Hari Om
Civil society in Jammu has finally recognized the gravity of the situation as it exists in Jammu and Kashmir and the dangers facing the neglected and marginalized Jammu province. They have realized that the people of Jammu province have already wasted their precious time and that they would lose everything in case they do not assert and create Kashmir-like situation that forces New Delhi to look towards the Kashmiri people, barring internally-displaced Kashmiri Hindus, and address all of their concerns, reasonable and unjustifiable, at the cost of the people of Jammu and Ladakh. Their conclusion is that New Delhi and Kashmiri leadership work in tandem and evolve and implement policies which not only exclude Jammu and Ladakh from their scheme of things but also holds Jammu and Kashmir aloof from the national mainstream.
Many active civil society members in Jammu have come to the conclusion, and very rightly, that it is the Indian political class that is responsible for all the Jammu's woes and that if the people of the region are to obtain their due share in the governance of the state as part and parcel of the Indian Society, they have to fight out those who control levers of power in New Delhi.
"Kashmiri leadership has been doing what it is expected to do. It was, is and shall always remain Valley-centric. We are not surprised over the anti-Jammu stance of the Kashmiri leadership. Our real problem is New Delhi, which in its desperate attempt to appease Kashmir and its population, has consistently sacrificed our genuine interests," they have been saying in the meetings they have been holding to discuss their plight and find ways and means to defeat the anti-Jammu forces wherever they are and whosoever they are.
For decades, the people of Jammu have been fooled in the name of national interest, denied their due share in services, infra structure development, due representation in legislatures through series of conspiracies. The list can be stretched ad-nausim. "It is time to say enough is enough, call a spade a spade and stand up so that they are counted by the powers-that-be in New Delhi," the civil society members say, adding that the people of Jammu province must launch a full-scale campaign for restoring the self respect of the people of the province and securing our legitimate rights from here and now. Say so loud and clear for the entire world to hear and take notice. Jammu has awoken," they have been saying, adding that Jammu is not a doormat.
Stop using Jammu as a doormat to clean your shoes to enter the drawing room of Kashmir. We shall not tolerate this. The people of Jammu will henceforth determine what is in the national interest and act accordingly. Delhi has no power of attorney from us to speak on our behalf. We are capable of speaking for our selves," they, in fact, have been saying.
That the Jammu civil society has of late become somewhat active augurs well for the region. Indeed, there is no political party in Jammu region in the real sense of the term which has the audacity to take up the Jammu people's cause. All the political players in Jammu are in one way or the other affiliated with Kashmiri parties for personal reasons. Even those who like in the BJP who got mandate from Jammu have ironically joined the anti-Jammu struggle going on in Kashmir. They have let down their own constituency. The situation has reached a point that certain former ministers from Jammu go to Srinagar to participate in the anti-national and anti-Jammu rallies. Take, for example, the participation of at least two Jammu-based Congress ministers in the rally organized recently in Srinagar by the JKPCC chief Ghulam Ahmad Mir against the demand of ex-soldiers from Jammu and Kashmir seeking establishment of Sainik Colonies in Srinagar and Budgam in Kashmir.
The charge of the civil society in Jammu that their political class has utterly failed to discharge its obligations towards the people of Jammu province just cannot be dismissed as silly and preposterous. Their charge is valid. Except for the Panthers Party, which invariably takes up the Jammu-specific issues and hold dharnas to draw the attention of the authorities to the burning issues in Jammu, all other parties, including the BJP, which got a massive mandate in 2014 from Jammu, behave in a similar fashion. However, the problem with the Panthers Party is that it is not consistent in its approach.
One can catalogue here innumerable instances to prove that the PDP, the BJP, the NC, the Congress and the CPI-M are almost on the same page as far as their attitude towards Kashmir and Jammu is concerned. However, it is neither possible nor desirable to refer to all of them in this small piece. Suffice it to say that their attitude is almost the same to the state's special status, cow-killing and beef eating laws, 12.5 per cent service tax on chopper service to Mata Vaishno Devi and other Hindu religious places, National Institute of Technology Srinagar issue, National Eligibility Entrance Test for under graduate MBBS and Dental courses, National Food Security Act, New industrial policy, the proposal of Sainik Colonies and even composite colonies in Kashmir for the internally-displaced Kashmiri Hindus and so on.
It was expected that the BJP at least would take a stand different from that of other political parties, but, sadly, it has been giving overt and covert support to the Kashmiri parties, which, on the one hand, attacks the Indian Constitution and Indian laws, and on the other, bat for policies which do not suit the people of Jammu and Ladakh as well as Kashmiri Hindus and refugees from West Pakistan and Pakistan occupied Jammu and Kashmir.
Even the May 25, 2016 address of the state governor NN Vohra to the joint-session of the state legislature only talked about that political aspect that suits Kashmir and Kashmiri people. It talked about the state's special status, sub-continental peace, Pakistan and reconciliation with Pakistan and separatists. There is no reference whatsoever to the political aspirations and urges of the people of Jammu and Ladakh in the governor's address. And remember the Governor's address was prepared and finalized by the state cabinet of which the PDP and the BJP are the two constituents.
Hence, the concern of the civil society in Jammu needs to be viewed in this context. It will be only in the fitness of things if the Jammu civil society, like the Kashmiri civil society, asserts and highlights the Jammu's woes. |
