news details |
|
|
| Set up provincial councils in J&K, BJP tells Jethmalani | | Political Bankruptcy -- II | | Rustam
EARLY TIMES REPORT
JAMMU, July 25: A radical change in the existing politico-constitutional set-up is imperative if all the three regions are to be treated equally at all levels. There is no doubt whatever that existing set-up has outlived its utility and that it is fundamentally Kashmir-centric. It is not for nothing that the people of Jammu province are crying for justice since decades and demanding a definite and well-defined political instrument that could end discrimination with them and give them the power to legislate. Their problem is purely political that needs a political solution and the resolution of Jammu problem is possible only if the people of this grossly ignored Jammu province get legislative powers. They cannot afford to have any kind of truck with Kashmiri leadership, including the Congress leadership, because the latter is not only fundamentally Valley-centric but it also stands for a dispensation that is outside the political and constitutional organization of India. It stands for autonomy and self-rule - a step short of complete independence.
The BJP asked Ram Jethmalani to help establish two provincial councils - one each in Jammu province and Kashmir region - and grant Union Territory status to the trans-Himalayan Ladakh region. The suggestion of the BJP is flawed and discriminatory. It is flawed because it believes that a provincial council invested with administrative and financial powers could end discrimination with Jammu. Provincial council is not the answer because it would have no power to legislative and no power to control land of the province. The solution to the age-old Jammu problem lies in assembly that enjoys the power to legislate and enact laws suited to the needs, compulsions and specific requirements of the people. You cannot have a fair and empowered political set-up unless you have a system independent of Kashmir. Hence, what is needed is the status of statehood for Jammu. The demand in Ladakh for Union Territory status vindicates the stand of those who believe that if the Jammu problem is to be surmounted then it must get a separate assembly and a separate chief minister - a suggestion that has been made by the Panthers Party in its Agenda 2011. Remember, the people of Ladakh are demanding Union Territory status despite the fact that they have an autonomous hill development council in the region saying the Kashmiri leadership or the Kashmiri ruling elite has virtually made the council dysfunctional and toothless. The BJP needs to review its stand and revisit the resolution it adopted between 2003 and 2008; the BJP during this period worked for the reorganization of the state on regional basis.
The suggestion of the BJP is discriminatory because while it has nothing whatever in its political scheme of things for Jammu, it has a definite suggestion to make for Ladakh. The very fact that it has been demanding Union Territory status for Ladakh for quite sometime now and that it has suggested toothless provincial council for Jammu should establish beyond any shadow of doubt that it has two yardsticks, one for Jammu and one for Ladakh. The BJP needs to explain this contradiction in its stand. How could it mislead the people of Jammu province by saying that separation of Jammu province from Kashmir would help the Kashmiri separatists accomplish their most cherished dream - independence. If the separation of Ladakh from Kashmir could not harm what it calls the "national interest", how can the separation of Jammu province from Kashmir harm it?
A humane approach is a must if the problems afflicting the hapless and abandoned refugees, including those from West Pakistan, Kashmir and Pakistan-occupied-Jammu and Kashmir, are to be surmounted. These refugees constitute the most neglected lot in the country and they do deserve a special attention and preferential treatment. The fact that the refugees from West Pakistan, mostly members belonging to the depressed community, do not enjoy even citizenship rights in the state is a sad reflection on the state government and the Union Government. The refugees do deserve compassion as theirs' in a human problem and it is actually a human rights issue. The displaced Kashmiri Hindus also need to be rehabilitated in their original habitat. They say that they cannot return to their homes and hearths because the majority community in the Valley and its leadership is sectarian and they could return only they are given a separate dispensation by bifurcating Kashmir. Their demand appears quite reasonable considering the fact that the Kashmiri Muslim leadership doesn't believe in secularism and democracy; it stands for and preaches a regressive and primitive ideology. The refugees from POJK have been struggling since 1947 to get compensation for the properties they left behind. Their demand is reasonable and it needs to be conceded forthwith.
One can only hope and pray that good sense would finally prevail and it would work with a single-minded determination to work for what it suggested with regard to Article 370, refugees and the nature of the ongoing secessionist movement and revise its stand on provincial council taking into consideration the nature of Jammu problem. It would be in its own interest. (Concluded) |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
STOCK UPDATE |
|
|
 |
| BSE
Sensex |
 |
| NSE
Nifty |
|
|
| |
CRICKET UPDATE |
|
|
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
