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| NC, Cong don't know what they say | | IIT is for all | | Rustam
JAMMU, Aug 14: Working president of National Conference (NC) and Chief Minister Omar Abdullah and JKPCC president Saif-ud-Din Soz, it seems, do not know what they say or they make statements without realizing that their views are offending even those who belong to their own faith. This became more than clear when they in one voice condemned the Union Government for its decision to set up an Indian Institute of technology in Jammu - institute which will not be the sole preserve of the Jammu youth but of the country, including Kashmir and Ladakh.
Both the Kashmir-based leaders forgot that their parties were in power in the state and that they had consistently claimed that they talk for and on behalf of the entire population of the state. They not only accused the Union Government of ignoring Kashmir and creating a regional divide between Kashmir and Jammu and between the former and Ladakh by sanctioning an IIT for Jammu, but one of them also dismissed the decision as "anti-Muslim" and described it as a threat to "secular India".
Both the leaders, whose parties were decimated by the people of the state in the Lok Sabha election, completely overlooked the fact that both Jammu province and Ladakh region not only houses non-Muslims but also house Muslims. In Jammu province, the population of Muslims is nearly 30 per cent and the rest are Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Christians and so on. Similarly, in Ladakh, which has two districts (Leh and Kargil), the Buddhists and the Shiite Muslims are almost evenly balanced. Leh district is Buddhist-majority with Shiite Muslims also in huge numbers. In Kargil district, the position is just the reverse.
To be more precise, the proportion of Buddhists and Shiite Muslims in Ladakh region is almost 55:45. By opposing the decision of the Union Government to establish an IIT, they not only offended the non-Muslims in Jammu and Ladakh but the Muslims of these provinces as well. In other words, they vindicated all those who used to accuse the Kashmiri leadership of exploiting the religious sentiments of Muslims of these two provinces for electoral gains and forgetting them completely after winning election and coming to power. It needs to be noted that the Kashmiri leadership has never considered even Muslims of Jammu province and Ladakh region as part and parcel the state. By opposing the establishment of an IIT in Jammu, both the Kashmiri leaders only proved that their whole approach is patently parochial. It is a different story that Jammu and Ladakh-based leaders of the NC and the Congress have thought it politically prudent not to question their Kashmiri masters. And it must remain a matter of shame. |
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