CURRENT EVENT
bY: NARINDER DHAR
Why Working Group fails to arrive at a consensus?
The Kashmir centric mainstream parties may not be demanding accession with Pakistan; they may not be even azadi, but what
they have been demanding is not less than seceding from India.
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| Working group meeting |
The fifth Working Group headed by Justice Saghir Ahmed (retd) to
discuss modalities for strengthening relationship between the state of Jammu and Kashmir and
rest of the country has once again failed to arrive at a consensus. Out of
five Working Groups constituted at the behest of Prime Minister Manmohan
Singh, this is the most significant Working Group because a section of
Valley’s population has not reconciled with the existing relationship of the
State with rest of India even after
sixty years of the Accession. After adding religious ingredient to the
already emotional hate
India
campaign the separatist slogan has by now engulfed whole of the Valley. To
put out the flames of hatred the Centre has been sprinkling showers of
funds, but without any success. The flames have instead have begun spreading
in other parts of the State as well. Today, not only the separatists even
the so called mainstream parties have begun demanding separation from India some in
the name of autonomy while others in the name of self rule. The huge
sacrifice that people of Kashmir gave in the name of Azadi or accession with Pakistan may not have brought desired results,
relations between India
and state of Jammu and Kashmir
have considerably thinned down and it is in this context that the need to
constitute the fifth working group had arisen. However, this Working Group
despite conducting five meetings has failed to arrive at a consensus with
every participant singing his or her own separate song. Whereas Kashmir
centric parties, NC and PDP harped on autonomy and self rule the Jammu based
parties, BJP, Panthers Party, BSP and State Morcha pleaded for scrapping
Article 370 of Indian constitution that gives special status to the border
state believing that instead of acting as a bridge between people of the
State and those living in rest of the country it has drifted them farther
away. Leaders representing Ladakh are not ready to remain with either
Jammu
or Kashmir making the problem all the more
ticklish. In view of divergent approach adopted by various representatives
the ball has been pushed in to the court of the Central government for
further playing.
The Kashmir centric parties may not be demanding accession with Pakistan; they may not be even demanding azadi,
yet what they are demanding is not less than seceding Valley from India, which is
not acceptable to those advocating complete integration of the State with
rest of the country. Finding that Jammu is emerging as a stumbling block in
there scheme of things, leadership in Kashmir is now contemplating to
throttle Jammu’s voice by advocating division of Jammu on communal lines and
the ‘five regions formula’ put forth by PDP leader, Sardar Rafiq Hussain
Khan hailing from Poonch representing his party in the recently held Working
Group meeting is a proof. Whether slogans like autonomy and self-rule can
end the half century old stalemate this only time will tell, but one thing
that is certain to say even today is that these slogans will worsen the
relationship between three distinct regions of the State called
Jammu,
Kashmir and Ladakh. Time will also tell as to
how the beleaguered Centre responds to these divisive slogans aimed at
weakening State’s relationship with rest of the country, but one thing is
certain again that if the half century old dispute is resolved the Centre
may accept the divisive slogans as well believing that some price has to be
paid for achieving something. The existing situation is that whether knife
falls on the apple or vice versa in both cases, like the apple Jammu would suffer. By now it has become
abundantly clear that neither
NC nor PDP is the well wisher of
Jammu. Had they been then they would not have
scuttled every effort aimed at avoiding discrimination against
Jammu
both financially as well as politically. It is because of their stand that
despite being bigger in area and population Jammu has lesser number of Assembly seats and
government employees. With Congress playing duplicity it becomes the duty of
other parties like BJP, Panthers and BSP to fight for the survival of Jammu. But being good
infighters the leaders of Jammu
have always made enemy’s task easier. If
Jammu
has to survive its leaders will have to unite, but is that possible? In
power politics it is not principles and ideology that matter, what actually
matters is the power to get which all methods including beg, borrow or steal
are legally permissible. Whatever the weaknesses of political leaders and
whatever their compulsion to remain divided the common masses irrespective
of creed, caste and political affiliations will have to join hands for their
survival, which is at stake. Instead of supporting different political
parties let them support leaders on merit forgetting which political party
they belong to. It is heartening that opposition leaders belonging to
different parties represented aspirations of
Jammu
in a cohesive manner during the recently held meeting of the Working Group,
but this is not sufficient. The need of the hour is that even aggressive
leaders of the ruling party like Lal Singh and Madan Lal should come forward
to save their motherland from falling in the slavery of others.
