| Indian state protecting separatists, says BJP MLC | | | Prof Hari Om
Jammu, June 17: On June 11, something very extraordinary happened in the Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Council, which, undoubtedly, put the powers-that-be in the State and at the Centre on the mat and exposed their soft approach to those in Kashmir, who in the name of right to self-determination or independence repeatedly bloodied and convulsed the State's political scene and disturbed its rather delicate socio-religious equilibrium.
The case in point is the blistering attack of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLC, Ajat Shatru Singh, on the Government of India and the PDP-BJP coalition Government in Jammu and Kashmir. Ajat Shatru Singh is son of Karan Singh, Congress veteran and Member of Rajya Sabha, and grandson of Maharaja Hari Singh, who acceded Jammu and Kashmir to India on October 26, 1947 invoking the power vested in him by the Indian Independence Act of 1947. His grouse against the authorities in the State and at the Centre was that while they singularly failed to provide security to the lawmakers, they spent a whopping sum of over Rs 500 crores to ensure the safety and security of Kashmiri separatists, as also for meeting their board and lodging expanses outside Jammu and Kashmir.
Criticising the Government of India and Jammu and Kashmir Government during the Zero hour, the BJP MLC said: "The Government of India and Jammu and Kashmir Government had spent a whopping Rs 560 crore on separatists in the past five years. The Government had failed to provide security to the legislators. The same Government has provided 950 Personal Security Officers (PSOs) to people who seek azadi from India. Not only that, the State also arranges vehicles for them during their air travel in as well as outside the State".
Tearing into the official policy vis-à-vis separatists, Ajat Shatru Singh further said: "From hotel to food to air tickets everything is being paid by the Government of India, while separatists holiday outside the State. On an average the Government of India spends around Rs 100 crore on separatists every year". He lamented, "while this Government, which spends on security, travel and other facilities on the Hurriyat people, it does provide proper security and transport facilities to the legislators of this House despite taking up the issue repeatedly with the concerned authorities".
Not contented with what Ajat shatru Singh said to question the official policy towards Kashmiri separatists, he went to the extent of saying that India is the only State in the world that protects those and meets all of their expanses in and outside the State who seek independence from India. "India is the only place in the world where people who are seeking separation from it, are also getting funds for their security and travel expenses".
The operative part of his whole intervention reads like this: "The Government should use the money it spends on separatists for development of health infrastructure rather than wasting it on them" (read separatists). Very interestingly, Deputy Chairman of the Legislative Council Jahangir Mir, who belongs to the Congress party, virtually taunted the Government by saying "Only India could afford such expenses in the world".
Earlier, a report from New Delhi quoting sources within Jammu and Kashmir Government had said that "close to 1,500 police officers have been deployed at the residences of these separatist leaders to act as their personal security officers and security officers. It had also further said that "this privilege has been extended even to other 'uncategorized political activists', who have a history of promoting separation of Kashmir from India'. According to officials, the amount had been spent from the Security Related Expenditure (SRE), which is provided by the Ministry of Home Affairs to the state government. Since the inception of the SRE scheme in 1989, the Centre had released Rs 7,207 crore, including Rs 4,735 crore for police expenditure.
Indeed, what the MLC said could be construed as the biggest ever attack launched by any senior member of the BJP. Perhaps, he is the first BJP leader across the country who mustered courage to hit nail on the head, take on his own party leadership, the PDP-BJP coalition Government in the State and the BJP-led NDA Government at the Centre and put things in perspective. Contrarily, all of his party colleagues in the Legislative Assembly and Legislative Council and the BJP as a party never ever questioned the official policy towards the separatists after the BJP, termed South Pole, and the People's Democratic Party (PDP), called North Pole, stitched alliance in February 2015 to form coalition Government on March 1 the same year. In fact, all the BJP leaders, including national, and all the BJP ministers and lawmakers in the State had consistently hailed the official policy towards separatists and denounced the media, especially private news channels, for blowing things out of proportion or by making mountain out of molehills. The stand of the top BJP leaders and ministers in New Delhi had been no different.
Ajat Shatru Singh is not an ordinary politician. He is a two-time MLA and he was also Cabinet Minister in the Government of Farooq Abdullah. It is obvious that he knows what transpires in the Cabinet meetings and how the policy decisions are taken. Hence, what he boldly said in the Legislative Council must be appreciated. Nothing would be more appropriate then that the Government of India and the Jammu and Kashmir Government should stop funding the seditionists. Such a step would go a long way in retrieving the situation in the State in general and the restive Kashmir Valley in particular. Even otherwise, the separatists needed to be brought to justice as they are anti-State and pro-Pakistan and have committed umpteen heinous crimes against the Indian State. |
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