Sir,
Please refer to JP Singh’s article “Bharatiya Janata Party hope still lingers on” (DE Aug 28). The author is right when he opines that the Valley-based and Kashmir-centric PDP “will never let down it core constituency” and suggests that “Regional Council’ could be a viable solution to the 70-year-old Jammu problem. However, it is difficult to share his view that he still pinned hope on the BJP and expected it to do something concrete for its core constituency.
The much-talked about agenda of alliance that the BJP worked out in collaboration with the PDP and on the basis of which the coalition Government was established in J&K doesn’t allow the BJP to do anything for the neglected people of Jammu province, including refugees from West Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir as well as the Kashmiri Hindu refugees. For, it has handed over everything, including All-India Institute of Medical Sciences, to Kashmir on a plate. Besides, the BJP high command is very much there to look after and promote further the interests of Kashmir. People of Jammu province have no place in its scheme of things. It can be seen from the fact that it has consistently defended the otherwise severely criticized agenda of alliance and repeatedly claimed that Jammu for the first time got its due share in the governance of the State.
Now that the BJP has also failed the people of Jammu province, it is appropriate time for them to work hard and obtain an adequately empowered Regional council. The Gajendragadkar Report is there with the J&K Government, which clearly said more than 50 years ago that the problem the people of Jammu province faced since 1947 was political in nature and there was but one way in which that problem could be surmounted and that was by establishing an adequately empowered “Regional Development Board” in the Jammu province. Of course, the bulk of population in Jammu province has been for complete separation from Kashmir, but it is not possible, at least for some more years. Regional Council is achievable. It, if established, would surely help the people of Jammu province manage some of the affairs themselves in a meaningful manner. One can only hope and pray that the political leadership of Jammu province, irrespective of its ideological differences, would emulate their Kashmiri counterparts and work as one man for the establishment of Regional Council in Jammu.
Yours etc….
Manoj Thappa
Jammu
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