has led the people of Jammu province to believe that the "BJP is party with double standards." As of now, there is no taker for the BJP in Jammu province. The party leadership itself is responsible for its unpopularity. It will have to work hard to win back the trust of the people of Jammu province and it can win over them provided it is willing to imitate Telangana and move a bill on the empowerment of Jammu through a political instrument in the forthcoming session of Parliament. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
STOCK UPDATE |
|
|
 |
| BSE
Sensex |
 |
| NSE
Nifty |
|
|
| |
CRICKET UPDATE |
|
|
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
