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| Kashmir hegemony over Jammu, Ladakh must be maintained: Chidambaram | | BJP, Congress on same page | | Early Times Report
JAMMU, May 17: Jammu and Ladakh have no say in the state's polity, economy and political and social processes. They are no more than colonies of Kashmir, the most pampered region in the country. And the minorities in the state in particular have no other option but to suffer humiliations, taunts and insults and face discrimination at all levels and in all spheres.
The most striking aspect of the whole situation is that both the BJP and the Congress are on the same page as far as their attitude towards Kashmir vis-à-vis Jammu and Ladakh is concerned. Both are Kashmir-centric, both are one-community-centric and both oppose vehemently the demands in Jammu and Ladakh for real empowerment or for a regime that enables them to manage their own affairs themselves in a meaningful manner or that treats all the three regions equally at all levels without causing harm to one region to please another.
Another most striking feature of the situation as it has been obtaining in the state since October 1947 is that elements in the establishments in New Delhi and Jammu & Kashmir, media and think-tanks based in Delhi and elsewhere term Kashmir secular, pluralistic, all-embracing, tolerant and what not and see in Jammu elements who, according to them, are communal, reactionary, backward-looking and regressive.
They condemn such elements in Jammu as one of the causes responsible for the alienation of people of Kashmir, internally-displaced Kashmiris Hindus not included because they consider some of "fifth columnists" and an "obstacle" in the way of those in Kashmir whose demands range from Azadi to merger with Pakistan to greater autonomy to self-rule.
Yet another aspect of the whole situation in the state is that all the political parties oppose the demand in Jammu and Ladakh for separate dispensations, including the demand for UT status for Ladakh and demand in Jammu for statehood, regional autonomy and regional council.
And only the other day, senior Congress leader and former Union Home Minister and Finance Minister P Chidambaram rejected outright the idea of Jammu & Kashmir's reorganization on a regional basis and said the unity and integrity of the state has to be maintained.
"The integrity of Jammu & Kashmir will be preserved. Many people no longer believe that J&K will remain a composite state; some even mistakenly believe that the three regions should go their separate ways. The Jammu region is polarized as never before and there are more incidents on the Jammu border.
The Ladakh region has distanced itself from the Kashmir Valley, but that region too is divided between pre-dominantly Buddhist Ladakh (read Leh) and Kargil.
The Kashmir Valley is simmering to a boiling point. A muddled-headed policy has deepened the alienation between the three regions," Chidambaram said.
His message was loud and clear: Jammu & Kashmir's unity must be preserved, notwithstanding the fact that there is hardly anything that is common between the three regions. But more than that he was critical only of Jammu saying Jammu is polarized than ever before.
And he made this ridiculous statement overlooking the fact that Jammu region is the only region in the state which is composite and which houses all types of people and all types of refugees, all victims of fanaticism and two-nation concept.
It is this approach that has alienated Jammu and Ladakh from New Delhi and the people of Jammu and Ladakh just can't be blamed for it. They have every right to tear into the BJP and the Congress as both have let them down and reduced them to a nullity for all practical purposes. |
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