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| Mr Prime Minister, Jammu and Ladakh also exist | | Exclusivise approach will not do | | Early Times Report
JAMMU, Dec 16: Speaking of territory, the State is skewed in the favour of Jammu, which is nearly 1.75 times the size of Kashmir but still its people are discriminated against Kashmir Valley.
Ironically, Jammu & Kashmir has got reduced to Kashmir in the political narrative since the times of Jawaharlal Nehru, who conferred special status on the state to preserve the so-called "distinct identity of Kashmir and Kashmiri Muslims". Sadly, there was no similar thinking for the distinct and age-old culture and identity of Laddakh or Jammu that needed preservation. As a result, Jammu and Ladakh have suffered for being a part of the state.
The statistics speak for themselves. Jammu returns 2 members to Lok Sabha and 37 MLAs to the Jammu & Kashmir Legislative Assembly. While 1 MP represents roughly 17 lakh people, an MLA represents on an average 85,000 people. While Kashmir valley returns 3 MPs at the rate of one per 9.6 lakhs voters and 46 MLAs at the rate of one per 55000 voters. Both Jammu and Kashmir have an equal number of districts and this notwithstanding the fact that in terms of land area Jammu is nearly 1.75 times the size of Kashmir.
The state is yet to see a CM from Jammu and this is after when the Congress had fought the 2002 elections promising the Jammu electorate that the CM would be from Jammu, along with a statutory regional development board to take care of the needs of the people of Jammu, Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs included. Sadly, however, the Congress pandered to Kashmir leaders yet again and threw in the lot of people of Jammu and Ladakh with the discriminatory Kashmiri leadership. In 2008, the Congress not only toed the Kashmir line, but also handed over the office of the Chief Minister to NC for the full term of six years.
People of Jammu voted for the BJP in large numbers and give the BJP a whopping 25 seats. As soon as the BJP won a massive mandate, it changed its stance and behaved like the Congress had all along behaved when it came to the people of Jammu province.
It is only natural that an anti-BJP wave is sweeping the Jammu province. It is time for Prime Minister Narendra Modi to turn to Jammu, appreciate its aspirations and redress its age-old grievances. The patience of the people of the region is ending and ending very fast. To ignore Jammu or to treat it like Congress treated would be suicidal. Jammu is the BJP's core constituency in the state and it would be only in the fitness of things if the needs and compulsions of the people of Jammu are appreciated without causing any harm to Kashmir. Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh constitute the state and each one deserves equal treatment. |
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