JAMMU: A new and venomous narrative is being built and broadcast that Jammu is the biggest beneficiary of the recruitment in the reserved categories in the Union Territory. This is a clear bid to state that Kashmir is being discriminated against and its share in the professional institutions, government services and competitive examinations is shrinking.
The whole narrative is based on some of the statistics that the Government released in response to a question of People’s Conference president and lawmaker, elected from Handwara Sajad Gani Lone , who is seeking to become a frontline hero of the Kashmiris ( essentially Kashmiri Muslims; though on occasions he tries to widen his appeal by mentioning Kashmiri Pandits) by raising their issues . He is armed with the figures the government provided to him in the ongoing Assembly session in Jammu.
PERISCOPE
These statistics have been produced as a comparative study between the two regions – Kashmir and Jammu,- showing that the people in Jammu region have got more certificates vis-a-vis reserved categories – SC, ST, OBC, Resident of Border areas, and so on than the residents in the Valley . These figures may be correct as the government is supposed to furnish factual position in The Legislative Assembly, but the real issue is what the basis is for these statistics and the comparative study that it these have triggered.
It establishes one simple fact that there is more population falling under the reserved categories living in Jammu than in the Valley. And if there is more of such population in the region, it is but natural that there would be more certificates for them. Where is the contradiction? There is absolutely no confusion but the attempts are being made to throw a smoke screen over the whole issue.
At the bottom of this narrative, which is now becoming a propaganda tool for vested interests bent upon causing regional , ethnic and linguistic disharmony with the underlying intentions to trigger another conflict in Jammu and Kashmir that has achieved substantial peace in the past five years. There is a clear attempt to undo welfare measures taken in these years and to put Kashmiri population face to face with the state of India .This would be a mistake to read the whole concept of this ethno nationalism as just Kashmir-centric because the Valley too has substantial ST, OBC and other categories of population that qualifies to benefits under the reservation rules.
These advocates of the rights of Kashmiris have two clear objectives – one , to maintain and take the Kashmiri Muslim supremacy to next level by projecting the population in the Valley as a victim of the reservation rules . Second, to push back the fact-based narrative that Jammu over the decades has been discriminated in all spheres – it was denied its due role and place in political decision-making, government services and development .The voices of discrimination against Jammu region were audible in the Assembly, but those were ignored and at times shouted down with the claim that no discrimination has ever taken place.
The political leadership advancing the theory that the status and space for Kashmiri Muslim officers would be suffering an irreversible reduction in future are not ignoring the very concept of coexistence, which they deploy to assert their cultural ethos and sense of accommodation but sowing seeds of communal tensions in the system of governance. They are hitting at the roots of social justice, sowing discord in society.
They also raise questions about the fate of the youth, who have to appear and compete in open merit category. Their presumption is that the open merit candidates will have to compete for very limited number of seats and there would be very few from Kashmir in the select lists. This is outcome of the self-centred thinking that Kashmir is the sole custodian of merit and the people from Jammu region are not as competent as their counterparts in the Valley.
Jammu has vast constituency of merit. The region has proved it time and again. But those calling out Jammu for getting maximum benefit of reservations are doing more harm than good to the people of Kashmir.
