Early Times Report
JAMMU, May 11: The BJP in its Vision Document also said that it, if voted to power, would "issue Dogra Certificate to the eligible youth"; ensure that the ST communities, including Gujjar, Bakerwals, Sippis and Gaddis are brought at par with their counterparts in the rest of the country"; "grant citizenship rights, including the right to vote in Assembly and local-bodies' elections, right to immovable property, right to higher and technical education, right to state government jobs, to the refugees from West Pakistan"; "reserve five seats for PoJK refugees out of 24 left vacant in the Assembly for PoJK and three for displaced Kashmiris out of 46 seats earmarked for Kashmir Valley"; and "initiate the process of just and honourable re-settlement of Kashmiri Hindus in Kashmir valley with security and dignity".
None of these solemn commitments was included in the Agenda of Alliance. No reference was made to Dogra Certificate. In fact, the first thing that the government did was to announce in the assembly that no Dogra Certificates will be issued to the eligible youth. The BJP willingly and happily became party to the anti-Dogra decision. It, like the Congress, ditched the Dogras to please its Kashmiri masters.
The BJP also failed to mention in the Agenda of Alliance that the government will ensure that the ST communities, including Gujjar, Bakerwals, Sippis and Gaddis are brought at par with their counterparts in the rest of the country. On the contrary, the BJP joined hands with its new ally and promised in the Agenda of Alliance that the Paharis will be granted Scheduled Tribe status. By Paharis, the BJP didn't mean the entire population of the state, which like HP people, are Paharis. By it, it meant the people who inhabit areas like Poonch and Rajouri in Jammu and Baramulla and Kupwara in Kashmir.
The BJP had all through opposed the Paharis' demand for ST status on the ground that such a status could not be granted to any community on the basis of language. Pahari is also not a language. The language the people of the referred to areas is Pathowari.
The BJP in its Vision Document had said: It will grant citizenship rights, including the right to vote in Assembly and local-bodies' elections, right to immovable property, right to higher and technical education, right to state government jobs, to the refugees from West Pakistan, but the Agenda of Alliance only talked about sustenance and livelihood of the refugees from West Pakistan. The BJP leader and Deputy Chief Minister Nirmal Singh himself said that citizenship rights could not be granted to these refugees as the state has its own citizenship laws. In other words, the BJP conducted itself in the manner the Congress and the Kashmiri parties conducted themselves during all these years of these refugees' stay in Jammu.
Similarly, the BJP didn't think it politically prudent to include a commitment that the government will reserve five seats for PoJK refugees out of 24 left vacant in the Assembly for PoJK and three for displaced Kashmiris out of 46 seats earmarked for Kashmir Valley. The BJP used this slogan to the extent possible, misled the PoJK refugees and the internally-displaced Kashmiri Hindus, got votes from them and ditched them to cultivate the Kashmiri leadership.
There was a hue and cry in the Valley after the BJP released its Vision Document. Likewise, the BJP had promised that it will initiate the process of just and honourable re-settlement of Kashmiri Hindus in Kashmir valley with security and dignity, but took a complete U-turn after the formation of the government. First it talked of a separate township for them in the Valley and then talked about some composite township for them after the Kashmiri separatists and other Valley leaders opposed the separate township proposal. Kashmiri separatists and others in Kashmir also opposed the composite township proposal and the BJP-led NDA Government then announced in the Lok Sabha that there was no proposal for township for the KPs in the Valley. In fact, the BJP exposed itself by taking a U-turn after U-turn on the return issue, thus establishing that it was not committed to what it had promised in the Vision Document.
All this shows that the BJP did one thing before the elections to garner votes and did exactly the opposite after joining the government. The prevailing anger in Jammu needs to be viewed in this context. There are cogent reasons to believe that the BJP will suffer huge political losses in case it continues to go against the Jammu's mandate. The people of Jammu have not voted for the BJP to suffer more losses and become irrelevant. (Concluded) |
