Akbar Lone differs with party colleagues like Rana and Rather

NC divided over AIIMS for Jammu

Ahmed Ali Fayyaz

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SRINAGAR, April 26: Senior National Conference leader, MLA from Sonawari and former Minister and Speaker of Legislative Assembly Mohammad Akbar Lone has virtually snubbed his party colleagues, including Devender Singh Rana and Abdul Rahim Rather, for supporting demand of different political and non-political organisations for establishment of a major hospital on the pattern on All India Institute of Medical Sciences [AIIMS].

Without mentioning anybody’s name but with clear insinuation to Rana and Rather, Lone reportedly told Kashmir News Service on Sunday that “some short-sighted NC leaders” had toed the Jammu-based organisations’ line over the demand of AIIMS to Jammu without any discussion in the party’s Working Committee. According to Lone,” some leaders of the National Conference have lately been promoting this perverse mind-set”.

 “Unfortunately some short-sighted NC leaders have been compromising the party's stand in this behalf. Our party did not protest when the Centre sanctioned an IIT [Indian Institute of Technology] for Jammu. Whether the party should join the controversy over AIIMS should have been discussed in the Working Committee but that has not been done. The party high command needs to take immediate notice of this issue and sort out the mess before late”, Lone has been reported to have told KNS.

 “The proposed AIIMS is being setup in the valley. Some political groups have been trying to raise a controversy around it, their argument being that the Centre should sanction a similar institute for Jammu. These groups have been promoting an unhealthy competition between two regions of the state, in the name of equitable development. They have been pursuing this policy for decades. This has caused deep psychological split, so much so that Kashmir and Jammu have virtually become two states within one geographical unit,” Lone is quoted to have said.

“These groups were up in arms when the government of India sanctioned Central University in Srinagar. What has shocked me more is that some leaders of the National Conference have lately been promoting this perverse mind-set. They have joined the campaign for a separate AIIMS in Jammu. There is no doubt that all regions, in fact all districts and sub-districts of the state should grow equally. But this by no means justifies the demand that everything that comes to the state should come in pairs. It is sheer parochialism, which undermines the state's unity and integrity. The National Conference is committed to unity of the state and harmony among its different regions”, Lone has said.

Meanwhile, in a related development, Rather denied to have told the correspondent of a Jammu-based newspaper that in his meeting with Governor N.N. Vohra, he had said that NC wanted an AIIMS in Kashmir but not at the cost of the one in Jammu.

“The words put in my mouth are figment of imagination and I still wonder why such a statement has been attributed to me, as I never and nowhere stated what has been carried by the newspaper”,  Rather said in a statement. “More painful was the fact that it has been carried by a newspaper which is known for its objectivity and credibility”, he said. According to him, when a reporter called him to know as to what had transpired in his meeting with Governor, he told him that he would say nothing beyond what had been given out to media in NC’s official press release. He said that the NC delegation simply demanded an AIIMS for Jammu while hailing the one sanctioned for Kashmir.

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