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| BJP out to destroy J&K, beware of it | | | EARLY TIMES REPORT
JAMMU, Aug 18: Who says the National Conference (NC) alone is anti-Jammu? Who says both the NC and the People's Democratic Party (PDP) are anti-Jammu? Who says the NC and the PDP, like other Kashmiri separatist organis-ations, want a separate dispensation? Who says the BJP is a pro-Jammu and anti-autonomy? Who says the BJP is for the delimitation of the assembly constituencies in J&K, as also for the empowerment of Jammu? Those who say that the BJP is pro-Jammu and anti-autonomy are totally wrong. They are blissfully ignorant about the today's BJP's credentials. Those who say that the BJP is for the empowerment of Jammu are also absolutely wrong.
The fact is that the today's BJP is no different from the Kashmir-based and Kashmir-centric political parties, which have been working overtime to accentuate schism between the state and New Delhi and jeopardise the legitimate political and economic rights of the people of Jammu province and Ladakh region and the displaced Kashmiri Pandits.
A brief description here of just four instances would be enough to lay bare the disparities between what the BJP has actually done in the past and what it now says. Only the other day (August 11), the state BJP president and Leader of the BJP Legislature Party held a press conference to issue clarification on behalf of the Prime Minister. The clarification was that the Prime Minister didn't talk about autonomy during the All-Party Meeting, held in New Delhi on August 10. On August 13, the cornered BJP president wrote an open letter to the Prime Minister asking him to explain as to what exactly was his stand on autonomy. The State BJP president took this step when he found that the people of Jammu province were extremely angry with the Prime Minister because of his statement on autonomy.
The manner in which the BJP leaders conducted themselves indicated one thing. Either they failed to understand the meaning of what the Prime Minister said or they were sleeping during the meeting. Whatever the case, they failed Jammu; they failed Ladakh; and they failed the displaced Kashmiri Pandits. They played a dubious role for reasons best known to them.
The opportunist and unscrupulous BJP leadership is undoubtedly undoing all that the founder of the Jana Sangh, Dr Syama Prasad Mookerjee did to integrate Jammu and Kashmir with India. The BJP has forgotten Mookerjee came all the way from Delhi to Srinagar violating the permit system to sacrifice his life in Kashmir for the Indian cause. For the opportunist, power-hungry and unscrupulous BJP leaders, Syhama Prasad Mookerjee and his contribution and sacrifice have become a story of the past. It's no wonder that the BJP state president Shamsher Singh Manhas joined the press conference addressed by none other than Chief Minister Omar Abdullah where he challenged the accession of the state to India by asking New Delhi to "address the external and internal dimension" of Jammu and Kashmir. It is, however, a different story that he had to struggle hard to show his face to media persons.
The local BJP leaders, including those who participated in the All-Party meeting, are now organising conventions at district level to mislead the people of Jammu province. One such convention was held at Kathua last Monday. Addressing the party workers, these leaders made a statement to the effect that they are opposed to the autonomy formulation and that they are for the state's full integration. No body is going to trust them because the people know that the BJP high command had as early as in March 1999 made up its mind to "grant maximum possible autonomy to Kashmir and its surrounding areas" and accept the Chenab formula that contemplates division of Jammu province along the River Chenab on communal lines. In other words, the BJP adopted a line on Jammu and Kashmir that was the line of the protagonist of "Greater Kashmir", Sheikh Abdullah, and that was publicly advocated by Pakistan President General Pervez Musharraf in and outside Pakistan after 2004 as a possible solution to the so-called Kashmir problem. To be more precise, the BJP, like the NC and the PDP, stands for a separate dispensation for the state.
The BJP has failed to barter away the national interests and compromise the Indian position on the state because the politically conscious Indian electorate had voted the controversial BJP out of power in 2004. The ouster of the BJP-led NDA government was a good riddance. Had the Indian electorate given the rag-tag and controversial BJP-led NDA coalition another chance, the story of Jammu and Kashmir today would have been altogether different. Jammu and Kashmir would have by now become an autonomous region. It must remain a matter of shame that the BJP says one thing when out of power and does exactly the opposite when in power. (To be continued) |
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