SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT
JAMMU: The State unit of the BJP on Thursday suffered a major setback over the issue of location of the sanctioned All-India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS)-like institute. Political Advisor to the J and K BJP President Prof Hari Om and Chief Spokesperson of the party Sunil Sethi, Senior Advocate and former president of the lawyers’ association, virtually revolted against the BJP and became members of the Coordination Committee, which was formed by the President of the Jammu and Kashmir High Court Bar Association (JKHCBA), Jammu, Abhinav Sharma, for the purpose of spearheading movement across Jammu province for the establishment of the AIIMS in Jammu instead of Kashmir. The JKHCBA-constituted Coordination Committee has representatives from almost all the organisations, which represent various interests, who have extended their unflinching support to the JKHCBA, Jammu, so that the AIIMS movement reached a logical conclusion and anti-Jammu forces in Kashmir and Jammu are comprehensively defeated once and for all.
The Coordination Committee was formed in the wake of the Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed’s 15th May controversial statement made in Jammu in the presence of BJP leader and Deputy Chief Minister Nirmal Singh and another BJP Minister Priya Sethi that the AIIMS will be established in Kashmir and the Tawi artificial lake project could be abandoned because it was technically and economically not viable. Earlier on 24th April, Nirmal Singh had also declared in Jammu that no power on earth could “snatch AIIMS from Kashmir and it will not be established in Jammu”. Significantly, on 24th April, the people of Jammu province, cutting across party lines, had observed a great Bandh to register their protest against the decision of the authorities to establish AIIMS in Kashmir.
It bears recalling that Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had on 28th February announced on the floor of the Lok Sabha that AIIMS will be established in Jammu and Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office Jitendra Singh had congratulated Arun Jaitley then and there itself and issued a comprehensive statement on the announcement to the press. A few days later, Jitendra Singh had also declared at the Kathua rally that “the AIIMS was always meant for Jammu”. He had made the statement in the wake of the controversy triggered by the statement of Nirmal Singh that the AIIMS will be established in Kashmir and not in Jammu.
The decision of Prof Hari Om and Sunil Sethi to associate with the Coordination Committee has, according to credible sources in the party, “greatly upset State BJP President Jugal Kishore Sharma and BJP National General Secretary Ram Madhav”. Sources also informed that “many others in the BJP, who are fed up with the Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Kashmir policy and working of the local BJP leadership and ministers could also follow in the footsteps of Hari Om and Sethi for protecting the genuine cause of Jammu”. “Many in the BJP are thinking in terms of taking on the BJP top brass,” the sources also said, adding that “resentment is brewing among the party ranks as they are feeling humiliated
