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| What are the authorities waiting for? | | Central University | | Neha
EARLY TIMES REPORT
Jammu, Aug 3: The situation in the educational institutions in Jammu province is deteriorating day by day. The number of students, including girl students, making common cause with those spearheading the movement for the early establishment of Central University in Jammu and appointment of its first Vice-Chancellor is multiplying by the day. This is one aspect of the emerging situation that suggests that a full-scale confrontation between the students and the authorities is imminent. In fact, the confrontation between the students and the police has already started.
The other aspect of the emerging situation is the entry into the movement of a very large number of organizations, all singing the same song; all denouncing the authorities; and all warning them of dire consequences in the event of New Delhi and Kashmiri rulers and their "henchmen" in Jammu not conceding their twin demands: Establishment of University and appointment of Vice-Chancellor. The Panthers Party, the Jammu Province People Forum, the Jammu Central University Morcha, the Bar Association Jammu, the Chamber of Commerce and Industries, a number of Gujjar and Bakkerwal associations and a large number of Sabha and societies have all taken the plunge. The BJP and the ABVP too have come forward and joined the movement fearing that an indifferent attitude on their part would make the people dismiss them as anti-movement outfits. They are already at the receiving end for ambivalent approach to the issue. Significantly, a number of leaders of the internally-displaced Kashmiri hindus like Ajay Churungoo and Agnishekhar have also joined the movement and identified themselves fully with the Jammu cause.
The third aspect of the emerging situation is the widespread resentment among the people, cutting across party lines, against what they term as "arrogant" and "anti-Jammu" authorities. They have come to the conclusion that the Kashmir-centric authorities in the state and New Delhi would continue to outrage the Jammu sentiment until the people of Jammu repeat what they did in 1998 and 2008. In 1998, the student community, backed to the hilt by all the organizations, barring the BJP, the Congress and the NC, had brought to the then government to their knees and forced them to establish Shri Mata Vaishno devi University at Katra and Agricultural University at R S Pura. In 1998, Jammu had observed 17-day-long continuous bandh. Besides, all the educational institutions remained closed for almost two months. Not only this, thousands and thousands of students and others courted arrest and suffered the official wrath, including lathi blows. Had the then Farooq Abdullah-led NC government not yielded, it would have collapsed like the house of cards.
In 2008, what the people of Jammu did to inflict an ideological defeat on the regressive forces in Kashmir and teach the Ghulam Nabi Azad-led Congress government a lesson was what the nation had neither witnessed before 1947 nor after 1947. The 2008 movement in Jammu was rightly described as "mother of all movements" not only in India but also in the world. Remember, in 2008, more than eight lakh people, including men, women, children and who not, had courted arrest. Such was the nature of the movement that Azad was left with no other option but to quit on July 7, 2008. This was one important fall-out of the epoch-making movement in Jammu. The other was the historic August 31, 2008 agreement that retransferred the Baltal land in Kashmir to the Shrine Board on a permanent basis for creating additional facilities for the Shri Amarnath pilgrims.
The most significant aspect of the whole situation was the fear among the Kashmiri leaders like Farooq Abdullah, Omar Abdullah, Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, Mehbooba Mufti and so on that they would be thrashed and harassed by the people of Jammu in case they visited Jammu. Remember, no Kashmiri leader dared to visit Jammu for months together. Such was the situation the people of Jammu had created.
Are the authorities waiting for what the people of Jammu did in 1998 and 2008? It appears so. It is not statesmanship; it is political bankruptcy. The authorities need to concede the demands of the agitating student community so that peace is not disturbed in the otherwise peaceful Jammu province, the land of the brave but abandoned Dogras. Will the authorities rise to occasion and avert the impending disaster? Or, will they first force the Dogras to create in Jammu 1998 and 2008-like situation and then beg for peace? Let's us see what the authorities do. |
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