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| Congress for special status, Article 370 | | CSC's Interim Report & BJP | | NEHA
JAMMU, June 16: The Cabinet Sub-Committee (CSC) on the Justice Sagheer Ahmad's report on the centre-state relations has submitted its interim report. The report was submitted two days ago. It will be tabled in the next cabinet meeting. Once approved, the state government would take up the issue with the Government of India for necessary action in the matter. The committee has, according to reports, clinched almost all the issues, barring the issue of greater autonomy. The autonomy issue would be discussed by the committee in its next meeting.
The CSC is headed by the NC ideologue and Finance Minister Abdul Rahim Rather, which has on it three Congress Cabinet Ministers. They are Revenue Minister Raman Bhalla, Health Minister Sham Lal Sharma and Irrigation Minister Taj Mohi-ud-Din. The committee also has on it two NC ministers, apart from Rather. They are Rural Development and Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ali Mohammad Sagar and Qamar Ali Akhoon. The committee was constituted in December 2010 immediately after the Sagheer Ahmad's report was submitted to the Chief Minister on December 23, 2009. It was an extraordinary development in the sense that the report was submitted to the Chief Minister, instead of the Prime Minister. Justice Ahmad led the fifth working group appointed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was charged with the task of looking into the centre-state relations and make necessary recommendations.
The CSC was given as many as six extensions after its formation. The CSC had held discussions on January 28, 2011; June 1, 2011; August 8, 2011; December 27, 2011; February 17, 2012 and March 29, 2012 but could not reach any agreement, as there was some "difference" of opinion between the Congress and NC ministers on the issue of autonomy. The Congress ministers had reportedly insisted in all these meetings that the Congress could not look beyond the 1975 Indira-Sheikh Abdullah Accord, whereas the NC ministers insisted that the state needed to be given the status it enjoyed till 1952: semi-independence or limited accession of the state with India with New Delhi exercising jurisdiction only over Defence, foreign affairs, communications and finance and the Kashmiri leadership taking care of all other subjects.
Reports emanating from Srinagar have suggested that the NC ministers have been able to bring on board the Congress ministers and that the latter have agreed that the state should not only enjoy a special status within the Union but Article 370 should also be strengthened. "Consensus has been evolved on more than 20 issues raised in by Justice Sagheer Ahmad in his report that also includes upholding of special status of Jammu & Kashmir by virtue of Article 370," one report from Srinagar has suggested.
If what has been reported in the Kashmiri press during the last couple of days is correct, then it can be said without any hesitation that the NC and the Congress are on the same page as far as their stand on special status for the state and Article 370 is concerned. Special status under the strengthened Article 370 means nothing but restoration of pre-1953 politico-constitutional status. The Congress ministers in the CSC have undoubtedly overlooked the bitter opposition in Jammu and Ladakh to the idea of the state enjoying special status under Article 370 to remain in the good books of the votaries of greater autonomy.
One can understand the support of Taj Mohi-ud-Din for what the NC stands because he has all along made common cause with Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, but one fails to understand why Sham Lal Sharma jumped on to the autonomists' bandwagon. As for the Revenue Minister, less said the better. It is indeed noteworthy that the BJP, which holds press conference on a daily basis to highlight various issues, has not spoken a word in favour of against this development. It appears the BJP has not found anything objectionable in the media reports on the interim report. The silence of the BJP is intriguing. |
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