Early Times Report
JAMMU, Dec 13: Congress leader and former minister Sham Lal Sharma has come out with a solution to the Jammu problem. Jammu province is the most neglected region in the country. It has no or little say in the governance of the state, despite the fact that Jammu is bigger than Kashmir, it generates and pays more revenue, its population is equal to Kashmir, if not more, and is also the region that was at the helm of affairs between March 1846 and 1947.
The Jammu's political class and New Delhi have been responsible for the neglect and backwardness of Jammu province, as they give a preferential treatment to the Valley, which houses a class of people who browbeats and blackmails India by questioning the state's political status vis-à-vis India and by inciting communal and anti-India passions in Kashmir.
The BJP and the BJP-led government at the centre have been no different. In fact, they are worse than the Congress and the governments at the centre which ruled India before May 26, 2014. The BJP, which is part of the state government and the BJP, which has been ruling India since May 26, 2014, has excluded Jammu province from the state government to the extent that it doesn't have a single important department/portfolio and the BJP has ditched the people of the province, notwithstanding the fact that they gave the BJP a status in J&K. The so-called pro-Hindutva RSS is also a party to what the BJP has been doing to appease the separatists, communalists and votaries of Article 370 in Kashmir.
Sham Lal Sharma, who on December 6, 2010 had demanded trifurcation of the state, batted for Hindu Chief Minister from Jammu on August 22, 2014 and invoked Dogra identity and asked people of Jammu on October 9, 2014 not to play second-fiddle to Kashmir, on Fridaysuggested that the establishment of a regional council for Jammu province had become imperative.
"Jammu can attain financial independence by establishing a regional council. The situation cannot be addressed without thinking on these lines. People have realized that the BJP, which claimed to be the real representatives of people of Jammu, has done no justice to Jammu's cause," he told a national daily of repute. The people of Jammu have not forgotten what he had said at Bani in Kathua district on December 6, 2010 in the presence of the then JKPCC chief Saif-ud-Din Soz and a number of Congress ministers. He had said: "Give freedom to Kashmir, that's more beneficial. Give separate statehood status to Jammu and make Ladakh a union territory. If this state has to be developed, this is the only solution".
The demand for regional council or the state's trifurcation in Jammu is not new. It is quite old. In fact, a number of parties and political groups demanded regional council for Jammu from time to time. Even the BJP, which failed and let down the people of Jammu province in its desperate bid to befriend Kashmiri leadership and enjoy some power, thrice adopted resolutions demanding regional council.
The fact of the matter is that there is general consensus among the people of Jammu region, especially the Hindus, who constitute almost 80 per cent of the region's population, that Jammu needs a political instrument invested with legislative, administrative and financial powers. The Panthers Party, which used to fight for such an instrument, has changed its goal; it now demands the status of statehood for Jammu province. One thing is clear: Jammu province is destined to have its own independent instrument. The things are moving towards that direction. |
