Prof Hari Om
The PDP-BJP clinched power-sharing deal on February 27, 2015 after two-month-long tortuous negotiations. It was described as a "path-breaking and historic" agreement. Historic because both the parties represented different political philosophies and had contradictory and mutually exclusive approaches towards the political status of J&K within India. The coalition consisting of disparate parties assumed office on March 1. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and many other top BJP leaders witnessed the "historic" event.
Reflecting on the aims and objectives of the coalition government, the BJP said it - apart from focusing its attention on governance and development - would undertake necessary steps to reduce the 67-year-old trust-deficit between Jammu region and Kashmir Valley. Bridging gap between them was imperative to maintain the unity and integrity of the state, it said, and rightly so. The relations between these two regions were never cordial, as there was no unanimity among them on any issue of political, development and economic import. In fact, the history of relations between the two was one of rancour, bitterness and animosity. Both invariably blamed each other for their failures to achieve what they wanted on political, financial and developmental fronts. The PDP, which got the office of Chief Minister for a full term of six years, too said the same. Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed said the air distance between Srinagar and Jammu was just 25 minutes and road distance six hours. At the same time, he candidly acknowledged that the "emotional gap" between them was "60 years". He said: "The real challenge is to bridge the gap between Jammu (region) and Kashmir (Valley). We will work towards bringing the two regions closer to each other".
So, when the BJP and the PDP underlined the need to bridge the regional gap, they simply recognised that reality that had dominated the state politics after October 1947 and embittered inter-regional relations. J&K acceded to India on October 26, 1947.
The PDP-BJP coalition will complete hundred days in office on June 8, but there appears nothing on the horizon which could even remotely suggest that it has taken any step whatsoever to achieve its stated goal of bridging the regional gap. On the contrary, certain decisions taken by the coalition government during the past few weeks have instead of bridging the gulf between the regions further widened it. Regional tensions have heightened to the extent people of both the provinces are face to face with each other. They have adopted threatening postures.
The decisions which have further aggravated regional tensions are many. One was the rejection of the age-old demand in Jammu for issuance of Dogra certificates to the youth desirous of seeking employment under army and central paramilitaries. The coalition rejected the demand following the senseless and vehement opposition in Kashmir registered for days by separatists. They opposed the demand saying it, if conceded, would "change the demography of Kashmir and dilute the state's special status".
The other was inadequate representation to Jammu in the cabinet. Kashmir got 12 berths and Jammu only six. Besides, Kashmir got all the important and vital portfolios. Jammu was allotted only power development, housing and urban development, health, transport, industry and forest departments and such a lop-sided distribution of berths and portfolios happened for the first time after 1947. The first five departments were, and are, in a shambles. And the ministers who are holding these departments are at the receiving end for obvious reasons. People of both the regions are unhappy over the functioning of these departments.
The third reason which further alienated the people of Jammu province from the coalition was decision to establish the sanctioned All-India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS)-like institute in Kashmir. During his budget speech in the Lok Sabha on February 28, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had announced AIIMS for Jammu, which lacked even rudimentary healthcare facilities. The people of Jammu province took the reversal of decision as an affront to their self-respect and observed a massive bandh across the region on April 24 to protest against what they termed as "anti-Jammu" authorities. They observed second very successful shutdown on May 27 following the Chief Minister's May 15 Jammu announcement that there was no question of the AIIMS being established in Jammu and that he could even "shelve" the ongoing artificial lake project over Tawi in Jammu, as it was "technically and economically not viable".
The statement of the Chief Minister has provoked the people of Jammu province to the extent that they have planned to unleash what they term as a "long-drawn and full-scale movement against the biased and vindictive authorities" under the banner of J&K High Court Bar association, Jammu. All the non-political groups, including business leaders, transporters, social and religious organisations, student and cultural bodies, have come on one platform - AIIMS Coordination Committee - to achieve two objectives - establishment of AIIMS in Jammu and completion of artificial lake at the earliest.
There is one more decision of the coalition government that has aggravated the Jammu's political scene. The coalition has decided to discontinue the 8-year-old practice of stationing certain durbar move officials in Jammu during the summer months when the civil secretariat functions in Srinagar. The practice of summer secretariat in Jammu was introduced by the Congress-PDP coalition government taking into consideration the pressing requirements of the people as well as the financial aspect. The decision to discontinue this practice has been taken by the people of Jammu region to mean yet another deliberate attempt of the coalition to embarrass and taunt them and tell them that they are "third grade subjects" whose life is not one of political and economic aspirations.
The coalition would do well to appreciate the sentiments of the people of Jammu province, failing which things would assume alarming proportions in Jammu. You just cannot treat Jammu the way it has been dealt with thus far. |
