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| Massive Jammu bandh indictment of Delhi, Kashmiri leadership | | STARK REALITY | |
RUSTAM
Early Times Report
Jammu, Oct 1: The people of Jammu province have once again demonstrated a remarkable unity. They have rejected out-of-hand the 8-point New Delhi’s package, saying it was not only the Valley-centric but also militant and separatist-friendly. Their objections to the so-called Jammu and Kashmir package were as valid as they were reasonable. The manner in which they observed bandh on Thursday across the Jammu province, barring a few pockets, was similar to the one in which they used to organize bandhs during the 2008 Amarnath land row. During those days, they had observed complete bandh across the region for more than 50 days and suffered immense losses happily and without any regret. Their participation used to voluntary. The people used to observe a complete shutdown on their own. There was no coercion. Their response to the September 30 bandh call was no different. Again, there was no coercion. The people’s participation was voluntary. It was on expected lines. The people observed a complete shutdown despite the fact that there was no mobilization. Those who gave the call for bandh had no time to mobilize the people. Besides, those who gave the call for bandh were not that popular. The people made the bandh a grand success because the cause for which the call was given was very dear to them.
The call for bandh was given just a couple of days ago by one political party and all others endorsed it in no time and without any hesitation. The response was spontaneous, massive, reassuring and inspiring. The people wanted to register their most emphatic protest against the New Delhi’s Kashmir-centric policies, including its appeasement policy and policy designed to pander to communalism in Kashmir and against the separatist and communal Kashmiri leadership and they also wanted themselves to identify themselves with the Indian nation and they demonstrated their will in a highly convincing manner. The people demonstrated their unity for the cause of their region, as also for the national cause.
The common people, cutting across party lines and irrespective of religious denomination; all the political parties, barring the Congress, the National Conference and the people’s Democratic Party; the entire business community and its organizations, including the Chambers of Commerce and Industry (CCI); the black coated community of lawyers, irrespective of political affiliations; almost all the known social groups; the student community, in fact, everyone contributed to the success of what could be termed as a historic bandh. The vendors, the petty shopkeepers, the tea stall owners, the dhabawallas, the auto and taxi drivers and who not did all that they could to make the bandh a great success. That the bandh was complete and peaceful once again demonstrated that the people of Jammu province do not take the law of the land into their hands and that they believe in the constitutional method of agitation. Credit goes to them. They had led the nation aright in 2008 by making supreme sacrifices and they did the same again by opposing the New Delhi’s Kashmir policy that is fraught with dangerous ramifications.
The nature and magnitude of the bandh could be legitimately construed as a big slap on the face of those in New Delhi and Kashmir who described the 8-point package as state-centric. It was an indictment of those who mortgaged the paramount national interests to appease the separatists and the motivated stone-throwers in Kashmir; those who have been demanding withdrawal of the Army and paramilitary forces and revocation of or dilution in the AFSPA; those who in Jammu shamelessly said that the package contained things for Kashmir, for Jammu and for Ladakh and that there was nothing in the package that could be described as Kashmir-centric; and that problem in Kashmir was political and that needed to be addressed accordingly. The bandh was also an indictment of those in Jammu who held press conferences or issued press statement to mislead the people of Jammu province by seeking to convey a message that the package was state-centric.
But more than that, the Thursday shutdown in Jammu brought to the fore the fact that the people of Jammu province and Kashmir region cannot live together under one political dispensation and that they represent two diametrically opposite strands. In other words, the bandh in Jammu established beyond any shadow of doubt that the people in this province stand for national unity, brotherhood and empowerment of the poor and the ignored and that they would not accept anything that has the potential of driving the state away from the national mainstream.
The massive Jammu bandh must silence the critics of the people of Jammu province, including some Jammu-based media persons who have been promoting the cause of the Kashmiri extremists under the guise of “human rights” and “humanity.” The people of Jammu province, like the people of Ladakh and displaced and persecuted communities of Kashmiri Hindus and Sikhs, need to be conciliated and won over and they can be conciliated only if New Delhi is willing to recognize the ground realities in the state. Some of the ground realities are that the problem in Kashmir is communal, not political, and that it is not the people of Kashmir, but the people of Jammu province and similar other people in the state who stand totally alienated from New Delhi and Kashmir because of their controversial policies. It is time that New Delhi realized these ground realities and act accordingly. If it feels that by appointing the so-called special task forces for Jammu and Ladakh it could end alienation in these two provinces or mislead and hoodwink them or make them accord legitimacy to the Kashmiri Muslim identity politics, then it is living in a fool’s paradise. The people of Jammu, like the people of Ladakh and displaced community of Kashmiri Hindus, are not purchasable. These people need two things – their empowerment and their complete integration into India. |
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