news details |
|
|
| Give Kashmir what it wants, let Jammu decide its own fate | | Defending Anti-People Article 370 | | Rustam
Jammu, May 5: It was expected that the Kashmir-based rattled and alarmed NC leadership would attack the Jammu-based Congress MP Lal Singh for his May 3 national, democratic and secular Lok Sabha stand on Jammu and Kashmir, as also for his sharp criticism of those in Kashmir who have been seeking an autonomous status for Jammu and Kashmir State or striving to create Republic of Kashmir within the Indian Republic on the ground that it is a Muslim-majority State, which cannot have any kind of truck with the democratic and liberal India and it actually happened within 24 hours. Significantly, attack on the Congress this time was launched not by NC additional general secretary Mustafa Kamaal but Lok Sabha member Sharief-ud-Din Shariq while addressing party workers in Srinagar. "People talking against autonomy are challenging Article 370," he said adding that "restoration of autonomy to Jammu and Kashmir is considered as the only realistic solution to address the aspiration of the people of the State" (read sectarian Kashmiri leadership). "The autonomy report had been acknowledged by the former President of Pakistan Gen Parvez Musharraf and other Pakistani leaders during the visit of Chief Minister Omar Abdullah to Pakistan. While the autonomy report has been endorsed worldwide, there is no reason for New Delhi to delay its restoration", he also said. Shariq represents north Kashmir in the Lok Sabha.
Lal Singh had, it needs to be noted, blasted those seeking autonomy and self-rule for the State and asked the Government of India to repudiate outright demands like the revival of the offices of Sadar-e-Riasat and Wazir-e-Azam, saying Jammu and Kashmir is like any other State of the Union and no one in Kashmir has the right to demand separate Prime Minister for the State. He had denounced the ardent believers in the divisive and communally-motivated concepts of autonomy and self-rule. Remember, both these formulas advocate separation of Jammu and Kashmir from the political and Constitutional organization of India and re-establishment of a system as it existed in the State before August 9, 1953 - system under which the ruling elite exercised unbridled and absolute legislative, judicial and executive powers and the people had no say whatever in the governance of the State. In other words, there existed in the State before August 1953 local oligarchy. This is what the NC stands for even today. The reasons are obvious.
Now that the NC MP has defended Article 370, hailed Musharraf for his support to the highly communal and separatist autonomy committee report, reiterated that autonomy alone could resolve the Kashmir issue and end alienation of Kashmiri Muslims and castigated Lal Singh for his positive approach and attitude, it is time to expose and call the bluff of the NC which wants to ride roughshod over the sensitivities of the people of Jammu province and force down their throat, pernicious, regressive and intolerant ideology. The Kashmir-based NC leadership and its handful of supporters in Jammu province have already caused much irreparable damage to the State polity and jeopardized the legitimate rights and interests of the people of Jammu province. It's no wonder then that there exists distrust between the Kashmiri leadership and Jammu people. The NC leadership just cannot be allowed to do what it has been doing since years to outrage the nation and undermine the Indian position in Jammu and Kashmir.
Let Kashmir get what it wants. It is for the people of the Valley to accept or reject Article 370 which has not only empowered the State's ruling class to exploit this anti-people and anti-democratic Article for the sake of personal power and profit but has also deprived the common people of even those normal civil and political rights which are available to rest of the Indians under the Indian Constitution. If the people of Kashmir want to groan under the yoke of the arrogant and anti-democratic Kashmiri rule let them exercise that option. The people of Jammu have no objection and as for them, they are with Lal Singh and others of his ilk. They are not prepared to throw in their lot with the Kashmiri autonomists or those seeking the implementation of the Musharraf formula. They are religiously committed to India and they will not deviate even slightly from the path they have been treading since decades, notwithstanding what New Delhi and the parties like the Congress and the BJP have done to them till date.
Hence, let the people of Jammu province decide their own fate themselves independent of the Kashmiri leadership with whom they - barring a few disgruntled elements here and there -- have nothing to do. There is no justification for maintaining Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh as one political entity. This is a fact and the sooner we recognize it the better for Kashmir, Jammu, Ladakh and the nation as a whole.
One thing is very clear: The NC has lost its credibility and legitimacy and it is today known more for governance deficit and disconnect between the NC-led ragtag ruling coalition and the people than for anything else. It has no right to speak on behalf of the people of the State, as it doesn't represents the general will of the people; it represents the minority viewpoint. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
STOCK UPDATE |
|
|
 |
| BSE
Sensex |
 |
| NSE
Nifty |
|
|
| |
CRICKET UPDATE |
|
|
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
