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| Jammu for a new regional party | | |
Rustam
JAMMU, Dec 25: Believe it or not but it is a fact that an overwhelming majority of the people of Jammu are for a new regional party whose single-agenda should be the empowerment of Jammu province. This is what the Early Times survey conducted by three correspondents during all these 30 days of the lawyers strike clearly and unequivocally suggests. "A committed Jammu-centric, genuinely democratic and all-embracing regional party is the only alternative left," was the view of the majority.
According to the survey, a very vast majority of the people of Jammu province has no love lost for the Kashmir-based parties, including the National Conference. Their view is that these are not just patently Kashmir-centric parties but also rabidly anti-Jammu. Their grievances against these parties were numerous. Two, among them, were that "these Kashmir-based parties devise and pursue socio-economic and political policies which are aimed at promoting the interests of Kashmir and a particular section of society the Valley houses at the cost of the people of Jammu province" and that "these parties have been consistently striving to separate the state from India under one pretext or the other". Their bottom-line was that "these parties should not be allowed to extend their tentacles beyond Pir Panjal" -- the natural boundary between Jammu and Kashmir.
Significantly, an overwhelming majority of the people expressed similar views about the Congress party. The general view was that the "Congress was more responsible for the all-round degeneration of the people of Jammu province as compared to the Kashmir-based parties". Their grouse against the Congress party was that "it all through sided with and supported the Kashmir-based parties overlooking the sensitivities of the people of Jammu province". Yet another grievance of theirs' was that the "Congress consistently played foul with the people of Jammu province in its desperate bid to cultivate the Valley leadership and remain in power".
Even far more significant was their view that the "sooner the Congress is dumped the better it would be for them and the country as a whole". There was hardly any person who described the Congress as secular and democratic. On the other hand, the bulk of the people dismissed the Congress as the "replica" of the National Conference and similar other formations which "in the name of secularism and democracy have only communalized the polity and society and sought to create conditions conducive for another communal partition of India".
Mercifully, a very vast majority of persons were even more critical of the BJP. The people dismissed the BJP as a "party of rank opportunists and unscrupulous elements". "It says one thing in public but does exactly the opposite," was the general reaction of the people. Paradoxically, almost everyone lamented that "they committed a grave blunder by voting for the BJP candidates in the 2008 assembly elections". What made these people express regret was the cross-voting by the BJP legislators in April 2010 during the legislative council elections on an unprecedented scale. "We voted for the BJP because we believed it would promote their cause in and outside the assembly but most of them sold themselves to the NC and the Congress against whom we had voted," they said. It was clear from what they said that they hated the BJP more as compared to the Congress, although they were very bitter while expressing their opinion on the Congress party.
However, what appeared more surprising was their view on the Panthers Party. They termed the party as a "private limited company" and described it as a "three-constituency party". It was their considered view that "nothing should be expected from this party". At the same time, however, many persons expressed the view that the "Panthers Party was quite capable of capturing the whole of Jammu province but it lost the opportunity because it, instead of focusing its attention on Jammu province, wasted its time and energy in converting the otherwise regional party into a national political party".
The Congress, the BJP and the Panthers Party leaders must sit up, retrospect and find what has alienated the people of Jammu province from them. It is a must if they wish to remain relevant in the Jammu's political arena.
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