The recent brouhaha over the Mumbai for Maharashtrians seems to have gotten the Congress Party’s goat right in the nogging, with the “heir apparent” Rahul Gandhi commenting on the issue in Bihar, categorically stating that Mumbai belongs to Indians.

Wah !! Applause, applause, etc.

Varied sources hint at an eye on upcoming Bihar polls, etc etc, collecting sops before elections and so on. As also is being said about the Shiv Sena and MNS raking up the Marathi Manoos issue just before its poll time in Mah. These are to me all side issues. Each party gets darned vocal about a cause they perceive as “close to populace” to get brownie points and steamroll at least a few candidates to power. Election systems over the world see various parties try various stunts and gimmics to get noticed and close to their “junta” prior to elections. And close the day of poll, louder the hullaballoo, disruption and so on.

Peaceful. Don’t want to change this.

What attracts my attention in this entire issue, is that of Rahul Gandhi, “scion” of the Congress Party of India, Leader through birth into the party leadership family, etc, decides to come out and say Mumbai is for all Indians. Again, while I laud this thought, I actually wonder why this man displays such an apparent case of hunting with the hounds and running with the hare. What am I talking about here?

I’m talking about article 370 of the Indian Constitution wrt Jammu & Kashmir. Read THIS to get a feel of what its all about.

To draw your attention to all that matters behind these verbose and possibly confusing terms, we are looking at just one glaring point. That the residents of Jammu & Kashmir live under a separate set of laws, including those related to citizenship, ownership of property, and fundamental rights, as compared to other Indians.

Granted by the Congress Party, during Indira Gandhi’s regime in the period 1974-1975.

Frankly, I have absolutely no idea about why this entire thing is still in force. The Congress Party has assured us time and again, that Kashmir was, is and will always be a part of India, and not be handed over to Pakistan, at any cost. It has assured us that Kashmir is like all other states, on par with any state with India, and that Indians have freedom to be a Kashmiri with full rights, blah blah blah !!

Whither then were they when Kashmiri Pandits were driven out by Mullahs there? Where are they now, when not a single Hindu can setup biz, purchase property or land, or even stay on there?

With this behind them, why are they crowing from top of the posts about a simple issue of Mumbai for Maharashtrians?

I’ll call this 370 degrees of hypocrisy. And a fat slap on the faces of people who chose to invest their votes in them.