Needs Introspection to retain the Unity of Jammu & Kashmir
Er. P.L. Khushu
It is a matter of great pleasure that after 10 long years “free and fair” elections have been held in Jammu and Kashmir without any untoward incident for which the people of Jammu and Kashmir deserve felicitations. The peaceful electoral process and participation of millions of voters is testimony to vibrant democracy and people’s faith in democratic values of the country. Today, J&K stands taller guided by principles of good governance, people-first, social justice and social harmony. Equally, the Modi government ruling India for the last almost 10 years have ensured that peace and tranquility is restored in Jammu and Kashmir which was shattered and snatched away from people due to extreme militancy in Jammu and Kashmir. In these election results one is seeing the most polarized results in J&K, with the National Conference showing its political edges on Kashmir and the BJ in Jammu, when it was not so in earlier elections. The NC has won 35 of the 47 seats in Kashmir emerging as the single largest party, in the Muslim majority region. The BJP has won 29 out of the 43 seats in Jammu, emerging as the dominating political party in the Hindu-majority region. NC has only 7 seats in Jammu and that too mostly from the Muslim dominated zones of Jammu. NC has just two MLA’s in its fold from Jammu, who are Hindus and the rest are all Muslims. BJP has no Muslim MLA in its fold. Congress has just six seats and could not get even a single seat from the Hindu belts of Jammu. Jammu is now almost “Congress-Muketh”. Congress has performed miserably in this election. Is the NC manifesto for these elections responsible for such a divide? It may be and it may not be. Yet, it is a million dollar question. Why bring the issue of Pakistan in its manifest. Just to give a flip to the polarity of fundamentalism partially, for garnering votes on the basis of emotions of the people of the valley involved, who have always been exploited by the political rulers of Kashmir for their ulterior political motives of remaining in power for ever. What was an urgent need to rename the two sacred religious places of Hindus in Kashmir and get it declared through the political election manifesto. Can it be called as evolving of a worst type of communal passion, to create a big communal divide between the Hindus and Muslims at the time of elections for getting votes from the Muslim voters? Can any logic refuse it? However it is not good by any standard of equity of tolerance at this advanced stage in the religious concerns of minorities like that of KP’s who have been driven out of J & K forcibly under inequitable conditions.
National conference manifesto says, “We advocate Indo-Pak dialogue as the best method to resolve ongoing conflicts. It means that India should talk to Pakistan about Kashmir, if at all it is an issue with Pakistan. Does the National Conference equate J & K as a separate country involved in turmoil between India and Pakistan? The other point of their manifesto is about the changing the names of the most sacred religious places of Kashmiri Hindus in Kashmir, the Shankaracharya in to “Takht-e-Suleiman” and Hari Parbat, in to “Koh-e-Maran”. Was it a communal move of NC, to appease the Islamic fanaticism in Kashmir? Have such post election utterances resulted in divergent election results between Kashmir and Jammu. This mandate shows that the people of the two regions viz, Jammu and Kashmir are not allowed to be on the same wavelength, as far as the political aims and objectives about Jammu and Kashmir are concerned, by the greedy politicians. In Kashmir the political euphoria in elections, may be assembly or parliamentary elections , mostly does not go beyond consuming the factor of Pakistan as an issue, relevant to the existence of Jammu and Kashmir, while as Jammu and its people mostly barring some hilly districts, are open to any positive mind set, in this regard in the broader interest of Jammu and Kashmir, when the people of Jammu consider Jammu and Kashmir is an integral part of India, without any preconditions.
BJP has drawn a blank in Kashmir and the Congress a virtual blank in Jammu. There is thus a clear and sharp political divide between the two regions, which will be a challenge for the new democratic Government to overcome both politically and administratively. If such acts of divide and rule by the politicians is allowed to continue it may be disastrous for the unity of adherence as for as the existence of Jammu and Kashmir as a single unit is concerned. Ladakh is already separated from Jammu and Kashmir, a big cost having been paid by the people of Jammu and Kashmir. It is a revelation in this regard. Let it stop somewhere before a big void is generated between the Jammu and Kashmir, which will be disastrous for both the regions. Let no more divisions occur to Jammu and Kashmir. In the valley, the deep ideological questions of restoration of statehood and the restoration of Article 370, as per the NC and the Peoples Democratic Party is a prime factor of this election for these political parties. In Jammu, the act of the abrogation of Article 370 evoked a very minimal response, when there was no question of its restoration even among people who argued that it had not benefited them to the extent imagined. Probably they are least bothered about it. In fact they may be even happy with it, feeling that Jammu and Kashmir is now a full-fledged part of India. Jammu actually saw a more consolidated election campaign, on the plank of the development by Modi government, when the contest became fully bipolar, due to the issues contested by the NC and the other regional parties of Kashmir, which had more tendencies of polarization rather than having healing discourses. This si bound to create a vertical wedge between Jammu and Kashmir. The new government has to perform beyond regional considerations and shall have to carry on the work done during the Lieutenant Governor’s rule, which was fully development oriented, equally for both the regions of Kashmir and Jammu. There was no discrimination with Jammu as was being done in the past during democratic governments. Because of the majority mandate from Kashmir, when the proper representation to Jammu may be skipped, Jammu should not be again discriminated as was done in the past by similar political set ups from the valley. Jammu has always been discriminated in all respects of its development during all those times of rules dominated by politicians from Kashmir. By an approximate estimation the region of Jammu got only 30 percent share in the administrative set up of the state, when Kashmir got about 70 percent representation in such services. At the level of the civil secretariat manning the whole administration of the state, hardly 30 to 40 percent officers of the levels of secretaries and below could find a place, when the rest would come from Kashmir only. So was the case with the cabinet ministers. The major chunk of ministries were given to the legislators from Kashmir division, on the plea that Kashmir division has more population and thus deserved more share in the ministerial cabinet. The cabinet births allocated to the Jammu legislators were allotted portfolios of lesser importance. A glaring example of discrimination in this behalf can be cited by referring to the Kashmir Administrative Service. It shows the apathy towards Jammu. The same attitude of discrimination was adopted in all the development sectors like the road sector, irrigation facility sector, urban and rural electrification sector, power generation sectors, education sector both technical and non technical, public health sectors, medical services sectors, agriculture and horticulture sectors, housing and urban development sector, etc. Regional imbalances in all these sectors are still visible between Kashmir and Jammu, if a true and an honest study is made in this regard.
The apportionment of funds received from the government of India for development schemes and projects were the sole legacies and priorities of the Kashmir alone, with a brazen neglect of Jammu in this behalf, during the previous democratic rules. It has been the case with the tourism sector. Jammu has a tremendous potential for tourism development and has abundant charming tourist’s spots, which could be exploited for the development of the tourism sector in Jammu. Just a max factor was added to Jammu in this regard like Patni Top tourist spot, when huge funds under central government schemes for tourism were utilized only in Kashmir. There are numerous such portraits of discriminations against Jammu and its people, when all such incidents cannot be mentioned here for want of space. A famous axiom of law, justice is not only to be done, but justice should appear to have been done. Similarly where is the development in Jammu being done, as is being claimed? It should appear to be done on ground.
Should still the people of Jammu remain calm and continue to suffer, under the new dispensation of democratic governance. Probably they will not. Let the new ruling political powers in Jammu and Kashmir, feel the political pulse of the people of Jammu now and rectify all previous acts of hypocritical discriminations against them and ensure that Jammu gets its due in all the areas of development sectors. In the alternative Jammu will probably refuse to be a part of the Jammu & Kashmir for obvious reasons of discrimination. Once bitten twice shy. In that case and situation, why shouldn’t Jammu be a separate entity and suffer for the problems of Kashmir, which can be geo – political and strategically loaded with other security considerations?
(The author of this article is a chartered
consultant civil engineer).