SANTOKH SINGH KOMAL
JAMMU: The most controversial and the hottest issue of separate colony for Kashmiri Pandits has finally been put to rest with the statement of Union Minister of State for Home, Hari Bhai Prathibhai on Tuesday.
Prime Minister Narender Modi, who mooted the idea and conveyed to Chief Minister Mufti Mohammed Sayeed, will have to swallow a humble pie on this issue. Home Minister Rajnath Singh had been very emphatic and categoric on composite townships. In fact Mufti on his return to Srinagar received a negative reaction from the separatists and took a U turn over separate townships for KPs despite having agreed to identify the required land and make it available for the purpose.
On yet another issue, the AIIMS earmarked for Jammu, as announced by the Finance Minister during budget session, has unilaterally been shifted to Kashmir under pressure mounted by separatists and Kashmir centric mainstream leaders. The decision rocked Jammu but the massive resentment proved to be futile with adamant dispensations both at Srinagar and in New Delhi. Mufti led government did not take the Jammu people in confidence while taking such a crucial decision arbitrarily. The BJP is just serving as an ornamental piece in the PDP led and dominated government. The Union Government could not even question the Chief Minister as to what forced him to shift AIIMS to Kashmir.
With policy of appeasement being pursued by the Modi Government, the clout of BJP in its stronghold of Jammu is fading fast. Jammuites are nurturing a sense of deprivation and denial of their legitimate dues. They feel degraded and marginalised, even under the dispensation partnered by BJP, which had been hoisting itself as the Messiah of ‘discriminated Jammu’. The abject surrender of BJP before the PDP is going to boomerang, initially in the upcoming civic elections across the Jammu region.