The dismal showing of the Jammu State Morcha in the Assembly elections notwithstanding, the RSS has decided to launch a movement for the re-organisation of Jammu and Kashmir.The RSS is pressing for a statehood for the Jammu region and a Union Territory status for Ladakh. Rather than falling in line with the BJP’s demand for the creation of regional development councils for the two regions, the Sangh seems clearly determined to persist with its demand.‘‘We will work on a twin strategy. We will try to mobilise all MLAs favouring re-organisation to canvass for the demand within the assembly. On our part, we will intensify the struggle outside the assembly to make it a people’s movement,’’ RSS spokesman Ram Madhav told The Indian Express over the phone from Hyderabad. Pointed out that the demand could be far-fetched given that the RSS could neither get the requisite support from the assembly nor Parliament, Madhav said: ‘‘It may appear impossible now. However, once it picks up momentum and becomes a popular movement political parties will be compelled to listen. They have already done so in Ladakh.’’Madhav said that even numerically speaking, a dozen people — four of the Panthers Party, one each of the BJP and JSM, two from Ladakh and at least four independents — elected to the Assembly had made the discrimination against Jammu and Ladakh their main poll plank. They will obviously make a powerful collective voice in favour of trifurcation.The RSS leader denied that the poor show of the Morcha in the elections was a verdict against trifurcation. ‘‘We had very little time. The Morcha came into being only on July 16. It neither had a symbol nor an organised election machinery. Of the nine seats it contested, the Morcha secured one and finished second in three. Even with limited number of seats, the Morcha ended up getting 2.6 per cent of the voteshare. It is certainly not a poor showing,’’ Madhav said.The RSS spokesman said that the Congress had made a shrewd move to tap the popular sentiment in favour of trifurcation by projecting Ghulam Nabi Azad, a leader from the Jammu region, as its chief minister. ‘‘I am not criticising the Congress for this move. I am only pointing at the way this sentiment worked. The Congress also promised an equal representation for Jammu in the government. Thanks to our campaign, discrimination remained in focus throughout the electioneering in Jammu and Ladakh,’’ he said.
