news details |
|
|
| Strengthen ideology of NC to get semi-independence | | Equitable Development, NC-Style -- I | | Rustam
JAMMU, Nov 21: Some Jammu-based NC leaders yesterday exhorted the people to "strengthen the ideology" of their party. Actually, they addressed one-day NC convention at Vijaypur, Samba district, and highlighted the main features of the NC ideology. According to them, the ideology of NC has been "acceptable to the people of the state", as it is based on the principles of "brotherhood and secularism". They asserted that the NC ideology, "which is in our (NC leaders) vein, is the only route which could help maintain peace and tranquility". Some of them also said that the "present government headed by Omar Abdullah (stands) for overall and equitable development of all the parts of the State". In other words, they suggested that the NC ideology stands for brotherhood, secularism, peace and tranquility and equitable development of all the three regions of the state. Now that they have explained the meaning and significance of the NC ideology, it is time to examine the impact of this ideology on the state's polity and society, on the Jammu province and on the national security. The NC has ruled the state for almost four decades between 1947 and till date. Through out this period, minus the period when Bakshi Ghulam Mohammad ruled the state (1953 and 1964), the NC never allowed the state to become part of the national mainstream. It ruled the state but did all that it could t hold the state aloof from the mainstream politics. It always insisted, and it continues to insist, on a system of government that would be outside the political and constitutional organization of India. Ever since 1947, when the father and founder of NC Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah became the prime minister, the NC has been demanding autonomy bordering on sovereignty. It has been demanding withdrawal of all the central laws and institutions, without any exception, from the state, which were introduced after August 1953, saying the extension of the central laws to the state has only hurt the Kashmiri psyche, alienated the people of Kashmir and eroded the internal autonomy granted to it under Article 370. It other words, it has consistently denounced the central laws and the central institutions. To be more precise, the NC has always held New Delhi and the central laws responsible for what it calls the Kashmiri alienation. Besides, the NC leadership has from time to time questioned the very accession of the state with India. The cornerstone of its political philosophy or ideology is pre-1953 politico-constitutional status and this status means semi-independence or a step short of complete independence. It would be no exaggeration if someone says that the NC, like the Muslim League, believes in the two-nation theory that had divided India in 1947 on communal basis.
The result has been that the NC has annoyed Jammu and Ladakh to the extent that the people of these two provinces have come to believe that they cannot have any kind truck with the NC leadership and that their salvation lies only in their segregation from Kashmir. The people of Ladakh, barring a few, are demanding Union Territory status. The people of Jammu province, barring a few vested interests, are also demanding reorganization. The watchword of the people of these two provinces is complete integration into India. There should be no doubt it. Even the Congress party believes that federalization of the state polity and establishment of an adequately empowered regional council for Jammu province is the only alternative left to end discrimination with and dispense justice to the people of Jammu province. Read its election manifestoes for the 2002 and 2008 assembly elections and see for yourself. The Panthers Party, everyone knows, stands for the state's reorganization. The BJP, too, contests elections in Jammu province on the Jammu plank. It would not be out of place to mention here that Jammu province had returned to the assembly in 2008 as many as 29 legislators who had contested the election on the Jammu plank. 24 of them belonged to the Congress, the BJP and the Panthers Party.
All this shows that the people of Jammu and Ladakh, barring a few, have nothing to do with the NC ideology. The fact of the matter is that the NC ideology has created an extreme form of bitterness and animosity between the regions. The very fact that NC could not capture even half a dozen seats out of 37 in Jammu province in the 2008 assembly elections should clinch the whole issue and establish that an overwhelming majority of people of Jammu province hates and despises the NC ideology. It is significant to note that the NC has lost much of its political space to the PDP even in Kashmir. Remember, in 2008, the PDP won more seats and got more votes in Kashmir as compared to the NC. There is no need to draw any conclusion. For, even a naïve would take no time in saying that the NC has become thoroughly unpopular over the period for obvious reasons. (To be continued) |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
STOCK UPDATE |
|
|
 |
| BSE
Sensex |
 |
| NSE
Nifty |
|
|
| |
CRICKET UPDATE |
|
|
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
