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| Will Jammu trust Congress anymore? | | Congress and regional council | | Neha
Early Times Report
JAMMU, Jan 12: The Congress, which was decimated by the alienated Jammu electorate in the just-held assembly elections, has, it seems, not learned any lesson for its highly humiliating defeat. The Congress, which had won 17 seats in 2002 and 13 in 2008 in assembly elections in Jammu, could win only five seats out of 37 into which Jammu province is territorially divided for the purpose of constituting J&K assembly. This was its worst performance. What was even more worse was that its not a single Hindu candidate could make it to the assembly. In the eleventh assembly, the Congress had 7 Hindu MLAs -- all from Jammu -- five of whom became ministers in the Omar Abdullah-led hotchpotch government. Four belonged to Jammu district alone and one to Kathua district.
The drubbing the Congress received in the assembly elections and the manner in which the Hindu electorate of Jammu province reduced it to the status of a marginal political player should have been used as an opportunity to win back the trust of the Jammu electorate by adopting a positive attitude. But it was not to be. The directionless, leaderless and issueless Congress continues to tread the same old path taking the people of Jammu province for a ride. The case in point is what one former minister, who suffered a massive defeat this time at the hands of the BJP, said on Sunday to hoodwink and mislead the people of Jammu province, who are already seething with anger because anti-Jammu forces conspired against them to bar them from playing an important role in the government formation in the wake of the fractured mandate.
The Congress leader not only sided with those in Kashmir who had been terming the BJP as a communal and divisive organization by using the same language against the BJP, but also in a way abused those in Jammu province who voted overwhelmingly for the BJP candidates not only in the Hindu-majority constituencies but also in those constituencies where the proportion of the two communities was almost evenly balanced. Besides, he accused the BJP of hijacking the Hurriyat agenda. One may or may not like the BJP, but no one can charge the BJP with hijacking the Hurriyat agenda - agenda that is out and out anti-India, anti-minorities, obnoxious and dangerous. Similarly, no one would trust the Congress leadership which on Sunday promised an empowered regional council for the discriminated against Jammu province. No one would trust the Congress and give any credence to its commitment because the Congress had in its election manifestos of 2002 and 2008 held out a similar promise but had done nothing whatsoever to honour its commitment. In 2002, the Congress election manifesto had promised regional development board and in 2008 regional council. Instead of fulfilling the solemn pledges, the Congress threw in its lot with the Kashmiri parties and plated games which further harmed the interests of Jammu people.
There are instances and instances to quote and show that the Congress bartered the interests of Jammu people to keep the Kashmiri leadership in good humour and enjoy the loaves and fishes of office at the cost of its core constituency in Jammu. Suffice to refer its negative attitude towards the demand in Jammu for the constitution of delimitation commission, demand for Dogra certificate, fair share in the service sector, funds for development in Jammu province, refugees and so on. Again, it is the same Congress party that had snatched in June 2008 the piece of land at Baltal in Kashmir from the Shrine Board to pander to the communalists and anti-Jammu forces in the Valley and that none other former Union Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad who immediately after the formation of the coalition government in the state in November 2002 had publicly declared that "there is no need for the establishment of regional development board in Jammu as the state has development boards at the district levels".
The times have changed and the people of Jammu province know who is who, who has done what for their region and who has harmed their interests. It would be suicidal if the Congress plays the same old games in Jammu. |
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