Jammu varsity row allows BJP to repeat Amarnath chapter

Regional divide to the fore again,party sees an opportunity to recoup recent poll losses....

Surinder goes to college every morning,but returns home before noon without attending his classes. For his classmates too,the routine has been the same for over a month. Students in government degree colleges in Jammu have called a boycott to put pressure on the Omar Abdullah-led government to set up the proposed central university for the state in Jammu,and not Kashmir. A year after the Amarnath land row,the bitter divide between the two regions of the state is again to the fore,and again the BJP is cashing in to recoup some of its recent electoral losses in Jammu.

Having ridden the Amarnath wave to 11 seats in the 2008 Assembly polls in Jammu and Kashmir,the BJP has seen its stock fall since. In the Lok Sabha elections that followed months later,it lost to the Congress in both the Lok Sabha seats in Jammu.

The current row is over a central university that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh promised to Jammu during a visit in 2007. The state government has since then identified six sites for the university three each in Jammu and Kashmir. However,while the Union HRD Ministry insists it is yet to take a final decision on the matter,Jammu saw foul in the recent move of the universitys newly appointed Vice-Chancellor,Prof Abdul Wahid,to set up an office in the Valley.

Angry students called a boycott of classes in government degree colleges,and haven8217;t budged despite repeated assurances from the state government,including Chief Minister Omar Abdullah,that the state could have two central universities one each in Jammu and the Valley. The VC has since opened an office of the university in Jammu too,but the agitators are determined that Jammu alone that should get the varsity instead of sharing the honour with privileged Kashmir.

While the RSS and BJP both deny any hand in the ongoing agitation,saying they are only supporting it,a look at the five-member core committee of the Central University Andolan Samiti CUAS that is spearheading the stir tells a different story. Its convenor,Pavitar Singh,had been an active member of the Santan Dharam Sabha,while Narinder Singh,also a college professor,has had a long association with the ABVP. Of the other three members,Pushwinder Singh and Suresh Magotra belong to the Jammu Joint Students Morcha and ABVP,both with links to the RSS.

The Sangh strategy of pulling the strings from the background,allowing the Andolan to draw people of different faiths and ideologies to the platform,is also reminiscent of the Amarnath episode. During the two-month-long agitation over land to the shrine board,the BJP and RSS had similarly denied any links. However,the then convenor of the Shri Amarnath Sangharsh Samiti,Leela Karan Sharma,had later contested the Lok Sabha election as a BJP nominee from Jammu-Poonch constituency and lost. To justify his decision to contest,he told his detractors that he had had a long association with the Sangh. Another prominent face of that agitation,Brigadier retired Suchet Singh,is now prant sanghchalak of the RSS.

Sighting the opportunity the row presents,other Jammu-based organisations too have extended their support to the CUAS. The Jamp;K National Panthers Party,which has three MLAs from Hindu-dominated Samba and Udhampur districts,expelled its student wing chief Mohinder Singh Pandu recently for supporting the state government on the issue.

Story continues below this ad

Trying to contain the damage,Omar led a high-level delegation to meet the Prime Minister and HRD Minister recently,and asked the Centre to set up two central universities one each in Jammu and the Valley.

CUAS member Prof Narinder Singh,however,sees little of that happening,and is convinced what will come to Jammu is a bifurcated campus. It is only hoodwinking people8230; The Centre has rejected its proposal to have two central universities. Now it intends to set up one campus of the central university in Jammu and another in the Valley. If the Centre agrees to give two central universities to the state,it is welcome. But one university with one campus in Jammu and another in the Valley is not acceptable to us, he says.