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| Congress can help Jammu achieve empowerment | | Aping TMC, DMK | | Neha
jammu, Mar 30: The Kashmiri leadership was never so weak as it has been since 2002, when Kashmir for the first time produced a fractured mandate. Kashmir did recapture political power in 2002 but only with the help of the Congress party. Kashmir retained control over the state power in 2009 as well but again with the help of the Congress party. It was basically the Jammu Congress MLAs who helped the Kashmiri leadership. Between 2002 and 2005, the state was ruled by a party which was inferior to the Congress party in terms of its strength in the legislative assembly and in 2009, another Kashmir-based political party captured power, despite the fact that its strength in the legislative assembly was almost equal to the Congress party. The difference was, and is, not very substantial.
It is a different story that the Jammu Congress MLAs never realized their position. Had they realised their position and played the role they were required to, things in Jammu province would improved to a considerable extent and the people of this province got they legitimately deserved. They can still realise their position and assert in the manner in which the Congress's allies at the centre such as Trinamool Congress (TMC) of Mamata Bannerjee and Dravid Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) of K Karunanidhi have been asserting and dictating terms.
It would not be an exaggeration to say that the Congress is at the helm of affairs only in name and that it is basically its allies like the TMC and the DMK who are ruling the roost in the real sense of the term. The Congress has 207 members in the Lok Sabha, whereas the total strength of the TMC and the DMK in the lower house is not even 40. It is 38 and yet they are playing the shots. It was because of the pressure of the TMC that the Railway Minister Dinesh Trivedi, himself a TMC MP, was removed from the Union Council of Ministers for having announced a hike in rail fares. Mamata Bannerjee not only made Prime Minister Manmohan Singh accept the Trivedi's resignation but also made him induct in his Council of Ministers Mukul Roy whom he didn't like. Roy went with his leader and rolled back the proposed increase in fares. The Congress yielded because it doesn't have the required numbers in the Lok Sabha.
Similarly, the DMK forced the Congress-led government to vote for the US-backed resolution against Sri Lanka at the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), Geneva. It was for the first time that India voted for a resolution on human rights that was country-specific. The Congress gave in to the DMK under the fear of loss of majority in the Lok Sabha. In other words, the DMK forced the Congress to reverse the Indian foreign policy for the promotion of the cause of the Sri Lankan Tamils. India annoyed Sri Lanka.
The Jammu Congress MLAs, 13 in number, can do wonders if they are prepared to ape the TMC and DMK MPs. They simply have to put their foot down and say enough is enough. It's very favourable situation for them to assert and force the state government to end discrimination with Jammu province. They simply have to tell the government that they are committed to honouring the commitments the Congress party made in 2008. One of the commitments was that the Congress, if voted to power, will amend the state constitution in order to federalise the state polity and establish in Jammu regional council. The party that is ruling the state just cannot afford to annoy the Jammu Congress MLAs because it doesn't have the required numbers. Will the Jammu Congress MLAs muster courage and do what the TMC and the DMK MPs have been doing in New Delhi? |
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