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| Ultimately, Omar recognizes the stark realities in J&K | | Splendid Victory | | Rustam
Early Times Report
JAMMU, Nov 3: The people of Jammu and Ladakh had been consistently asserting since 1947 that they were historically, culturally, ethnically, politically, ethnically and linguistically different from those of the Kashmir Valley, that their political aspirations, needs and urges were different from the Kashmiri Sunni leadership and that New Delhi and Kashmiri leadership always ignored them to pamper sections of Kashmiri population, but their voice was hardly heard.
Even the so-called opinion leaders, Kashmir experts and conflict-managers refused to see the ground realities. They always sought to mislead the nation, and even the international community, by creating an impression that Kashmir means the State of Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh and fulfilling the sectarian urges of a section (read the one which has been ruling the state since 1947 and that heads all the so-called mainstream and separatists outfits) of Kashmiri population would be the same as fulfilling the urges of the entire population of the state.
They insisted on their flawed formulations, notwithstanding the fact that the people of these two regions consistently opposed the demands in Kashmir ranging from autonomy to merger with Pakistan to independence to India-Pakistan joint control to demilitarization to the restoration of pre-1953 position to the adoption of supra-state measures to economic independence and to what not.
The people of Jammu and Ladakh scored a great victory on Saturday, when the beleaguered NC working president and outgoing J&K Chief Minister Omar Abdullah admitted that J&K was a complicated state and it consisted of three distinct regions of Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh.
This was a great admission and could be considered a slap on the face of those who misled the nation for almost seven decades. Now that none other Omar Abdullah, who also holds the Home portfolio, has accepted the ground realities, it is time for New Delhi to appreciate the same and work out and implement a political scheme that caters to the socio-economic and political needs of Jammu and Ladakh without harming the legitimate interests of Kashmir. Kashmir is as much a part of the state as Jammu and Ladakh and each region must be empowered to enjoy and exercise equal rights. What Omar Abdullah said should also open the eyes of the so-called opinion-makers, commentators and trouble-shooters as well as Pakistan which wants to grab the state on the spurious plea that J&K is a Muslim majority state, which is not really the case. J&K houses almost 40 per cent non-Muslim population.
It is only the Valley which is predominantly Muslim and the plus point is that Kashmir is highly diverse - a fact Farooq Abdullah as Chief Minister acknowledged at Asia hotel in Jammu more than 15 years ago. |
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