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| BJP has different stands on different regions | | Against Jammu | | NEHA
JAMMU, June 4: The Congress party, like the National Conference and other Kashmiri parties, is also known for its bias against the people of Jammu Pradesh, notwithstanding the fact that they constitute its core constituency in the state. It is essentially Kashmir-centric and it will ever remain so. The people of Jammu province are aware of this fact. In fact, they are angry with the Congress leadership. But they are also not happy with the BJP. There are valid reasons for them to criticize the BJP and also dub it as anti-Jammu organization.
The accusation of the people of Jammu that the BJP has, like the Congress, also let down them cannot be dismissed as something preposterous. The accusation is not preposterous; the accusation appears to be well-founded. Take, for example, the attitude of the BJP leadership towards Ladakh and Kashmir. The BJP leadership is very clear as far as its stand on the cold-desert Ladakh is concerned. It has been since years extending unstinted support to those in Ladakh who have been seeking the status of Union Territory for their region saying that they have nothing in common with Kashmir and that they do not want to have any kind of truck with the Kashmiri leadership because the latter is essentially communal and anti-Indian Constitution. The BJP has been supporting the UT demand deliberately overlooking the fact that the grant of UT status would mean complete separation of Ladakh from Kashmir, an argument the BJP leadership advances while opposing the demand in Jammu for its empowerment.
The BJP has not only been supporting the Ladakhi demand, but it has also been hobnobbing with the Kashmiri votaries of greater autonomy and self-rule. So much so, the BJP-led NDA Government had even agreed to grant "maximum possible autonomy to Kashmir and its adjoining areas". In other words, it had agreed to help the votaries of Great Kashmir by endorsing and giving an effect to the archaic divisive and communal Chenab formula. The Chenab formula provides for the division of Jammu Pradesh along the Chenab river on communal lines. It is different that it couldn't implement the Chenab formula. The reason was the political instability in Pakistan. The very fact that the BJP has appreciated the exclusivist "Kashmiriyat" is an indication that it can go to any extent to please the Kashmiri leadership and its supporters. "Kashmiriyat" stands for a dispensation outside the Indian Constitution.
As for Jammu Pradesh, the BJP has nothing to offer. There was a time when it used to demand regional development board/regional council for Jammu Pradesh, but that became a story of the past years ago. Its 2002 and 2008 election manifestos were vague as far as the issue of empowerment of Jammu Pradesh was concerned. In 2002, the BJP had vaguely suggested reorganization of the state in its election manifesto. Believe it or not, but it is a fact that the BJP's 2008 election manifesto didn't even promise a sham regional development board/regional council for Jammu Pradesh. (As for the Congress, it had promised regional development board in 2002 and regional council in 2008, but did nothing whatsoever to fulfill its solemn commitments.)
It needs to be underlined that the BJP leadership, like the RSS, its mentor, is of the view that the establishment of regional council in Jammu would help Pakistan grab Kashmir. (The argument of the opponents of the idea of regional council in Kashmir is that the establishment of regional councils for Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh would lead to the disintegration of the state.) Is it not a contradiction of sorts? Indeed, it is.
How could the BJP support the Ladakhi demand seeking UT status and oppose the demand in Jammu seeking empowerment through a definite political instrument? But it has been opposing the demand in Jammu for its real and effective political empowerment on the ground that such an empowerment would mean handing over Kashmir to Pakistan on a platter. The fact of the matter is that the BJP has damaged Jammu more than any other political party.
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