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| Jammu Pradesh fed up with hollow sloganeering | | Equitable Development | | Neha
Jammu, Feb 17: J&K Chief Minister Omar Abdullah and other NC leaders consistently maintain that the NC-Congress coalition government has been striving for "equitable development of all regions of the state and that the amelioration of general public is the most important part of the development policy". "Our government is determined for equitable development of all regions of the state and we have focused specifically on the holistic progress of far-flung and remote areas," is the bottom-line of their oft-repeated argument advanced to prove that the NC is state-centric, and not Kashmir-centric.
This correspondent today interacted with people to know what they actually thought about what NC and Congress leaders have been saying. Their response was identical. Not a single person appreciated their statements. On the contrary, everyone pooh-poohed their claim and accused the NC-Congress coalition government of "perpetrating injustice after injustice on the people of this province". They described the NC statements as mere "hollow slogans" and dubbed the NC and the Congress as a "Kashmir-centric" outfits.
The interaction indicated the level of awareness among them. Each one of them reflected on the socio-economic and political status of Jammu province in the state polity and pointed out that the "people of this province have been suffering immense political, social and economic losses at the hands of the successive Kashmiri-dominated and Valley-centric governments in the state". "The present dispensation has turned out to be a curse for them as it has been treating the province and its people more shabbily as compared to the earlier dispensations," some of them lamented. Very significantly, a number of them adjudged the Mufti Mohammad Sayeed-led coalition government as "fair as compared with the NC-Congress coalition government". More significantly, they told that the "Mufti was more amenable and accommodating" and that the "Jammu-based Congress ministers during that period used to assert and made the government relent several times". One may or may not fully endorse their assessment, but, then, it was their view and they have the right to take a position.
However, when it came to the NC-Congress coalition government, they suddenly lost their cool. Their attack on the Chief Minister, the NC and the Jammu-based Congress ministers, without any exception, was scathing and unsparing. They used strong words against the government and dismissed it as a government that is "not only on a looting spree, but also as the one that has caused irreparable damage to the Jammu province and its people". To make their point they referred to the Jammu's "inadequate representation in the assembly, little share in the crucial service sector, inadequate representation in the state's technical and professional institutions, inadequate funds for the developmental activities in the province, lack of means of communication, poor road connectivity, little or no power generation in the region" and so on. They quoted some official figures to prove that "it is Kashmir that has been dominating all the aspects of the political, economic and social life" and that the "life of the people of Jammu province is not one of political, economic and social aspirations".
One simply cannot disagree with them as what they told was not based on heresy. Indeed, it was based on hard facts. The NC-Congress coalition government needs to issue a comprehensive white paper containing information on the share of Kashmir in all the spheres vis-à-vis the share of Jammu province. Such an exercise would help clinch the whole issue and establish who is right and who is wrong. |
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