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| BJP Ministers couldn't muster courage to oppose tax on pilgrims | | Remained silent during Cabinet meeting | | Early Times Report
srinagar, Sept 16: The BJP was informed about the Government decision of imposing tax on Mata Vaishno Devi pilgrimage on September 7 when the State Cabinet met.
However, the information was furnished after five days of imposition of the tax.
It has been reliably learnt that the BJP Ministers could not muster courage to strongly denounce the arbitrary decision of the Finance Ministry. "All the BJP Ministers, including Deputy Chief Minister Dr Nirmal Singh, voted to power by people of Jammu, miserably failed to express resentment over the issue," the sources said.
Insiders said the Cabinet meeting was a golden opportunity for the BJP to force the Ministry to revoke the orders. "But the fact is that nobody from the BJP team mustered courage to confront Drabu, as if they all were his slaves and he their king," said sources privy to the meeting held at the Civil Secretariat here.
They said the Deputy Chief Minister is acting like a lame duck simply asked the Chief Minister Mufti Muhammad Sayeed "if the decision could be reconsidered." Singh didn't speak anything beyond that.
Observers said had Dr Singh and his team shown some resistance, the matter would have been resolved there and then. "No Ministry can issue orders, which the Cabinet disapproves… By virtue of this fact had the BJP pleaded the case strongly, Drabu would have been forced to go for revocation of orders," the observers said.
But in reality Drabu remained so reluctant to revoke the decision even before his Cabinet colleagues, that the BJP Ministers accused of being "power hungry" preferred to eat a humble pie.
The BJP seems to be stooping so low to fight for the cause of millions of devotees of Mata Vaishno Devi pilgrimage that till now none of them even sought clear cut revocation of the orders. All they have been saying till now is that Government should "reconsider" the orders.
As the political history of the Jammu and Kashmir goes it has most often been the Cabinet meetings which decided the fate of the Governments. "There have been scores of instances that if one ministry was not ready to accept the Government decision, the meeting used to aborted half way. But in this case the BJP Ministers out of their inexperience and lust for power compromised on everything," said a group of senior officials at the Civil Secretariat.
Despite repeated attempts the Deputy Chief Minister could not be contacted for comments. But the BJP spokesman Khalid Jehangir said the party Ministers had demanded revocation of orders at the Cabinet meeting. But he couldn't give any convincing explanation on the matter. "Drabu has to take the final call," Jehangir said.
Since the issuance of the orders to impose tax on Mata Vaishno Devi pilgrimage and subsequent failure at the Cabinet meeting, the BJP has even not bothered to submit a formal memorandum before the PDP led Government.
The BJP has confined its condemnation to "lip service". Ironically this is the callous attitude of the party towards a sensitive matter concerning faith of millions of devotees, particularly Jammu people when even the Muslim leaders of Kashmir have condemned the imposition of tax of Hindu pilgrimage.
Last week, the Kashmir Economic Alliance Chairman Mohammed Yasin Khan issued a formal statement to condemn the imposition of tax on the Mata Vaishno Devi pilgrimage. He appealed the Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Chief Minister Mufti Mohammed Sayeed to personally look into the matter. |
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