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| ‘Remarks against Gujjars’ flayed | | | Early Times Reporter
Jammu | Feb 9
Febrary 9th / The Gujjars of Jammu and Kashmir today strongly opposed and condemned the anti Gujjar speeches of Pahari Leaders during a dinner hosted by Vice-Chairman, Jammu Kashmir Pahari Advisory Board at Jammu last evening .
In order to express anguish over the vested interest people trying to weaken the tribal character of various communities and ride upon the established procedures and set practices to grant tribal status the Paharis, state president, Gujjar Bakerwal Joint Forum, Haji Shamsher Ali Boken today addressed an emergency Press Conference here at Press Club this after noon .
The Gujjar leader took strong exception to the speech of Dy. Chief Minister Muzaffer Hussain Beigh in which he said that we are perusing the proposal for grant of Schedule Tribe status to Pahari speaking people in Delhi.
Haji argued "What is the criteria of giving ST status to Paharis as there is no provision to enlist a community as Schedule Tribe on the basis of its language or location", he said and added that Gujjars were nomadic so they were given Schedule Tribe status in 1991 by the then Prime Minister, Mr Chander Shekhar
Haji Shamsher alleged that the movement of Pahari Speaking People has turned in its demand of granting of ST Status to anti Gujjar Movement and have lodged misinformation campaign against Tribal and nomad Gujjars of the State which constitute 3 rd largest ethnic and lingual identity , having twenty two twenty five percent population in the state.
Regarding Pahari speaking people's claim to ST status, the forum President argued that the term; " Pahari or for that matter, Pahari speaking people" has never been defined either by the J&K Government or the Union Government. Such class of people has neither been defined in any works of history, anthropology or census nor even mentioned in revenue records.
He added that Paharis were neither defined as a weaker section and nor they approached before the Gajendragadkar Commission, the Sikri Commission, the Wazir Commission (1969), the Anand Commission (1976) and the Mandal Commission which covered the entire country.
All these commissions, from time to time, identified the Other Bakward Classes, Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Backward Areas and none of them recognized any group as Pahari or Pahari speaking people as weaker section of the society. Pahari being the affluent ruling class do not suffer from the social stigma which is the most important condition to declare a particular class of people as Scheduled Tribe, He added
The other leader said demand of the Pahari speaking people is merely based on the premises of language while the dialect or the language is not any criteria to declare any class as Scheduled Tribe. Each of the languages have sister dialect and by that way Pahari is invariably spoken across the state by the people of all communities and origins. Even the Pahari language has no dialect. Paharis are neither tribal nor nomadic in character and they are not socially, economically and educationally backward, the memorandum .
He mentioned that Paharis are already enjoying reservation under three different categories i.e. RBA, ALC and OBC in different areas. Moreover, if still there are some more Pahari people who need reservation then they should be given the reservation on the basis of their economic status but not on ST status, he added.Paharis are not recognised class under SRO 394 of 1981 of State Government, it was pointed out. The demand of Pahari speaking people is merely based on the premises of language while the dialect or the language is not any criteria to declare any class as ST.
Those who attended the meeting included: Rafiq Chouhan, Sarwar Choudhary Goolvi, Abdul Karim Terwa, Slam Din, Kher Din, Ilam Din Banbasya. |
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