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| 'Resolution on separate Chenab council in Jammu raises tensions": Sandhya | | View from Delhi | | Early Times Report
JAMMU, June 5: The submission by the Congress MLA G. M. Saroori resolution on Jammu's division and establishment of Hill Development Council in the erstwhile Doda district, the so-called Chenab Valley, and its acceptance for discussion in the Assembly has not only alarmed the people of Jammu region but also attracted the attention of Delhi-based serious think-tanks and commentators like Sandhya Jain.
Commenting on the disturbing development, Sandhya Jain today said in New Delhi that "tensions are rising in Jammu province following the decision to accept a Private Member Resolution by Congress MLA G.M. Saroori for a separate Chenab Valley Hill Development Council, on the lines of the Leh & Kargil Hill Development Council" and added that the Dixon Plan was being invoked to destroy the identity of Jammu region and help forces hostile to India.
On May 31, the Assembly also accepted for discussion Saroori's resolutions for immediate survey for laying of railway line from Gool-Kishtwar and Jammu to Poonch via Rajouri, and a separate special financial component for erstwhile Doda district to bring it at par with other districts of the State, Jain further said.
Saroori had justified a separate Hill Development Council for the non-existent Chenab Valley on grounds that the Kashmiri leadership had supported it; he expressed confidence that the ruling People's Democratic Party and the main opposition party, the National Conference, would support his resolutions.
The move has inflamed large sections of the majority community in Jammu province, who argue that there has never been any geographical entity called Chenab Valley in the State and that the intent of the resolution is to separate erstwhile Doda district from Jammu province, thereby creating a Hindu Jammu and Muslim Jammu, a plan originally envisaged by Australian jurist, Sir Owen Dixon, in his proposal to the United Nations way back in September 1950, Jain said.
Jain further said: "Dixon, who arrived in India in May 1950 as special representative of the UN, suggested to the Security Council that since Jammu is mainly Hindu, Kashmir Valley predominantly Muslim, and Ladakh Buddhist, a plebiscite embracing all communities would cause Partition-style refugee problems", and pointed out that he mooted a "plebiscite by areas" only in regions where the will of the people was unclear, that is, where the communal balance was uncertain". "Dixon assigned Ladakh to India, the Northern Areas and Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir (POK) to Pakistan, split Jammu between the two, and envisaged a plebiscite only in the Kashmir Valley. Thus, Dixon proposed that Pakistan keep the territory it had grabbed and tried to extract more strategic Indian territory to it," Jain said.
Dixon wanted to join the predominantly Muslim Doda, Rajouri and Poonch districts to Kashmir valley (and go via plebiscite to Pakistan). Hindu-dominated Kathua and Jammu would stay with India. Since then, this so-called Chenab solution has repeatedly surfaced as a ploy to take the Muslim-majority areas of Jammu out of the province. Dixon wanted the north of Chenab to be declared as the 'new' international border. As Nehru could hardly take such a deal to the cabinet and survive politically, it died a natural death," Jain further said while reflecting on the dangerous ramification of the Congress' resolution.
Not just this, Jain also said: "Around the time of the Agra Summit in 2001, Gen. Musharraf proposed seven councils - a variant of Dixon. Musharraf suggested two regional councils in Jammu (along Hindu-Muslim demographic lines), two in Ladakh (along Buddhist-Muslim demography) and one for Kashmir (to maintain its Muslim character). Later, then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's special expert Wajahat Habibullah mooted the same division of the state at the Working Group on Centre State Relations at its last meeting on 2 September 2007. Officially, Habibullah was invited to speak on panchayati raj!" Jain was absolutely correct.
Jain was also correct, when she said: "The attempt to create an administrative model for Jammu province that will coincide that the demographic divide and deepen religious cleavages has since been the endeavour of all regimes in the State. The Congress member's resolution has been virulently opposed by the new public opinions forum, which argues that this 'break-Jammu resolution', if accepted by the Assembly, would only help the protagonists of Greater Kashmir to achieve their cherished 68-year-old goal and help Pakistan to establish complete control over the precious Chenab waters".
It is important to note that Pakistan has never been interested in the people of Jammu & Kashmir. It has been keeping the pot boiling in the State in order to gain total control of the precious waters of the Indus; "the very survival and existence of Pakistan depends on the Chenab waters".
The pro-Pakistan elements in J&K have long attempted to dub the erstwhile Doda district as "Chenab Valley" in order to serve Islamabad's interests. Opinions forum in Jammu have warned that "acceptance of the Congress members' resolution that seeks to separate erstwhile Doda district from Jammu province and the setting up of an autonomous hill council development in this area would facilitate the establishment of Greater Kashmir and dismemberment of Jammu province". |
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