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| 'Jammu region no longer can be ignored', says Gen Sinha | | Unique verdict | | Neha
Early Times Report
JAMMU, Mar 7: Describing the alliance between the PDP and the BJP as "mismatched marriage" and expressing the view that it "may not lost long", General SK Sinha, a retired lieutenant-general, Vice-Chief of Army Staff and former Governor of Assam and Jammu and Kashmir, has said that the 2014 Assembly election was unique in the electoral and political history of Jammu and Kashmir and that Jammu has become a force to reckon with.
"The 2014 Assembly election has been unique in the history of Jammu and Kashmir. Hitherto Jammu used to be an appendage to other political parties and had little say in state politics. For the first time Jammu, represented by the BJP, has emerged as a force to reckon with. Not only in electoral politics but also in resolving the Kashmir issue, Jammu region can no longer be ignored. Kashmir-centric thinking has to be changed to Jammu and Kashmir centric". What General Sinha has said just cannot be ignored. Indeed, Jammu has become an important factor in the state's political situation and any attempt to ignore Jammu would be only provoke political explosions in this part of the state.
General Sinha has not just recognized the importance of Jammu in the state and national politics. He has also said that Jammu has a say in the resolution of Kashmir issue and that it is imperative to change the Kashmir-centric thinking to Jammu and Kashmir-centric thinking. His formulations and suggestions need to be appreciated by policy-planners and by Delhi-based commentators who are blissfully ignorant about the social composition of the ongoing secessionist movement or about the nature of and complexities in Jammu & Kashmir or by those who recognize the Hurriyat Conference as the sole factor in the state's political situation or who take the small Kashmir Valley to mean the entire State of Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh.
It would be only appropriate to quote verbatim what Gen Sinha has said in this regard. He has said: "It is not generally known that separatism or terrorism in Kashmir is largely confined to Kashmiri speaking Sunni Muslims (30 per cent), who are a minority in the state, occupying only 10 per cent of land space in Indian-administered Kashmir. The remaining 70 per cent of the population is Shia Muslims, Gujars, Bakherwals, Paharis, Hindus, Sikhs and Buddhists making a total of about 70 per cent…There is no harm in having talks with the half-a-dozen separatist leaders from the five out of 24 districts in the state who have hardly any support beyond the Valley floor in the state. They cannot claim to be the sole spokesmen of the people of the state like Jinnah's claim in 1947 to be the sole spokesman of Muslims of India".
Gen Sinha has only vindicated those who all along held the view that the followers of a particular religious sect were involved in the secessionist activities and that an overwhelming majority of population in the state had nothing to do with the so-called Azadi movement in the Valley. What Gen Sinha has said must inspire the people of Jammu and Ladakh and establish that there are opinion leaders in the country who speak the truth without fear or favour. |
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