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| Jammu, Ladakh have to live under autonomous state: Mattoo | | Kashmir solution or a charter of bondage | | Early Times Report
JAMMU, Apr 27: Former Vice-Chancellor of Jammu University and the so-called Kashmir expert Amitabh Mattoo, who has little say in his own internally-displaced community of Kashmiri Hindus, agrees that there is "clearly a feeling of deprivation and discrimination" in Jammu and Ladakh. "In some ways, what Srinagar feels vis-à-vis New Delhi is similar to the way Jammu and Leh see Srinagar and Kashmiri politicians," he says, but he doesn't want a solution to the so-called Kashmir issue that keeps Jammu and Ladakh out of its ambit.
Mattoo says, "The answer is in greater devolution and decentralization of power from New Delhi to Srinagar and from Srinagar to Jammu and Leh". In other words, he considers the Indian state responsible for the so-called alienation of Kashmiri Muslims overlooking the fact that Kashmir is the India's most prosperous and over-developed region and the Kashmiri Muslims, barring those belonging to the Shiite sect, the most prosperous community - a community that has been at the helm since 1947 - and that Jammu and Ladakh have no option but to depend on Kashmir for some crumbs, as has been the case till date.
Mattoo claims that he is a trouble-shooter and his solution could be the best solution. And remember, he also opposes tooth and nail the demand of the persecuted Kashmiri Hindu community for a separate homeland in the valley. He wants his community to return to their original habitat to live in the areas they had to quit in early 1990 to save their lives and culture and escape physical liquidation, torture and humiliation. He doesn't accept the view that the situation in Kashmir today is much worse then what it was in early 1990.
Mattoo also wants Article 370 to become a permanent feature of the Indian Constitution. "I think scrapping Article 370 would be a huge mistake," he says. He also puts forth a solution. And his solution in his own words is: "I feel that there is a long-term solution and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and President Musharraf came close to it. Making LOC a line of peace, giving autonomy to both sides of Kashmir, decentralizing power to the sub-regions like Ladakh and Jammu". He said so in 2008 after the Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir and he holds this view even today. He, like separatists like Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Kashmiri parties, also says that the people's participation in the electoral exercises doesn't mean their trust in the Indian state. The voters come out on issues like bijli, sadak, pani, but for many others there are genuine expectations for a real change. "I think many voters came out on issues of bijli, sadak, pani, but for many others there are genuine expectations of a real change. I feel the central and state governments have a unique opportunity to take initiatives that can reward those who have reposed their faith in democracy. Improving the human rights record, creating a knowledge economy, taking initiatives on issues like autonomy and self-reliance would be steps in the right direction".
By genuine expectations for a real change, Mattoo means no status-quo. He means the rise of a situation under which the state would become autonomous for all practical purposes with New Delhi having only a limited jurisdiction over it. Who will accept this type of solution which drives the state away from India and enslaves the people of Jammu and Ladakh on a permanent basis so that the state eventually becomes a state like Pakistan and Bangladesh? It is ironical that Mattoo has some persons in the establishment in Jammu and Kashmir and New Delhi and in parties like the BJP and organizations like the RSS who like his formulations very much. |
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