Early Times Report
JAMMU, June 27: The communal partition of India in August 1947 caused displaced of population on an unprecedented scale. Millions migrated to various parts of India, including Jammu, to escape the wrath of the votaries of two-nation theory. Those who migrated to India, barring its Jammu & Kashmir, became full-fledged Indians. Some even rose to become Prime Minister, Deputy PM, Governors and what not. IK Gujral, Manmohan Singh, LK Advani, Jagmohan, NN Vohra, to mention only a few, had all migrated from the newly-created Pakistan.
However, those who migrated to Jammu the same year for the same reasons continue to struggle for citizenship in Jammu & Kashmir, despite the fact that they have been living or languishing in various parts of Jammu province for over 71 years. In between, they held several demonstrations, organized long marches, held dharnas, met top leaders in New Delhi, including the Prime Minister and the Home Minister, knocked at the doors of the apex court in New Delhi, but nothing came out. All their efforts failed to produce the desired results. The fundamental factor that worked against them and defeated their genuine demand was, and is, the senseless opposition of Kashmiri leaders of all hues. They opposed, and continue to oppose, their demand on the ground that the grant of citizenship to them would change the demographic profile of the state. It's a communally-motivated ground. Over one lakh Rohingya and Bangladeshis have been settled in and around Jammu by the same leaders. Thousands of Uyghur Muslims from China and Muslims from Tibet have been settled in the Jamia Masjod area in Srinagar with full citizenship rights. The point is that the Kashmiri leadership's whole approach to the issue is communal.
In the meantime, the refugee leaders have again urged New Delhi to grant them citizenship so that they could also lead a dignified life in J&K as Indian citizens and exercise all rights, including the right to property, government jobs, education, vote, bank loan etc. They have told the powers-that-be in New Delhi that "J&K is under the President's Rule: and "it has the power to grant citizenship to them". "If New Delhi could create separate Ladakh province during the Central rule, it could also grant them citizenship," they have said. They have also told the concerned authorities that only on the eve of the World Refugee Day, the Central Government granted citizenship to 19 Pakistani Hindu migrants in Rajasthan.
Their point is valid. Even otherwise, they deserved full citizenship. The authorities in New Delhi would do well to make optimum use of the President's Rule in Jammu & Kashmir and mitigate the hardships of the Hindu-Sikh refugees from Pakistan by granting citizenship rights to them. It is doable. |
