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| 'Special status boosts separatists' morale' | | BJP of confusion | | Early Times Report
JAMMU, Sept 5: the BJP has finally endorsed the view that the special status that the State of Jammu & Kashmir enjoys within the Indian Union under Article 370 has been responsible for the rise of separatism in the Kashmir Valley. It was none other than senior BJP leader and Deputy Chief Minister Nirmal Singh who endorsed this view of the nationalists and integrationists and the marginalized people of Jammu region and Ladakh, besides the people across the nation at far off Goa on Thursday. "Jammu and Kashmir's special status has had a psychological impact. People feel that they are not fully part of the mainstream. This has boosted the morale of separatists," he told reporters at a press conference.
The people outside Kashmir have all along held the view that the grant of special status to the state has raised a high wall between Kashmir and the rest of the country and it has also given the people to understand that Kashmiri Muslims are a race apart and Jammu & Kashmir not an integral part of India to the same extent as other states of the Union. They also hold the view that it is because of the state's special status that Jammu region and Ladakh have been suffering from discriminatory policies and that all the troubles that the nation faces in Kashmir Valley are because of Article 370 that bars New Delhi from intervening to set things right in the state. In fact, the people of the country, barring the vested interests in Kashmir, hold the view that it is the special status that has hampered the process of the state's integration into India, harmed the interests of the nation in the state and reduced the non-Kashmiris in the state to a nullity for all practical purposes.
Significantly, the BJP and its mentor RSS, also held the same view till October 2014. It was only after October 2014 that the RSS and the BJP abandoned its core ideology in their desperate bid to "break the jinx" in Jammu & Kashmir and come into power. And ever since then, the BJP and Sangh Parivar have been at the receiving end across the country with their arch-rivals repeatedly accusing them of bartering away their ideology for the sake of power.
Interestingly, Nirmal Singh heads the group that has been charged by Chief Minister Mufti Sayeed with the responsibility of ensuring implementation of the Common Minimum Programme (CMP) that not only maintains the existing political and constitutional status the state enjoys under Article 370 of the Indian Constitution but also recognizes the separatists as stakeholders in Jammu & Kashmir. It says that all efforts would be made by the state government to involve the separatists in the process to be initiated for restoring peace and normalcy in the state and resolving the Kashmir issue. It acknowledges that the two coalition partners have different views on Article 370 and, at the same time, it appreciates the point of view of the PDP that stands for the state's special status and also wants the Government of India to further strengthen it. "While recognizing the different positions and appreciating the perceptions BJP and PDP have on the constitutional status of J&K considering the political and legislative realities, the present position will be maintained on all the constitutional provisions pertaining to J&K including the special status in the Constitution of India," it says, adding that "the coalition government will facilitate and help initiate a sustained and meaningful dialogue with all internal stakeholders, which will include all political groups irrespective of their ideological views and predilections" and "This dialogue will seek to build a broad based consensus on resolution of all outstanding issues of J&K".
What will Nirmal Singh do now after what he said at Goa? Will he stick to the stand he took on Thursday or will he discharge the duty assigned to him by the Chief Minister? His task has become very difficult. It has become difficult for all those because the RSS during the three-day-long coordination committee meeting of the Sangh Parivar in New Delhi reportedly asked the BJP to start to promote discussion on Article 370. |
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