Jammu, July 21: The infamous agitation for setting up the prestigious All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Jammu has taken a new turn as the government has failed to keep its written promise to announce AIIMS in Jammu by July 20 and now the AIIMS Coordination Committee (AIIMS CC) deciding to continue their strike to achieve the goal. But the question still remains what next?
The question assumes significance as the demand for AIIMS in Kashmir is also gaining momentum and both the regions are at logger heads calling it discrimination by the other indicating that AIIMS row might turn into another Amarnath land row of 2008.
But yet another question is what Amarnath land row has achieved for Jammuites after two month long agitation and loss of Rs 30,000 crore as estimated by the Chamber of Commerce and Industry Jammu. The end result was just the status quo and self praise by the leaders of that time and the only thing that emerged out of that row was some leaders and disappointment of common man on streets with the people who played politics without gaining anything substantial.
Similar is the case with the AIIMS row as it seems this agitation is also going to meet the same fate given the turn of events since its initiation and the U turns and contradictions within the coalition and the twin regions of the state.
Jammuites need to understand why did the row erupt in the first place because as far as we known the AIIMS was clearly promised for Jammu region and then repeated announcements in this regard were made by none less than the minister in PMO DR Jitendra Singh who also happens to be the son of the soil and a product of Amarnmath land row of 2008.
This only indicates that something is grossly wrong with the Jammu leadership as we had discussed two days back that Jammu lacks a strong, vibrant and young leader who can leave his personal interests aside and fight for the cause of Jammu.
Having said that we must also understand that Kashmiri people will not take such a decision lightly as they have been arm twisting the centre and the state government to achieve what they want and the unnecessary and sudden announcement that AIIMS would be setup in Kashmir has given them a lever to push their agenda further.
This means it is Jammu leadership that lacked and took a knee jerk decision to keep quiet while AIIMS was being announced for Kashmir taking Jammuites for a ride.
It was at that time that entire Jammu leadership should have put its foot down and told the centre in very clear terms that this will not be acceptable at any cost and Jammuites won’t tolerate such a U turn to appease Kashmiri political circles.
But the fact is that we did not act on time and now the whole situation has turned into a huge confusion as central government representatives like Dr Jitendera Singh and the state government Deputy Chief Minister Dr Nirmal Singh has said time and again that AIIMS will be setup at Jammu but at the same time the same Dy CM had also given in writing that it will be announced by July 20 and now again another U turn has been taken while maintaining that AIIMS was for Jammu.
In this whole confusion one thing emerges very clearly and that is Jammu needs a strong leadership like Kashmiris that can think ahead of time and act accordingly so that Jammu does not become a hartal region like its counterpart Kashmir.
It is time Jammu leadership puts its heads together and decides once for all what it wants from the new dispensation and how it wants it. And once decided this should be the master plan for the future so that the governments at centre or state know clearly that they cannot take Jammuites for granted anymore and such flip flop will no longer be tolerated in Jammu.