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| Omar announces general amnesty, Geelani still not happy | | Jammu Youth Continue To Suffer | | Rustam
Jammu, Aug 30: The frightened and controversial Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister, who wants to retain control over the office he got in January 2009 by all means and who is being supported to the hilt by the incompetent, uninspiring and equally controversial Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi, announced on August 28 general amnesty for 1200 Kashmiri youth charged with stone pelting and other heinous crimes. The NC-Congress government released 50 Kashmiri youth yesterday and, if one goes by the statement of Director General of Police, more arrested Kashmiri youth would be released in a day or two.
The Chief Minister may say that his decision has nothing to do with the Syed Ali Shah Geelani's threat that he would launch a peace march in Kashmir if those booked and detained were not released, but no one is going to buy his argument. Everyone in the state knows who plays the real shots and forces the government to dance to his tunes. Also nobody would pay any heed to the Chief Minister's statement that "in future the arrestees can only be granted bail, but this general amnesty will not be repeated." He would do so again and again. For, his lust for power is insatiable. In other words, what the state government did should not surprise anybody. It did what it was expected to do. The state government is committed to rehabilitating with honour who attacks the institution of the state; who kills and maims the innocents; who liquidates policemen and security force personnel; who causes bomb blasts; and who openly preaches secession and takes the law of the land into his hands. Interestingly, Syed Ali Shhah Geelani is still unhappy with the Chief Minister and his government. He has said the decision has come very late. Why not? He knows what to say, when to say and how to say to extract major concessions from the weak and frightened government, a government just in name.
Significantly, the NC-Congress coalition government has two yardsticks, one for the Kashmiri youth and another for the Jammu youth. The BJP is right when it accuses the state government of according a differential treatment to those in Kashmir booked and detained under various charges, including heinous crimes, and demands general amnesty for those in Jammu province who were charged with various offences during the historic and national Amarnath land row. It is, however, a different story that the BJP did not find fault with the government's decision to release the Kashmiri youth and interpreted the same in regional terms. What more can one expect from the confused and ideologically bankrupt BJP? That it would reduce the whole issue to such a level speaks for itself.
Anyway, as mentioned, the state government has two yardsticks, one for the Kashmiri youth and another for the unfortunate Jammu youth, who believe in constitutional method of agitation and who holds demonstration peacefully carrying in his hand the national tri-colour and shouting such slogans as Bharat Mata Ki Jai. It needs to be underlined that the authorities had booked several Jammu youth in 2008. Their only crime was that they had been opposing the communal approach of the authorities towards the Amarnath land issue. Their only sin was that they had been opposing the regressive and primitive Kashmiri leadership that had been opposing tooth and nail the decision of the state government to transfer a small piece of land at Baltal to the Shri Amarnath Shrine Board, as also opposing the authorities who had vowed before the Kashmiri separatists and snatched from the Shrine Board the Baltal land overlooking the fact that the land had been transferred to the Shrine Board in accordance with the High Court's unambiguous directions. Ironically, the authorities, instead of appreciating the methodology of the unarmed peaceful people of Jammu, including the Jammu youth, during the Amarnath land movement unleashed a reign of senseless brutalities on them. In the process, several Jammu youth were booked and arrested. Half a dozen Jammu youth lost their lives in police firing and an equal number committed suicide to force the authorities to retransfer to the Shrine Board the Baltal land for the creation of additional facilities on a temporary basis for the pilgrims of Shri Amarnath.
On August 31, 2008, the authorities concluded a truce with the protesting people of Jammu. It was then held out that the cases against the Jammu youth would be withdrawn and ex-gratia payment made to the bereaved families. Nothing has been done so far. The authorities have gone back on their promise. With the result, several Jammu youth continue to suffer, as the cases against them have not been withdrawn. Why this extreme form of discrimination against the Jammu youth? They deserved general amnesty and not those in Kashmir who created hell in Kashmir and posed a live challenge to the unity and integrity of India.
It is ironical that the Congress, which has its support-base basically confined to Jammu province, is willingly and cheerfully becoming a party to decisions which have the potential of harming the national interests and outraging the nationalist constituency in the state. The Congress leadership, it appears, has decided to help the controversial Kashmiri leadership to accomplish in stages its most cherished goal: separation and reestablishment of a local oligarchy, coupled with the establishment of theocratic rule in the state. The Congress would certainly pay a heavy price for the crime it is committing against the nation as well as the people of Jammu province in particular. |
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