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| Time for Jammu legislators to assert and obtain justice | | Jammu, Nation And Assembly Session | | Neha
JAMMU, Sept 26: The much-hyped 9-day-long session of the J&K legislature has started. It is expected that the session would be stormy. The Kashmir-based parties, the ruling NC and the main opposition PDP, would, it is now almost clear, try their best to corner each other to strengthen and expand their respective communal constituencies in Kashmir. The Kashmir-based Congress legislators and ministers are likely to play a similar game in their own typical way. There are reports that they are likely to go with the NC. These reports should not spring any surprise because one of the very vocal Congress ministers has on several occasions sung the NC song and publicly stated and restated that Omar Abdullah would complete a full term of six years in office and spoken the language NC.
As far as the remaining Kashmir-based legislators are concerned, they would also do the same taking into account their political and sectarian stakes in the Valley. Surely, some of them would criticize the NC; surely, the PDP would take on the NC and the vice-versa; surely, the Kashmir-based Congress legislators would say this or that to make fool of themselves to fool the general public, but when it would come to Kashmir they would be one; they would vote for the private member's bill seeking mercy for Afzal Guru en-block if the bill finally comes up for discussion on Wednesday. Then some of them would also demand demilitarization and repeal of the Public Safety Act and Armed Forces Special Powers Act, besides condemning "human rights of innocent" rebels and stone-throwers.
There are instances which show that the Congress, the PDP, the NC, the CPI legislators and other Kashmir-based legislators had forgotten their so-called differences and worked together in 2007 during the Ghulam Nabi regime to defeat all those private members' bill which aimed at strengthening the political and constitutional ties between the state and New Delhi, as also which sought justice for the discriminated against people of Jammu province and adopted those private members' bills which accorded legitimacy to the politics, based on narrow considerations. They would be one and they would create a situation that would make it impossible to distinguish who represent the ruling coalition and who the opposition.
Take, for example, the collapse of the private members' bills that had sought the incorporation of the words "secularism" and "socialism" in the preamble of the State Constitution, deletion of the clause relating to the state flag and rise of a situation under which the state would have only one flag (national flag), grant of citizenship rights to the refugees from West Pakistan and adequate compensation for the refugees from POJK, parity with Kashmir as far as representation of Jammu in the legislative assembly was concerned and reduction in the life of the assembly from six to five years to bring the state assembly at par with all other assemblies in the country. These bills had been submitted by the JKNPP and the BJP legislators. All the Congress, the NC, the PDP, the CPI-M and all the Kashmir-based legislators had, without any exception, defeated in no time all these important bills. They had not only defeated these bills of national and Jammu import much to the chagrin of the Jammu-based non-Congress and non-NC legislators or much against the wishes of the people of Jammu province, but they had also adopted in no time the controversial bills, including the bills which adopted for the first time Shari laws and provided for one-year jail term for those not showing respect to the state flag. These bill had been submitted by the Kashmir-based legislators, including those belonging to the NC.
One can refer to similar other instances to prove that the Kashmir-based legislators do make noises against their political opponents but they come on one platform when it comes to Kashmir and Kashmir-related issues.
The worst aspect of the whole situation was, and continues to be, that the Jammu-based legislators, 37 in number and number is respectable, have never ever worked in unison in and outside the assembly to discharge their obligations towards the people of Jammu as well as the country. The kind of role they played in the assembly and political behaviour they displayed outside till the other day had raised serious questions about their credibility and intentions. In fact, there was, and is, a view that Jammu had been, and is being, defeated by none other than their own representatives in the legislative assembly, legislative council, Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha. This view cannot be dismissed as something preposterous. There is substance in their view, notwithstanding the positive role the JKNPP, the BJP and JSM legislators played in the last budget session.
Now that the assembly session has started and the session is going to witness discussion on emotive and controversial issues, it is time for the Jammu-based legislators to rise above narrow political and personal considerations and assert their authority like the Kashmir-based legislators and establish their credentials and leadership to win over their estranged constituencies. They have not only to join hands and defeat the bill on Afzal Guru and similar other Kashmiri leadership-sponsored moves, but also to create an environment on the floor of the legislature that forces the insensitive authorities to recognize and appreciate the problems being faced by the people of Jammu province and mitigate their hardships through a foolproof and non-amendable and non-negotiable political instrument. It could be statehood.
It's true that the current session is very short, a mere formality, but the Jammu-based legislators can make optimum use of the time at their disposal and tell the authorities that enough is enough and that they would not tolerate any action of the authorities that has the potential of harming the interests of Jammu and the country. They have to play two roles: fight and get justice for Jammu at any cost and defeat the undesirable elements in and outside the legislature at any cost. |
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