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| Battleground Jammu: Make it strong to fight secessionism in Valley | | | EARLY TIMES REPORT
JAMMU, Aug 5: On Wednesday, Union Home Minister P Chidambaram made a statement on Kashmir in the Parliament. He informed the law-makers that the J&K Government "is actively considering a number of political and administrative measures" in order to restore peace and normality in the State (read the disturbed Kashmir as Jammu and Ladakh are very peaceful and as they have nothing to do with the ongoing violent activities in the Valley) and that the "Centre fully supports it." He also told that New Delhi is prepared to hold a dialogue with all sections of the people of the state. "There are", he said, "certain issues which concern our own people" and "they have to be addressed through the political process and through a dialogue with all sections of people. He also said, "once peace and order are restored, I am confident that we can explore the possibility of reactivating the political process that holds the key to solutions."
The Home Minister did not explain as to what exactly he meant by the "political process." Nor did he disclose the nature of "political and administrative measures" the J&K Government is contemplating to take to restore peace in Kashmir. These statements of the Union Home Minister have created a sort of furore among the people who have all along fought for the unity and integrity of India and considered J&K a settled issue. What has made the confusion worse confounded is the suggestion the Union Home Minister made regarding the "reactivation of the political process" in the state as well as his revelation that the "quiet dialogue has been on since 2009."
If by the reactivation of political process the Home Minister means a process that requires the men-in-power or custodian of the state to start a public contact programme to listen to the people's day-to-day problem, there is no problem. There has to be an intimate contact between the ruler and the ruled. Dialogue between the two helps the former to understand the nature of problems the ruled suffers from and, accordingly, resign the policies. But if by the reactivation of political process he means the initiation of a process that would re-open the settled issue of Kashmir in order to re-determine the political future of the state, then there is a serious problem.
The Home Minister should have explained away everything in order to avoid the possibility of his statements being interpreted differently by different sections of the society. The Home Minister is known for making candid comments and remarks. But in this case, he has left the people guessing. The concern shown by the discerning people and observers here in Jammu and elsewhere over the Home Minister's statements need to be viewed in the context of their vagueness.
The concern shown by the concerned people of Jammu and others, including those who were hounded out of Kashmir in 1990, cannot be overlooked. They do make a point when they say that Kashmir is within India only because they have made supreme sacrifices and suffered willingly and happily in the larger national interest and that had Jammu behaved in a different manner, Kashmir would have by now gone out of India. Their basic argument is that it Jammu that is the most strong and stable Indian constituency and that New Delhi has all along defeated the Kashmiri leadership's dubious and separatist game-plans with the help of the people of Jammu province.
They are absolutely right. They are also right when they assert that all of their sacrifices and sufferings will go down the drain if New Delhi bypasses them and go in for a "solution as per the wishes of the Kashmiri leadership, which in no way represents the will of the people of Jammu, the will of the people of Ladakh and the will of those hounded out of Kashmir two decades ago."
The Union Home Minister needs to take a cognizance of the negative reaction certain statements of his have evoked in Jammu. This is a must. If New Delhi really wishes to tackle Kashmir, it has no other option but to make Jammu province strong. To ignore Jammu province or to ignore Ladakh region and to work out a solution as per the wishes of the disgruntled and essentially separatist and communal Kashmiri leadership would be only to lose Kashmir. If New Delhi sincerely wishes to have its say in Kashmir, it has no other alternative but to make Jammu very, very strong. I am repeating this deliberately. In other words, to save Kashmir, empower Jammu. Jammu is the Karam Bhumi; Jammu is the real battleground from where India has been conducting its anti-separatist and anti-India operations since decades. It was not for nothing that a leading Delhi-based commentator wrote in 2008 during the Amarnath land agitation days: "To save India, follow Jammu."
The truth, in short, is that any attempt on the part of anyone in New Delhi's corridors of power to ignore Jammu would mean explosions of portentous dimensions in the otherwise very peaceful Jammu province. What Jammu is the nation knows! |
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