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Jaitley did plain-speaking, advocated full integration
Returning to pre-1998 Era
7/8/2012 12:37:29 AM
Neha
JAMMU, July 7: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has, it seems, decided to ignore the Atal Behari Vajpayee's Jammu & Kashmir doctrine and purse a line it used to purse before 1998, when it formed National Democratic Alliance (NDA) Government after compromising its core ideology. Vajpayee had abandoned the party's age-old ideology and sought to cultivate Pakistani and Kashmiri separatists, besides the so-called mainstream Kashmiri leaders, by compromising the Indian position on Jammu & Kashmir. Besides, he had reassured the Kashmiri Muslim leadership that Article 370 shall remain a permanent feature of the Indian Constitution. He had not only started the so-called peace process with Pakistan overlooking the 2001 terrorist attack on the Indian Parliament as well as other deadly attacks in various Indian cities, but also once snubbed the people of Jammu saying "inko roney ki aadat padh gai hai". He had snubbed the people of Jammu in Jammu itself at Abhinav Theatre where the party gave him civic reception. He had practically snubbed those who referred to the gross discrimination with Jammu.
That the BJP appears to have distanced itself from the Vajpayee line became clear yesterday, when Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley articulated the party line during his speech and interaction with reporters in Jammu. Jaitley, along with other senior BJP leaders, had come to Jammu to lay foundation stone of Shyama Prasad Mookerjee Bhawan. When fully constructed, the State unit of BJP will function from this Bhawan. Jaitley during his interaction with reports touched upon several issues. He took on the Jamaat-e-Islami, which three days ago issued dress code for domestic and foreign tourists visiting Kashmir and asked the State Government to act against this and similar other outfits involved in subversive and anti-state activities. "These organizations are always trying to create disruptive activities in the State and the State Government should crush them with full might," Jaitley told reporters. Indeed, he advocated a very strong line.
Jaitley took on the first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and held him and the Congress party squarely responsible for creating problem for India in Jammu & Kashmir, which had acceded to India in terms of Constitutional law on the subject. He said Nehru only handled the princely State of Jammu & Kashmir and he bungled. The nation is paying through its nose because of the Nehru's blunder. Jaitley had all the praise for the then Home Minister Sardar Patel. He said, and very rightly, that Patel tackled all other 560-odd princely States displaying his political and administrative skills and described his contribution to the process of national integration as splendid and spectacular. Besides, Jaitley questioned Nehru for hobnobbing with the sectarian Kashmiri leadership and said he further complicated the issue of Jammu & Kashmir by granting special status to it under Article 370. Article 370 has only created problems for the people of the State, he said, and added that it is because of this Article that the people across the country refuse to invest in this border State. "Article 370 is the main hurdle in the way of Jammu & Kashmir's progress and had this Article not been there, the investors in he country could have visited Kashmir to invest which would had boost the economy of the State, including Kashmir Valley, and provide employment to youth," he, in fact, said. He recalled that Nehru had assured the nation that the special status of Jammu & Kashmir will erode with the passage of time and bemoaned that this has not happened. Clearly, Jaitley rejected the Vajpayee doctrine.
The Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha did not forget to air his views on Pakistan and Kashmiri separatists. Taking on Pakistan, he said that ever since its emergence in August 1947, Pakistan has been trying to annex Kashmir and that it unleashed a low-intensity proxy war in the State after it failed to annex Kashmir through three full-scale wars on India. Pakistan will never realize its goal in Kashmir, he said. His attack on Kashmiri secessionists was no less scathing. He suggested that these extremists must be "crushed with iron hands" and, at the same time, criticized the "weak-kneed and defective policies of the Congress-led UPA Government". "The weak-kneed and defective policies of the Union Government have only aggravated the situation in Kashmir," he said, and very rightly. He also made a very valid point when he said that "militants know it fully well that they will get isolated and marginalized in peace and that's the reason they are trying to create disturbances by exploiting common people to protect and promote their vested interests". (To be continued)
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