news details |
|
|
| BJP communal & NC represents people, says Kamaal | | | EARLY TIMES REPORT
JAMMU, July 8: "BJP is a communal organization. It plays with the sentiments of Hindus of Jammu. It was responsible for the 2008 Amarnath land row". NC additional general secretary Sheikh Mustafa Kamaal said so the other day at Vijaypur while addressing a NC rally and asserted that the NC is not only secular but it also represents the will of the people of the state. He didn't refer to what his nephew Omar Abdullah said in the Lok Sabha on the circumstances leading to a conflict between the nationalists and Kashmiri communalists of all varieties, plus the Kashmir Bar Association and members of the so-called civil society and Kashmiri commentators, in June 2008. Omar Abdullah had said, "Kashmir belongs to us. We will not give an inch of land to the Shrine Board".
The NC additional general secretary also did not refer to the U-turn his brother Farooq Abdullah took on the issue. Farooq Abdullah had first defended the government decision to transfer land at Baltal to the Shrine Board but took no time in taking a complete U-turn under pressure from fanatics like Geelani, Mirwaiz, Malik, Shah, to mention only a few or to pander to constituency in Kashmir.
He conveniently forgot to tell the audience that it was the NC which provoked the people of Jammu to take on the narrow-minded Kashmiri leadership and unleash a relentless campaign calculated to force the Congress-led coalition government to transfer the Baltal land to the Shrine Board on a permanent basis. It was the Omar Abdullah's provocative Lok Sabha statement that had resulted in the suicide of Verma at the Parade Ground, Jammu, a day later. About a dozen nationalists in Jammu had sacrificed their lives for the cause of Amarnath. Samba alone witnessed four young people making supreme sacrifices. The police shot dead these young persons. Vijaypur itself was one of the main storm centres.
He also forgot to tell the audience that it was the Congress which was one of the main causes responsible for the conflict. It was the Congress which ordered transfer of the Baltal land to the Shrine Board on a temporary basis for creating facilities for the Amarnath yatris during the yatra period. It took this step because it had been left with no other option by the Jammu & Kashmir High Court. But, like the NC, the Congress also took a U-turn under pressure from fanatics and withdrew the transfer land order. It was nothing but a contempt of court. The High Court did not take cognizance of this action on the part of the Congress government, but the people of Jammu did. They created a situation that led to the fall of the Congress-led minority government in no time. Such was the anger of the people of Jammu.
To describe the BJP as communal for the role it played during those eventful days would not be fair. To do so would be only to the very nationalist and secular credentials of the people of Jammu. Even otherwise, the NC has no moral right to preach secularism in Jammu. For, it is a party which is termed as communal by many across the country, including Jammu and Ladakh. Besides, it, according to many, subscribes to ideology that preaches "intolerance and hatred among the communities" and holds the Muslims of Kashmir aloof from the national mainstream.
The BJP might have committed many acts of omission and commission. The BJP might have failed Jammu. Indeed, it has failed Jammu many a time and committed several acts of omission and commission. But the BJP cannot be described as a communal organization. It played the role it needed to play in 2008. It appears that the NC additional general secretary has not forgotten that it was the BJP-led NDA government that had rejected the NC's autonomy resolution in 2000 and threw it in the dustbin. It is different that Omar Abdullah did not come out of the Vajpayee government and continued to hold the ministerial office. Kamaal would do well to reflect on all these facts. Besides, he would do well to acknowledge that NC is not even a state-level party; it is a party which has its support-base confined to about 18 out of 47 assembly constituencies in Kashmir. It's claim that it represent the will of the people the state doesn't carry any conviction. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
STOCK UPDATE |
|
|
 |
| BSE
Sensex |
 |
| NSE
Nifty |
|
|
| |
CRICKET UPDATE |
|
|
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
