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| Omar Abdullah's opposition to UT demand | | Jammu, Ladakh are not Kashmir's colonies | | Rustam
JAMMU, May 11: Grant UT status to the trans-Himalayan strategic Ladakh to end Kashmiri domination over it and enable its people to shape their socio-cultural and politico-economic future within India and under the Indian Constitution. This is the age-old demand of the people of this region, which remains cut off from the rest of the world for almost six months in a year. They have launched movement after movement to achieve their goal. In 1989, they even took recourse to violent methods, which culminated in an agreement under which they were granted two Autonomous Hill Development Councils, one each for Leh and Kargil. In 2002, all the political parties, including the Congress, BJP and NC, merged their identities with the Ladakh Union Territory Front (LUTF) of which the Ladakhi Buddhist Association (LBA) and the Ladakhi Muslim Association (LMA) were also part. It happened when the Assembly elections were round the corner. The LUTF fielded two candidates in Leh district and both won the election unopposed.
In the just-concluded Lok Sabha elections in Ladakh also, UT was the slogan of the BJP. Infact, the BJP contested the election on the slogan of UT status. The local Congress leadership too had released a manifesto for Ladakh and held out a commitment that it would work for the UT status for the region. Significantly, the JKPCC distanced itself from the local Congress leadership. The general view is that the JKPCC, which is headed by a Kashmiri politician, did not endorse the commitment under pressure from other Kashmiri leaders. The JKPCC declared that since the goal was unrealizable, it didn't endorse it.
It also talked of the importance of the unity and integrity of the state. In other words, it suggested that the grant of UT status to Ladakh will lead to the state's disintegration.
Not only the JKPCC, on May 7, the NC working president and Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, who has been at the helm of affairs since January 2009 with the help of the Congress, opposed the demand in Ladakh tooth and nail. Actually, he gave an interview to a national daily and during the course of the interview he condemned those demanding UT status. Condemning the BJP for its support to the demand seeking UT status, he said, "Dismembering Jammu & Kashmir will have awful consequences, both for communal peace in the state and for its wider relationship with India". "I don't think enough Indians understand just how dangerous this situation is," he also said.
The attitude of the Kashmiri leadership towards the demand in Jammu province for reorganization is also no different. It is not only opposed to this demand, but it is also opposed to the demand that an adequately empowered regional council be set up in Jammu to enable the people to manage their administrative, economic and social issues themselves in the manner they want. Interestingly, the JKPCC had promised regional development board in 2002 and regional council in 2008. It fought the election in Jammu on the Jammu-specific slogans and won 15 seats in 2002 and 13 seats in 2008 and became part of the government both in 2002 and 2008. It did nothing between 2002 and till date to fulfill the solemn promise. It is obvious the JKPCC worked in perfect unison with other Kashmiri leaders to defeat the rational demand in Jammu province. In between, the Kashmiri leadership repeatedly dubbed as communal, divisive, reactionary and even anti-Kashmir and anti-national those who had been demanding a change in the existing politico-constitutional and administrative system that ends the Valley domination over Jammu and Ladakh and empowers them to shape their own destiny under the Indian Constitution.
The Kashmiri leadership has been opposing the demands in Jammu and Ladakh for the state's reorganization for three main reasons. One is that they consider Jammu and Ladakh as Kashmir's colonies. This is utterly unacceptable. The other is that they do not consider the people of these two provinces a factor in the state's political situation and consider Kashmir and a section of Kashmiri society the sole factors which needed to be recognized. Again, this is utterly unacceptable. And the third reason is that they want to enrich Kashmir at the cost of Jammu and Ladakh and impose on them their regressive ideology. Enough is enough. The people of Jammu and Ladakh have already suffered immense political and financial losses. They are not prepared to do so anymore.
The people of Jammu and Ladakh are not slaves; they are Indian nationals and they are entitled to all those rights which are available to their fellow countrymen across the nation. And why the way who are the Kashmiri leaders, who have been putting forth demands ranging from independence to merger with Pakistan to autonomy to self-rule and to what not, to oppose the democratic demands in these two regions? They are the master of their own destiny and they have the fundamental right to oppose the secessionists and throw in their lot with New Delhi. The Kashmiri leadership will do well to reform itself. It will be in their interest. |
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