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| Madan bemoans discrimination with Jammu, advocates state's unity | | Gulab Singh's Birth Anniversary | | Early Times Report
JAMMU, Oct 23: One of the speakers who addressed the selected gathering at Royal Retreat Banquet Hall, Jammu, day before yesterday on the occasion of Maharaja Gulab Singh's 219th birth anniversary was Congress MP Madan Lal Sharma. He used the opportunity to draw the people's attention to the discriminatory policies being pursued by the state government towards the people of Jammu province. His observations were candid, though he did not explain the nature of discrimination with Jammu. However, his message was loud and clear and his message was that the people of Jammu must rise above party politics and other considerations and work for the betterment of this province. He was unsparing in the sense that he did not refer to any particular party responsible for the all-round degeneration of Jammu province. His was a general statement. It could be termed as a political statement aimed at creating an impression that he was one among the people of Jammu province who knew where the shoe pinches. Shrewd politicians do make political statements to impress people and he did exactly the same and, hence, not surprising.
Madan Lal Sharma also expressed regret that the nation hadfailed to utilize the good offices of Karan Singh, senior Congress leader and scion of Maharaja Gulab Singh. As he is a man with some mass experience and as he knows what to speak before a particular gathering, he was able to able to impress the gathering. The people applauded Sharma for his comments on Karan Singh, spectacular feats of Maharaja Gulab Singh and Jammu's status within the state's polity.
Madan Lal Sharma perhaps is the one Congress leader in Jammu who sometimes does plain-speaking. He had in the past on occasions took a line that was not consistent with the stand of the Kashmiri leaders, without any exception, on Jammu and the problems facing the people of Jammu. In fact, he had criticized the policies of the state government and the UPA government.
The truth is that Sharma consistently tries to identify himself with the Jammu sentiment as he knows that he won the Lok Sabha election twice in a row on planks which were by and large Jammu-centric. It is, however, a different story that there is little on the ground which could suggest that he has been able to do anything concrete for the people of Jammu province. One can say that he has failed to deliver because the political set-up in the state and at the centre is essentially Kashmir-centric. Indeed, one can understand his limitations. One can also take on him saying he has not done anything to mobilize public opinion in Jammu with a view to generating the required pressure. It is hoped that he would do the needful by mobilizing public opinion against those who have destroyed Jammu province socially, economically and politically. He can play an important role.
However, what surprised most of those who had gathered on the pious occasion was his insistence that the unity and integrity of the state must be maintained at all cost. He also talked of secularism and emphasized the need of practicing it. People of Jammu province are secular and liberal by nature and, hence, it was a futile exercise on his part to talk secularism in Jammu. It would have been better had he reserved his comments on secularism for the Kashmiri leadership and the Congress party which have all along subverted secular values to keep a particular section of society in good humour. People call what they practice in the name of secularism fake secularism or pseudo-secularism.
Similarly, his insistence on the unity and integrity of the state was quite intriguing. The people of Jammu province have suffered enormous political, economic and social losses simply because New Delhi has linked their fate with the Kashmiri leadership whose single-point agenda is, it appears, to humiliate, taunt and disgrace the people of Jammu province and develop Kashmir at their cost. Madan Lal Sharma was part of the Mufti Government for at least two years. He was a Cabinet Minister and he must be aware of how the state government behaves when it comes to Jammu province and its people, Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs included. It would have better had he informed the audience as to what his experience was when he served as a minister in the state government.
Madan Lal Sharma knows that the salvation of the people of Jammu province lies in their separation from Kashmir. There should be no doubt at. That he doesn't acknowledge it publicly is a different story. But such an approach on his part would not do. Hence, he must come out openly and work for the rise of a situation that forces the authorities to grant to the people of Jammu province a definite instrument invested with legislative, executive and financial powers. Such a political instrument alone could end the Jammu's night of discontent and despair. His brother Sham Lal Sharma, Health Minister, was absolutely right when he demanded last year Union Territory status for Ladakh and status of statehood to Jammu. Madan Lal Sharma would do well to realize that remember that those talk about the unity and integrity of the state only help the Kashmir and Kashmiri leadership. No need to elucidate this point. |
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