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| Kashmir, Kashmir, Kashmir: Where are Jammu and Ladakh? | | | RUSTAM
EARLY TIMES REPORT
JAMMU, Aug 6: Syed Ali Shah Geelani asks New Delhi to give Kashmir the right to self-determination. He wants New Delhi to quit Kashmir forthwith. Mirwaiz Umar Farooq asks New Delhi to talk to Pakistan, give Kashmir the right to self-determination and quit Kashmir forthwith. Yasin Malik asks New Delhi to allow Kashmir to become independent. He wants New Delhi to quit Kashmir without losing a single moment. Shabbir Ahmad Shah asks New Delhi to give independence to Kashmir and quit Kashmir immediately. Syed Salahuddin asks New Delhi to talk to Pakistan, allow Kashmir to secede from India and quit Kashmir immediately. Dukhtaran-e-Millat asks New Delhi to talk to Pakistan and give Kashmir the right to self-determination and quit Kashmir. Mufti Mohammad Sayeeed and Mehbooba Mufti want New Delhi to apply balm to the Kashmir's wounds, talk to Pakistan, give Kashmir what it wants and quit Kashmir forthwith. Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, who right now is fighting to the hilt to save his chair, and his National Conference want New Delhi to close down its politico-constitutional shop in Kashmir or to allow Kashmir to have a semi-independent dispensation. They also want New Delhi to quit Kashmir for all practical purposes.
The so-called civil society of Kashmir asks New Delhi to resolve Kashmir as per the aspirations of the alienated Kashmir, accommodate Pakistani viewpoint on Kashmir and quit Kashmir forthwith. The Kashmir-based media, both print and electronic, sides with the Geelanis, the Mirwaizs, the Maliks, the Shahs, the Salahuudins and the Andrabis. Obviously, it wants New Delhi to quit Kashmir immediately. In fact, every articulate Kashmiri leader, every Kashmiri journalist, every Kashmiri commentator, every Kashmir-based "human rights" activist, every Kashmiri Mullah and Kashmiri Maulvi and every Kashmiri who matters in Kashmir in his own right wants New Delhi to allow Kashmir to secede from India. They, too, want India to quit Kashmir forthwith.
The Delhi-based, the Kolkata-based and the Chennai-based cohorts of the Kashmiri separatists and the protagonists of two/three-nation theory like Kuldip Nayar and his brother-in-law Rajinder Sachhar (who had fled from Pakistan to save their lives in the wake of the country's communal partition in 1947), Burkha Dutt (whose family belongs to the Pakistani Sialkot), AG Noorani, Praful Bidwai, Amitabh Mattoo, Radha Kumar, Siddharth Vardarajan, Prem Shanker Jha, AS Dulat, to mention only a few, also want New Delhi to accommodate Pakistan, "assuage" the "hurt feelings" of the "hurt Kashmir." Each one of them wants nothing but "justice" for Kashmir and by "justice" they mean nothing but a resolution of Kashmir as per the will of the Kashmiri secessionists, the Kashmiri terrorists, the Kashmiri communalists, the Kashmiri "civil society" and Islamabad.
So, it's Kashmir, Kashmir and only Kashmir. What is Kashmir and for whom the Kashmiri separatists and their cohorts in Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata and elsewhere want independence or quasi-independence or Pakistan? Kashmir is a small part of the State, called the State of Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh. Kashmir was purchased by Maharaja Gulab Singh in 1846. He paid a sum of Rs 75 lakh to the British Government and merged Kashmir into the Jammu kingdom. Jammu ruled over Kashmir right till October 1947. This is Kashmir over which Jammu also ruled during the ancient time.
Kashmir occupies less than 12 per cent of the state's geographical area, as against the over 88 per cent state's land area that is occupied by Jammu and Ladakh. This is Kashmir. The protagonists of independent Kashmir/Pakistan/autonomy/self-rule want what they have been advocating since long for Kashmiri people and by the Kashmiri people they mean the followers of a particular religion. They do not mean a dispensation in which the persecuted Kashmiri Hindus, the Kashmiri Sikhs or the other those few non-Muslims who still stay put in Kashmir braving all odds or against all odds will have to dance to the dictates of fundamentalists and regressive forces.
The most striking aspect of all the formulations of all the protagonists of independent Kashmir, quasi-independent Kashmir, greater autonomy and self-rule is that they want New Delhi to force down the throats of Jammu and Ladakh what the Geelanis, the Mirwaizs, the Maliks, the Shahs, the Andrabis, the Salahuddins and so on and so forth advocate and want. Paradoxically, there are also elements in the New Delhi's political establishment who also endorse all the formulations of all those advocating independence for Kashmir, greater autonomy for Kashmir, self-rule for Kashmir and the Kashmir's merger with Pakistan.
What is this all non-sense? How could they ignore Jammu and Ladakh? How could they dare to think in terms of throwing in the lot of Jammu and Ladakh with the regressive elements in Kashmir? Jammu and Ladakh have their distinct identity. They have their own aspirations and, hence, New Delhi must refrain from undertaking steps that outrage their sensitivities and compromise their aspirations. New Delhi will face serious problem in the state in case it ignores Jammu and Ladakh in its desperate bid to further appease the already rather pampered fanatics in Kashmir. |
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