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| Reconciling differences : Gujjars, Paharis and political parties | | | Neha
JAMMU, Aug 8 : Elections to J&K assembly are not far away. These would be held before January 4, 2015, as the new government has to be in place latest by January 5 next year. It's only natural that major political parties have started preparing themselves for the upcoming very crucial electoral exercise. The coming assembly elections are very crucial for all the major players, NC, Congress, PDP and BJP. Significantly, NC, PDP and BJP have all declared that they would be fighting for 44+ seats and the Congress has umpteen times said that it would emerge as the single largest party in the election and no party would be able to form the next government without it. It has also repeatedly said that it would not mind forging post-alliance either with PDP or NC. In fact, Congress has kept all its options open.
Each one of these political parties has their own strongholds. It's no secret that PDP is on a strong wicket in Kashmir and is trying its level best to expand its area of influence beyond Kashmir. Similarly, BJP has its support-base in Jammu province and Ladakh and it is seeking to establish its foothold in the Valley - an effort which has surprised almost all political pundits and political parties and the reason is that BJP has never ever won a single seat in the Valley. Congress and NC claim that they have their support-base all across the state and their defeat in the Lok Sabha election was just an aberration and they would bounce back. It appears to be a tall claim. Significantly, there are communities in the state, especially Jammu province and Kashmir which, besides other social groups, house Gujjar and Balerwal Muslims and Pathowari (Pahari)-speaking people. These communities are at daggers drawn. The reason is that the Gujjars and Bakerwals have got ST status and they have been struggling to achieve political reservation in the assembly and parliament saying their counterparts in the rest of the country enjoy political reservation.
The Pathowari-speaking people have also been demanding ST status, saying their socio-economic status is no different from those of Gujjar and Bakerwal Muslims and that they also inhabit the areas the Gujjar and Bakerwals inhabit. The Gujjars and Bakerwals do not support the demands as being put forth by Pathowari-speaking people. In fact, they oppose the demands and say that the grant of ST status to Pathowari-speaking people will create powerful counterpoise to their own "just hopes and aspirations".
This conflict between the two communities has created a difficult situation for all the political parties. The Gujjars openly say that they would vote for party which would get them political reservation and similar is the stand of the Pathowari-speaking people and they mean what they say. These social groups constitute nearly 25 per cent of the state's total electorate and this should indicate how important these communities are for political parties. They inhabit the sensitive border belt from Rajouri to Poonch to Kupwara and Baramulla. Since the contradictions between these two communities are irreconcilable, the political parties are finding it very difficult to support one or the other. In case they support the Gujjar and Bakerwal communities, the Pathowari-speaking people would turn against them and mar their poll prospects in many constituencies. Likewise, if they support the Pathowari-speaking people, the Gujjars and Bakerwals will turn against them. The difficulty is that there is no middle path available to any of these political parties. Another difficulty of the political parties which have become more active in these areas is the determination of these communities to teach lesson to the parties which got their vote and support after befooling them or holding out a promise that they, if voted to power, would concede their demands. They are not really happy with Congress and NC, which have been enjoying important position in the state since 1947. |
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