By Daya Sagar
“They” come from UP, MP, Bengal, Bihar, Assam, Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan , Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana and length and breadth of Bharat to provide material and social security to the “Permanent Residents of J&K” and lay down life to keep the borders secure from the enemy.
Can subjects of Jammu & Kashmir provide a ‘home’ in J&K to families of at least those who have laid life while fighting to secure the borders and the peaceful living for the people of this State? ‘Hemrajs and Sudhakars’ have given their blood and even put at stake the future of their families for the safety and security of those Indian citizens who fall in the class of Permanent Resident of J&K . But “J&K” has not provided any material and social security to the families of even those Indian soldiers from HP or UP who have given supreme sacrifices worth earning Param Vir Chakra while protecting this state from the enemy attacks.
Some people have raised questions on J&K government for having not sanctioned any ex-gratia for the families of the two Indian soldiers belonging to J&K who have been killed during a militant attack on 18 July in Uri pleading that Governments of states like UP & Bihar have already done it for the soldiers who belonged to their states. No doubt the concern expressed needs support but it would have been more appreciable had they made such demand from J&K Government for all the soldiers martyred irrespective of the State to what they belonged. This shows that all these years the people of J&K have not been that seriously concerned. Rather instead of demanding some cash ex-gratia for the soldiers who sacrificed lives for the protection of the “subjects of J&K” the people of J&K should have come forward to own the families of the soldiers belonging to other Indian states and for that best gesture would be to offer them / their families the status of “Permanent Resident of J&K” and a “Home”. And people of J&K have a capacity to do so and if at all there could be any hurdle that could be undone through Section-8 and Section- 9 of J&K Constitution.
Governments of the past might not have done so since the leadership holding the reins had interest in using the provision of “Permanent Resident of J&K” more for showing that J&K is not like other Indian states than using the provision for the good of the people of J&K. Will the present BJP Government at least now take a lead and dispose off the allegations made by some that J&K has not timely extended ex gratia to the families of martyrs by according the status of “Permanent Resident of J&K” to all those who have made extreme sacrifices while fighting on J&K borders protecting the Indian citizens who are Permanent Residents of J&K?
When in 1927 the notification on the State Subject Law was issued, with the approval of Maharaja Hari Singh, it also had a provision of State Subject of Class -III and that must have been surely kept for keeping the options open to confer in future State Subject rights on persons of exceptional value , status and circumstances to J&K Maharaja Hari Singh too had conferred the State Subject Rights on some people of value and honour. Who could be a person of value more than a Martyr, the one who sheds his blood for others, a soldier?
(Daya Sagar is a Sr Journalist and a social activist can be reached at [email protected])
