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| Will ignored Jammu get its due in new regime? | | | Early times Report
JAMMU, Mar 25: People of Jammu province have been exercising their right to franchise since 1952 hoping that their representatives would fight for the political and economic rights in the Parliament, Legislative Assembly and Legislative Council, but with no result. Even the national parties like the Congress and the BJP failed them, betrayed their trust and played cheap petty games to promote their own selfish interests and promoted the Kashmiri interests. So much so, almost all of them directly and indirectly only served the cause of Kashmir and played second fiddle to Kashmiri leadership. That's the reason that the people of Jammu province blame their own representatives more than the Kashmiri leadership for their miserable plight, neglect and marginalization.
The latest example is the kind of treatment the people of Jammu province got from the BJP, which till May 2014 was only a marginal outfit in the region having its support base confined basically to Jammu district and a couple of few other places. Notwithstanding the fact that the Sangh Parivar had been active in this province since many decades, it could not impress the Jammu people and the Jammu electorate. It was only in 2014 that the Sangh Parivar of which the BJP is political organ that it could create history of sorts by winning 25 seats out of 37 in Jammu region. It happened not because the people of the region had developed any liking for the BJP. It happened because of the Modi phenomenon, which had clicked in most parts of the country because the Narendra Modi as the BJP's Prime Ministerial candidate had promised moon to everyone in the country, including the people of Jammu province. Another additional factor was that Narendra Modi had become the country's Prime Minister.
The fact is that the Modi charisma and his elevation to the position of the Prime Minister helped the J&K BJP inflict humiliating defeat on the Congress, the NC, the PDP and the JKNPP. The third factor that improved the poll prospects of the BJP in Jammu province was the so-called Vision Document that the party released when the election campaign in the region was in full swing. The Vision Document held out several commitments to the people of Jammu region, including the non-Muslim minorities, internally-displaced Kashmiri Hindus, refugees from PoJK, ex-army men, women-folk, Scheduled Tribes, Scheduled Castes and the Jammu youth. All these segments of society appreciated the Vision Document and swung solidly behind the BJP and the result was its great victory - a victory that rattled the Kashmiri leaders, both mainstream and separatist as well as Pakistan because they had never ever imagined that the Hindu candidates will score impressive victories in four out of six Assembly seats in the erstwhile Doda district. The victory also indicated that there was total mobilization of the nationalist forces in the region against those in Kashmir who had in collaboration with New Delhi deprived them of their all rights and had sought to communalise the Jammu society through their perverted ideology and perverse propaganda against the nationalist forces in the State. Indeed, the 2014 mandate in Jammu was a mandate for empowerment of the people of the region, complete integration of the region with India and against the fissiparous tendencies.
No one had ever imagined that the BJP would squander the mandate and ditch its own constituency and all those who abandoned the parties like the Congress, the NC and the JKNPP to strengthen the hands of PM Modi, but the BJP took no time to change colours and sides. To fulfill its lust for power and pelf, the BJP leadership in the State and at the Centre conspired against them and surrendered everything to Kashmir like the Congress had consistently done before 2014 to make common cause with its Kashmiri masters and stab the people of Jammu region from the back. In fact, the BJP left the Congress far behind to establish that it was more anti-Jammu than the Congress. The BJP not only kept the people of Jammu region virtually out of the political and administrative institutions, but also alarmed the nationalists in the State by endorsing the Kashmiri view that J&K was a disputed region and the Army and NHPC-controlled power projects as symbols of the oppressive India, that the AFSPA was a draconian law and that it was necessary to consider Pakistan and Kashmiri separatists as "stakeholders in the State".
The fact of the matter is that the BJP negated the Vision document and did exactly the opposite, thus injuring shamelessly the sensitivities of the nationalists. The conduct of those who became part of the Government was so irresponsible and humiliating that the people of Jammu province, barring the rank opportunists, condemned the BJP and its leadership at the State and national level in downright language.
Now that the BJP has again taken the plunge to join the State Government, it is time for it to retrospect, tender an unconditional apology not only to the people of Jammu region but also the nation for the crimes it committed after winning the mandate and compensate its constituency for the massive political, social and economic losses it suffered under its gross misrule. It must see to it that Jammu region and Kashmir Valley are treated equally. It should also ensure that the office of the Chief Minister is held by Jammu region for half of the remaining term. This is the minimum that the BJP must do. But the question is: Will it do it? It is difficult to answer this question as the BJP leadership has proved by its actions and words that it is utterly undependable. |
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