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| BJP continues to play foul with Hindu community | | Jazya on pilgrimage | | Early Times Report
JAMMU, Sept 10: It was on September 2 that Finance Minister in the PDP-BJP coalition Government Haseeb Drabu imposed 12.50 per cent service tax on Mata Vaishno Devi pilgrimage. As expected, the decision outraged the religious sensitivities of the Hindu community across the nation. Even the so-called secular parties, including the Congress and the National Conference, registered their emphatic protest against the provocative decision. They found in it an invaluable opportunity to expose the BJP and further lower its position in the eyes of its own constituency in Jammu and retrieve the lost ground in Jammu region. None had ever expected that the Congress would term the so-called service tax on heli-tickets as "Jazya tax", which was imposed on the Hindus during the Mughal rule, especially Mughal ruler Aurangzeb, but the Congress actually did that. Not only the NC and the Congress, almost all the political groups operating in Jammu and even Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), also condemned the decision. The VHP even threatened a nation-wide protest to force the PDP-BJP coalition Government to withdraw what it called "Jazya". Not only this, a number of groups held protest demonstrations in different parts of Jammu. Some of them included the Panthers Party, the Shiv Sena and Dogra Front.
Eight turbulent days in Jammu have passed but nothing has moved the PDP-BJP coalition Government. On the contrary, the Finance Minister has defended the decision not once but twice and accused its critics of communalizing the issue for no reason. He has made it loud and clear that he would not rescind the controversial decision. In between, the BJP, which is known in Jammu region as a "Kashmir-centric and anti-Jammu party" and also as a party that has betrayed the Jammu cause for enjoying power, also issued a couple of statements and held a couple of press conferences to further mislead and hoodwink the aggrieved Hindu community.
Deputy Chief Minister Nirmal Singh made a casual remark that the service tax would be done away with soon. State BJP president Jugal Kishore Sharma also made a statement to tell the aggrieved Hindu community that the BJP had placed its point of view before the Chief Minister and asked the BJP Ministers and legislators to do the needful. The party Chief spokesperson Sunil Sethi held two press conferences to convey an impression that the BJP had nothing to do with the decision, that the BJP was not taken into confidence before taking the highly condemnable decision and that it wanted the State Government to withdraw the decision. Even one BJP national spokesperson Srikant Sharma told media in New Delhi that the BJP disapproved of the decision and that the BJP wanted the State Government to rollback it forthwith. One BJP member of the Rajya Sabha from Jammu too made an attempt to identify himself with the aggrieved Hindu community. Not just this, on Wednesday, the BJP fielded one Muslim leader to create an impression that the entire BJP stood solidly behind the outraged Hindu community.
It now appears that all the statements made by various BJP leaders and press conferences addressed by the BJP spokespersons were only desperate attempts on their party to tell the people that the BJP was pious and clean. Today, the BJP as a party stands exposed in the eyes of the people, who have finally come to realize that the BJP was a party to the decision. "Had the BJP not been a party to the decision, the Finance Minister would have surely rolled back the decision", said an alienated supporter of the BJP. He also added "don't trust the BJP, as it has sold out its conscience and self-respect". "The BJP is systematically destroyed itself in Jammu region and rest of the country by following a worst type of appeasement policy," he further said, and added that "it is good that BJP has exposed itself in a short span of six months". His whole charge against the BJP was that it "ditched the people of Jammu region several times during the last six months" and that 'it has stooped so low that it would ditch them again and again to continue to cling to power which it got by default". But what this estranged supporter of the BJP told this correspondent was what the people of Jammu region, cutting across party lines, believe in. |
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