Early Times Report
JAMMU, June 10: The ongoing bitter debate on the establishment of Kashmiri Hindu and Sainik colonies in Kashmir and the bitter opposition of the entire political class in the Valley as well as by all separatist outfits and civil society groups have created a serious situation in Jammu and elsewhere in the country. The hounded out Kashmiri Hindus and ex-soldiers hailing from Jammu and Kashmir have taken the opposition to their demands seeking separate homeland and establishment of Sainik colonies in the Valley not only to mean an affront to their self-respect and dignity but also as an attack on the very idea of India and its polity.
The immediate fallout of the opposition in Kashmir is that the Kashmiri Hindus settled in Jammu and other places in the region and outside the state, including Delhi, who are voters in the high profile Anantnag Assembly constituency, have planning to boycott the poll. PDP president and Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti is testing political water in this constituency, which was represented in the assembly by her father late Mufti Mohd Sayeed. Voting will take place on June 22 and the fate of seven candidates in the fray will be decided.
"Why should we take part in an electoral exercise when all the Kashmiri Muslim leaders, without any exception, oppose our demands, including our demand for separate homeland in the Valley," said Jawahar Lal Koul, adding that "it is disgusting that we cannot go back to our original habitat due to senseless opposition in Kashmir to our return. We will not vote," he said.
'We can understand why separatists and pro-Pakistani agents in Kashmir like Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, Yasin Malik, Shabir Shah and Aasiya Andrabi oppose us, but it is the opposition from so-called mainstream Kashmiri Muslim leaders which has made the issue of return more complicated," said Makhan Lal Taploo, another Hindu refugee, adding that "we will not vote for any candidate seeking election from the constituency"
There are many Kouls and Taploo who have started thinking in terms boycotting the by-poll and they are found in the localities like Muthi, Purkhoo, Mishriwala, Nagrota and Jagti.
That the internally displaced Kashmiri Hindus have been planning to boycott the by-poll cannot be construed as a good omen for the growth of people's democracy in the state in general and Kashmir in particular. But, then, Kashmiri leadership is itself responsible for the prevailing state of affairs.
The Kashmiri leadership would do well to refashion its whole approach towards the issues facing the Kashmiri Hindu community, as also to the issues confronting the minority communities. Not to do so would be only to facilitate the disintegration of the state. |
