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| Jammu is not Kashmir's colony | | | Prof Hari Om
Jammu region is not Kashmir's colony. It is the second
largest region in the state after the trans-Himalayan Ladakh. Population-wise, Jammu region is at par with the Valley. If a fair census is held today in the state, the findings would be different. The population of Jammu region would be equal to that of Kashmir, if not more. The Jammu region, which is rich in green gold and has precious waters, also contributes no less than 70 per cent revenue to the state exchequer every year and it has been happening since 1947. In October 1947, Jammu & Kashmir acceded to India.
Not only this, the then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru played foul with the people of Jammu region and manipulated transfer of political power from Jammu to Kashmir. Jammu region had been at the helm of affairs since March 1846, when Kashmir became part of the Dogra Kingdom under the Treaty of Amritsar, signed between Raja of Jammu Gulab Singh and the British Indian Government. The fact of the matter is that Jammu region has a rich history and distinct identity and that it is not only known for its splendid contribution to the national integration, but it is also known for its political neglect, economic marginalization, backwardness and under-development.
Jammu region perhaps is the only part of the country where people have to come on to the roads periodically to persuade or force the New Delhi-backed vindictive and biased Kashmiri ruling elite to get even educational institutions. The truth is that the people of Jammu region never got any institution or a new administrative unit without relentless struggle, coupled with sacrifices, including deaths at the hands of the Kashmiri-controlled state police. Believe it or not, but it is a hard fact that it was only after a long-drawn and relentless struggle that people of Jammu region got University of Jammu, Jammu Medical College, Engineering College, Dental College, Agriculture University, Mata Vaishno Devi University and Central University of Jammu. In contrast, the Kashmiri people never ever came on to the streets anywhere in the Valley demanding any institution. They got more than what they required without putting in any effort whatever. It was the Kashmiri leadership that always not only watched their interests but also promoted further their cause by jeopardizing the legitimate rights and interests of the people of Jammu region. The Kashmiri leadership could give a preferential treatment to the Valley because it always had majority in the Assembly and it also controlled the state cabinet and the Council of Ministers.
All this happened, because the Kashmiri with the blessings of New Delhi manipulated excessive and preponderant share of representation in the Assembly and Lok Sabha. As for the ungrateful Jammu leadership, it always flirted with the Kashmiri leadership or danced to the tunes of their Kashmiri masters like the BJP has been doing since March 1, 2015, when the North Pole and South Pole formed hotchpotch and ragtag coalition government as per the agenda of alliance which handed over everything to the anti-Jammu PDP on a platter. The people of Jammu region contemptuously dub the agenda of alliance as a "new charter of bondage" or another rivet in the chain of their slavery as well as an "agenda of subversion".
Not only this, the people of Jammu region had to struggle for years and sacrifice at least six invaluable lives to persuade the Kashmiri ruling elite to consider their demand for three additional districts of Samba, Kishtwar and Reasi. Under tremendous pressure from below, Chief Minister Sheikh Abdullah did appoint Wazir Commission in 1981 to find if the demands put forth by the people of Jammu region were valid and well-founded. The Commission did endorse the age-old demands of the people of Jammu region and recommended the creation of Samba, Reasi and Kishtwar districts in Jammu region and Bandipora in Kashmir, but the Kashmiri-dominated government threw the report into a dustbin. And when in 2007, the Government of Ghulam Nabi Azad created new districts in the state, he did so after bypassing the Wazir Commission report. He set up eight new districts, four each for Jammu division and Kashmir Valley. He created four additional districts in the Kashmir Valley overlooking the fact that there was no demand anywhere in the Kashmir Valley for more districts. Azad acknowledged during the press conference that there was no demand in Kashmir for more districts and that he created four addition districts in the Valley to establish that he believed in the principle of justice and equity. Mercifully, he also took the people of Jammu region for a ride when he shamelessly claimed that he implemented the Wazir Commission report. Indeed, he implemented the report in a wrong way to further appease Kashmiri and Kashmiri people professing one particular faith.
All-India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) was the only institution that was sanctioned for Jammu by New Delhi on its own. The announcement was made by none other than Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on the floor of the Lok Sabha on February 28. The announcement was hailed by one and all in Jammu. The BJP also welcomed the announcement and celebrate it. However, within 24 hours, the people of Jammu region came to know that the BJP had committed an AIIMS for Kashmir even before forming the government with the PDP. They felt cheated when the newly-appointed Chief Minister Mufti Sayeed in the presence of BJP leader and newly-appointed Deputy Chief Minister Nirmal Singh made public the so-called agenda of alliance. Ever since then, the people of Jammu region, cutting across religious and political lines, are accusing the authorities of snatching the sanctioned AIIMS for Jammu from Jammu and holding the BJP responsible for the shifting of this institute from Jammu to Kashmir. People of Jammu do not deserve such a shabby treatment. They deserve a special attention and care because they have suffered huge political, social and economic losses at the hands of New Delhi and Kashmiri leadership during all these years of accession of the state with India. There are reasons to believe that the frustrated, desperate and humiliated people of Jammu region could take the law of the land into their own hands to achieve what they rightly deserved. The authorities would well to read the writing on the wall and take some concrete steps to avert the impending crisis in Jammu region.
(The author is formerly Dean of Jammu University's Faculty of Social Sciences) |
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