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| Why AIIMS needs to be set up in Jammu And why IIT, IIM are not that important | | |
BHARAT BHUSHAN
There has been a lot
of unrest in Jammu
over the Centre's arbitrary decision to shift AIIMS to Srinagar and people of this otherwise "neglected" region feel further ignored and cheated by BJP. In his budget speech, union finance minister Arun Jaitley announced AIIMS for Jammu but the Modi-led government later unreasonably and unjustifiably shifted it to Kashmir. This sudden shift in policy and mood of the saffron brigade has left the people of Jammu surprised because they had in the 2014 assembly polls voted for it to enable it to have its biggest ever tally of 25 MLAs in the state legislative assembly. They now feel betrayed by the party, which till three months back, before it came to power in coalition with PDP, had time and again been raising the issue of discrimination with Jammu by the successive state and central governments.
BJP may never win an assembly seat from the valley but it has for sure turned the nationalist Jammu constituency against it. When AIIMS had already been announced for Jammu, what transpired at the last moment that the BJP-led NDA government was compelled to shift it to the valley and announce IIT and IIM for Jammu.
Whatever the compulsion may have been, the move, which is widely termed as illogical, has turned the people of Jammu region against BJP. They feel that like the previous governments at the Centre and in the state, BJP too has started ignoring them and taking them for granted. Even some local BJP leaders share the people's feeling that its national leadership is hell bent to appease the Valleyites at any cost. They admit in private conversations that this shift in BJP\ policy is more likely to prove to be suicidal for the party in Jammu
region. The party, which earlier identified itself with the cause of Jammu, is now gradually becoming a cause of hate. Two massive bandhs were observed in Jammu on April 25 and May 27 last as a mark of growing unrest against BJP over the arbitrary shifting of AIIMS to the valley. The unrest in Jammu region on this account is not irrational. There is a valid reason behind it. The Centre took back AIIMS from it without citing any valid reason and then gave it to Kashmir which already has SKIMS at Soura, a prestigious medical institution. The people of Jammu have made it clear that they are not going to sit idle on the issue. To take their struggle to a logical conclusion, Bar Association Jammu, civil society groups and some social and political organisations have already gathered on a common platform. They are determined to convey to the Modi-government that injustice with the people of Jammu would not be tolerated at any cost. While cancelling AIIMS, Centre handed IIT and IIM to Jammu. Though the two institutes are prestigious, they are unlikely to benefit the Jammu region students. Since selection in them is made on the basis of an annually held all India written test, Jammu students may or may not be able to go through it. There is no state quota in them. From a peon to the faculty member, all are most likely to be outsiders. One or two Jammu people may get appointed as watchmen. One thing is for sure that Jammu people are not at all going to be benefitted from these two institutions. But if AIIMS is set up in Jammu, it would be beneficial not only to the local population but also to the people of Kashmir and the neighbouring Punjab and Himachal Pradesh because of the all-weather connectivity of the area with the rest of India. Kashmir is cut off
from the rest of the country during rainy days and winters as a result of which it remains unapproachable by road and many times by air also. Many of the valley people will also get benefitted if AIIMS is set up in Jammu as they spend most time of the year in the winter capital. Many of them have also constructed houses at Bhatindi, Narwal, Sunjwan and in other peripheral areas of Jammu. They prefer to stay in this peaceful zone for varied reasons. The most important one is the education of their children. Fed up of the separatists, their bandh calls and violence, many of them have admitted their children to Jammu schools and colleges. For most part of the year, they remain in Jammu while others, leaving a few who cannot afford education to their children outside the valley, keep on visiting the winter capital city for one reason or the other. A large population of Kargil, Leh and Ladakh too has been residing in Jammu. Thousands of their children are studying in Jammu schools and colleges. While these three places are in the vicinity of Srinagar, their inhabitants prefer to come to Jammu even for the treatment of their minor or major ailments. They travel long distances to reach Jammu but don't go to the valley. Apart from the Valleyites and the people of Kargil, Leh and Ladakh, thousands of families from the erstwhile Doda district, Reasi, Udhampur, Kathua's remote areas, Rajouri and Poonch too have settled in Jammu. Majority of them are poor and have come here to earn their livelihood. They are doing well and the children of most of them are studying in private schools.
If AIIMS is set up in Srinagar, none of them is going to be benefitted in any way because they would not go there. They would prefer to go to AIIMS, New Delhi, because it is easy to reach there by train. And, if it is set up in Jammu, all these people are going to be benefitted hugely because they would get the best medicare facility at their doorsteps. At present, Jammu has a low-quality government medical college and hospital (GMCH), which lacks state-of-the-art infrastructure and has developed the habit of referring all critical cases to the advanced hospitals outside the state, and a so-called super-speciality hospital which is being managed by the local faculty.
It is not that the local doctors are not competent but it remains a fact that they have not that exposure which the doctors of PGI, Chandigarh, AIIMS, New Delhi, and other famed hospitals of the country have.
The aim of setting up AIIMS here is also to reduce the load of AIIMS, New Delhi, but it would not serve the purpose if it is set up in Kashmir because it would be practically difficult to carry the patients there from Jammu and the neighbouring states due to the hilly terrain and bad weather conditions. Kashmir is already having the AIIMS-like SKIMS, besides a GMCH, so it would not contribute more to the already better health infrastructure there. Specialist and super-specialist doctors would also hesitate to go to the valley because of the security threat and may not be able to deliver their best while working under the stressful conditions prevailing there. In addition to this, life in Kashmir remains paralysed most of the time due to the strikes and bandh calls given by separatists. Under such a situation, it would be a futile exercise to set up AIIMS in Kashmir.
Also, opening of another health institute like AIIMS will put a question mark on the ability of SKIMS doctors. SKIMS would be rendered less important as every patient would like to go to AIIMS. So, instead of making SKIMS defunct, it is better to further upgrade it. Despite all this, if BJP, in its attempt to get political mileage from the issue, wants to set up the AIIMS in Srinagar, it should go ahead with its plan. No one from Jammu would ever object to it but its leadership should keep one thing in mind that it cannot take the nationalist Jammu people for granted and has no right to play with their sentiments. Jammuites strongly feel that the Centre has cheated them by first announcing AIIMS for them and then taking it bac without citing any reason. They have made it clear that they have no objection even if the valley is given four AIIMS but Jammu should not be deprived of the one specifically announced for it by the Central government in the union budget. During the massive April 25 and May 27 bandhs, there were widespread anti-BJP protests in Jammu, Kathua, Udhampur, Basohli, Billawar, Samba, Doda and some areas of Rajouri and Poonch. Significantly, all these places had during the 2014 assembly polls voted for BJP to enable it to have its the biggest ever tally of 25 MLAs. With the resentment brewing against it now, it may not be able repeat the feat again. In a major embarrassment to BJP, even Bajrang Dal and Vishwa Hindu Parishad had supported the bandh calls. The workers of these organisations had worked overnight for BJP candidates during the 2014 polls.
By making the bandhs successful, people have sent a clear message to BJP to honour its commitments to the issues on which it has come to power in Jammu and Kashmir or get ready for the consequences. From the very beginning, some BJP ministers have been making the statements that neither suit the party ideology nor will ever help their party to strengthen its position in Jammu region. The civil society members, non-BJP parties and other organisations have been slamming the saffron brigade for its silence over the shifting of AIIMS announced for Jammu to the valley. They have described it as a sell out by BJP so as to stay in power in coalition with PDP. The AIIMS controversy, which has the potential of dividing people on regional lines, has already divided BJP in the state with its many senior leaders discreetly supporting the two bandh calls. In private discussions, they have been clearly saying that they cannot betray people of Jammu just for the sake of power. On April 25 last, union minister in PMO with independent charge of north-eastern states, Dr Jitendra Singh had also made it clear that the announcement for establishment of AIIMS was meant for Jammu to end the regional imbalances in the state. Jammu has been treated in a step-motherly manner from the very beginning. After the establishment of Medical College at Srinagar in Kashmir, a demand was raised for such a college in Jammu also by the people and it was then chief minister G M Sadiq who had agreed to it but due to his death, the medical college could not be set up in Jammu. Later, his successor Syed Mir Qasim gave practical shape to it and set up the medical college in Jammu. After Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah returned to power in J&K in 1975 with Congress support, he succeeded in establishing SKIMS in the valley with the blessings of then prime minster Indira Gandhi. After that, the demand for establishment of such a premier institute in Jammu gained momentum. So, for all practical purposes, AIIMS was to be set up in Jammu as was announced by the union finance minister in his budget speech. According to Jitender Singh, IIT was sanctioned for Jammu region after the formation of Modi-led government at Centre on May 26 last year. He said the IIT "can't be linked to AIIMS which was sanctioned this year".
Jammu needs AIIMS because the number of serious patients, who are referred from its GMCH to outside hospitals, is more as compared to Kashmir. Let the Centre set up AIIMS in Kashmir but let it also come true to its commitment of establishing AIIMS in Jammu. This controversy has been created by the Modi government and only it can provide a solution to it. Like the UPA government, which had ended one such controversy by giving two central universities to the state, NDA government can also set up an AIIMS each in Jammu and Kashmir regions.
(The author can be reached at bharatbhushan2009
@rediffmail.com)
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