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| Jammu businessmen are Hindus first, then traders | | Economic blockade threat | | Early Times Report
JAMMU, Sept 21: The threat of Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), an RSS outfit, that it would go in for economic blockade to Kashmir in case the PDP-BJP Government allowed discussion on private member's bills, seeking de-criminalisation of cow slaughter and beef eating has unnerved and rattled not only the Kashmiri leaders, separatists and religious leaders but also the business community in Kashmir.
The VHP had on Friday threatened that it would launch an agitation similar to the one the country witnessed in Jammu in 2008 over the Amarnath land issue and enforce an economic blockade if the Jammu & Kashmir Assembly allowed a discussion to repeal of the relevant laws which criminalise bovine slaughter and sale of beef in the State. Not only the VHP, almost all the social and religious organizations have joined hands against those in Kashmir who have been working for the abrogation of all the laws against cow killing, sale of beef and beef eating.
The business leaders in Kashmir had on Friday not only said that they were Muslims first and then traders, but had also threatened that if the people of Jammu enforced economic blockade, Kashmir would conduct its trade through the Uri-Muzaffarabad route. Besides, they fully endorsed the demand of religious bigots and the so-called mainstream Kashmiri parties, including the NC, the Congress, the CPI-M, and secessionists like MLA from Langate Engineer Rashid, that cow slaughter should be de-criminalized and all the laws that banned cow slaughter and beef eating more than eight decades ago during the regime of Maharaja Hari Singh should be revoked.
The Kashmir business representatives on Sunday and today again reiterated their stand and held out a threat that Kashmir would snap all of its business ties with Jammu and do business through Uri-Muzaffarabad route. They warned of snapping commercial ties with Jammu-based traders if an economic blockade is enforced in the Valley as was threatened by Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP).
"We want to send a clear message to our Jammu counterparts to explain their position on VHP's statement. Do they want to do business with us or support radical groups like VHP which are hell-bent on dividing the State on communal lines?" Yasin Khan, president of Kashmir Traders and Manufactures Federation (KTMF), said. He said the business community in Jammu must clear its stand on whether they supported VHP on the matter. "The ball is in the court of the Jammu business community. We want them to go public on the issue," he was quoted as saying. He further added: "We won't hesitate to use Muzaffarabad -Srinagar route for trade so that Kashmir does not remain dependent on Jammu".
He also tore into the PDP-BJP Government saying it had allowed the situation to deteriorate by allowing organizations like the VHP to indulge in communal activities calculated to interfere in the religious affairs of the Muslim community and demanded stringent action against the VHP and similar other groups who threatened a retaliatory action in case their demand was not conceded. "No action has been taken against the group despite it making provocative statements…The Government has given a free hand to groups like VHP to propagate religious hatred without any fear," he said.
He surprisingly chose to react against the VHP statement but did not even try to understand why the VHP had made such a statement. If he terms VHP as communal, he should not hesitate from terming those in the valley, who want the repeal of laws that ban cow slaughter and beef sale in the State, as the most communal, intolerable and anti-peace. Hindu sentiments are attached with cow and its slaughter can't be allowed at any cost anywhere in the State.
The Kashmiri business leaders also got support from fanatics like MLA Mohammad Yousuf Tarigami, who dismissed the statement of the VHP as "provocative and disastrous". "The VHP's statement on discussion on repeal of 298 A, 298 B, 298 C and 298 D of Ranbir Panel Code -- which criminalizes slaughter of bovine animals -- is provocative and disastrous," he said, adding that "RSS and its byproducts are hell-bent to disrupt the communal and pluralistic ethos of Jammu & Kashmir" and that they "have now started undermining the legitimacy of Legislative Assembly".
Neither the Kashmir business representatives nor Tarigami uttered a word against those who had been outraging the religious sensitivities of the Hindus by defying the law and slaughtering cows at public places. And this should call their bluff and establish that they are as bigot as others who have polluted the religious atmosphere in the State.
How could the Kashmiri business community expect the Jammu business community to identify itself with the former to hurt the religious feelings of the Hindu community who worship cow as mother? After all, the Jammu business representatives are Hindus first and traders afterwards. In fact, the Kashmiri business leaders have provoked the Jammu business leaders by saying that they were Muslim first then traders. It is hoped that the Jammu business leaders would give their Kashmiri counterparts a befitting reply by saying that they all stand for implementation of the law of the land. The business community of Jammu has all along stood solidly behind the people of Jammu region, Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs included, and there is no reason why should they deviate from this path to appease the anti-Hindu forces in the Valley? |
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