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| Time for Jammu Muslims to excommunicate ‘mischief-monger’ | | | Early Times Report
Jammu, Aug 23: People of Jammu province are peace-loving and law-abiding. They, irrespective of their political affiliation and religious denomination, have always worked for communal harmony in the region. They are known for their love and affection for each other. The Muslims of Jammu province, like the Hindus of this province, have been mal-treated and discriminated against by the successive Kashmiri-dominated and Valley-centric successive governments in the state. Hence, the story of their woes is the same.
In fact, the Jammu Muslims have suffered more at the hands of the Kashmiri Muslim leadership, which has all along taken the Jammu Muslims for a ride and used them as a vote-bank by playing with their religious sentiments. The Kashmiri Muslim leadership has never ever considered them part and parcel of the Kashmiri Muslim society. Just visit the Muslim-majority areas in the erstwhile Doda district and Rajouri and Poonch districts and you will see for yourself the plight of the vast majority of Muslims there, leave alone 30 to 40 Muslims of the areas who have for personal power and profit always sided with the Kashmiri Muslim leadership. These areas have been consistently suffering in terms of road connectivity, educational and healthcare facilities, civic amenities, power supply, tourism and employment under the state government. Most of the Muslims in these areas are still living in dark ages. A very vast majority of them continues to be extremely backward.
An overwhelming-majority of the Muslims of these areas is leading a wretched life and working hard to maintain itself, with the Valley-centric authorities and Kashmir-based Muslim leadership deliberately ignoring it to overfeed the people of the Valley. It's not a new phenomenon. It is a very old phenomenon. Ever since the formation of the National Conference, which was founded by Sheikh Abdullah, the Kashmiri Muslim leadership has never really trusted the Jammu Muslims. That's the reason the relations between the Kashmiri Muslim leadership and the Jammu Muslims have never been really cordial.
That there exists a historical antagonism between the Valley-based Kashmiri Muslim leadership and Jammu Muslims could be seen from the fact that no Kashmiri separatist has been able to establish his stronghold in the Muslim-majority areas of Jammu province, despite the fact that the Kashmiri separatists have been striving to establish their hold over these areas since decades. The Muslims of Jammu province have not supported the Kashmiri separatists because they know under the dispensation they are seeking to establish their plight would be no different from the Muslims of PoK and Gilgit-Baltistan.
Besides, the majority of Muslims in Jammu province consists of Gujjar and Bakerwal Muslims and Pathowari-speaking Muslims, who know it is only the Indian Constitution that entitles the nomadic communities to enjoy the status of Scheduled Tribe and the privileges attached to it. They know there is not a single country in the entire Muslim world that provides for reservation for any segment of Muslim society on any ground whatsoever.
It is a matter of grave concern that Prof Zahur-ud-Din, who had been masquerading as a peace-monger, intellectual and as a champion of the Hindu-Muslim unity and the Jammu cause till the other day, has come out openly in support of the Kashmiri separatists, thus posing a live challenge to the communal harmony in the otherwise peaceful, liberal and secular Jammu province. He has taken a stand that has the potential of vitiating the atmosphere in Jammu.
His August 22 Rajouri statements that "they (Muslims of Jammu) will not tolerate 'brutality' in Kashmir"; that "we will no more tolerate state action on the people of Kashmir Valley who has (have) been detained in their houses for the last three months"; that the "Government of India had promised with the people of this state that they will hold referendum and the same have not been fulfilled"; and that "New Delhi must come forward and fulfill its promise on referendum" have only exposed his duplicity and established that he is more like a mercenary than as an intellectual and lover of Hindu-Muslim unity.
These statements have also established that he can change colours anytime and he can ditch anyone. Look at his attitude towards Amitabh Mattoo when he was the Vice-Chancellor of Jammu University. It was very, very cordial because he wanted to gain favours and he did gain. He served the University for several years after his retirement. But when the name of Mattoo was reportedly considered for his appointment as Vice-Chancellor of the Central University of Jammu, he joined hands with the Jammu Province People Front (JPPF) and sat on Dharna in front of the office of Divisional Commissioner, Jammu, to oppose the idea of Mattoo being appointed as Vice-Chancellor of the Central University. He again joined hands with the JPPF when certain fundamentalist forces cut the hair of a Kashmiri Sikh boy Mithun Singh, who had refused to embrace Islam and join the anti-India protests. He, along with other JPPF leaders, addressed a press conference on this gory incident that took place in Kashmir only recently.
These are only a few instances which serve to prove that his approach is not consistent and that he behaves differently at different times. The reasons are obvious. The secular-minded Muslims of Jammu province would do well to rein in Zahur-ud-Din. It is in their interest and in the larger interest of Jammu. Similarly, the authorities in Jammu have to take cognizance of the fact that Zahur-ud-Din has revolted against India by asking India to hold "referendum" in the State. It is always better to nip the evil in the bud. |
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