JAMMU: Describing Kashmir as the over-developed region in the entire country and its people as the most prosperous and over-pampered section of Indian society, Prof Hari Om on Friday said that the people of Jammu region are completely alienated from the discriminatory, non-accommodating and backward-looking Kashmiri leadership as well as from the biased Indian political leadership and warned that any failure of the authorities in New Delhi to conciliate them could create a volcanic situation in the strategic Jammu region, which is one of the most ignored part of India.
“The patience of the politically marginalised and socially and economically ignored people of Jammu is ending very fast,” he said, and added that “they are no longer prepared to accept the position servitude and insubordination”. They want a proper share in social, economic, political and administrative institutions as proud Indian nationals, which is not happening, he lamented. They contribute more than 70 per cent revenue to the state exchequer and their region has plenty of natural resources, including green gold, water and minerals, he further said. Why should they lead a pathetic life and look towards Kashmir and Kashmiri leadership for even petty and illusory concessions? He asked. “They need forthwith a regime that is of them, by them, for them and for the Indian nation. They have suffered neglect, humiliations and taunts for 70 long years. Enough is enough,” asserted Prof Hari Om.
“The people of Jammu region have been seething with discontent since decades now. They have little or no say in the governance of the state. Both New Delhi and Kashmiri leadership have rendered them ineffective and unreal in their own region in their desperate bid to keep the Kashmiri people and their leadership in good humour. They have several grievances against the authorities in Delhi and Kashmir. They have inadequate representation in the assembly. They are under-represented in the State cabinet, Civil Secretariat, vital service sector and technical and professional institutions. They have little representation in the crucial Revenue, Finance and Police Departments and Political Services despite the fact that they constitute almost half of the state’s population. The office of Chief Minister has become the sole preserve of Kashmir since the state’s accession to India. The people of Jammu region also get crumbs when it comes to infrastructural development, tourism development, industrial development and construction of roads in Jammu region,” Prof Hari Om said while making his point that the life of the people of Jammu region is highly miserable.
It was Kashmir and Kashmiri leadership which grabbed all the vital portfolios with political weight and considerable funds and the BJP was part of the conspiracy hatched against Jammu,” he further said. He added that these departments included Home, Finance, Planning, Revenue, Agriculture, Education, Technical Education, Culture, Tourism, Law and Parliamentary Affairs, General Administration Department, Roads and Buildings, Rural Development, Relief and Rehabilitation, Public Works, Science, Information Technology and Information. Kashmiri leadership and the BJP left nothing for Jammu, he bemoaned.
Do the people of Jammu region deserve such a shabby treatment? He candidly asked.
Prof Hari Om also said that he was in complete accord with the people of Jammu region when they refused to endorse the Kashmiri view that the problem in Kashmir was political. “The problem in Kashmir is not political. The problem in Kashmir is communal and sectarian. It is also the problem of uncontested communalism being indulged in by Kashmiri leaders of all shades of opinion. Kashmiri leadership wants power, paisa and Pakistan,” he said.
He accused New Delhi of being soft to the communal and separatist politics being practiced in the Valley by Kashmiri leaders of all hues to provoke anti-India and pro-Pakistan protests in the Valley.
He urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to turn his attention towards the suffering people of Jammu region, saying they had voted for him enthusiastically and in a large numbers in 2014 hoping that he would end their night of despair and discontent. Prof Hari Om expressed hope that the Prime Minister would take cognisance of the plight of his own nationalist constituency in Jammu and undertake measures calculated to redressing their grievances and said his intervention has become all the more necessary as all the Kashmiri leaders have joined hands against India, have also been trying to impose their regressive and intolerant ideology on the unwilling and patriotic sections of society in Jammu and Kashmir and the BJP has made common cause with the pro-Pakistan, pro-separatist and rabidly anti-Jammu PDP.