news details |
|
|
| Hope reorganisation of J-K will lead to peace, development in region: Activists | | | Early Times Report
JAMMU, Feb 5: A group of activists at a conference of the Jammu and Kashmir Unity Foundation (JKUF) on Wednesday expressed hope that the reorganisation of the erstwhile state into two union territories would lead to a balanced development and peace in the region.
The seminar on the topic "unheard voices of Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh" here brought together the unrepresented communities including Dogras, Gujjars, West Pakistan refugees, Kashmiri Pandits and Ladakhis, a release issued by the JKUF said.
It said the prominent speakers in the seminar were president J and K Ex-Servicemen League Maj Gen G S Jamwal, prominent Muslim intellectual and peace activist Capt (retd) Sikandar Rizvi, chairman Panun Kashmir Ajay Chrungoo, president West Pakistani Refugees Labha Ram Gandhi and senior Ladakhi leader Lobzang Angchuk.
"The panelists in unanimous voice said the abrogation of Article 370 is a historical moment and it has dismantled a hegemonic order controlled by Kashmiri Muslims. They said Jammu and Kashmir was never governed on a principle of participation and equality," the statement said.
It said the panelists also alleged that the patriotic segments of the population of Jammu and Kashmir belonging to all communities had always been "discriminated and marginalised which led to the growth of separatism and pan-Islamic fundamentalism".
"It is an imperative necessity that the new order created by reorganisation of Jammu and Kashmir state into two union territories will usher in an era of equality, participative democracy, balanced development and peace," the panelists said.
Referring to the abrogation of Article 370 provisions and bifurcation of Jammu and Kashmir into union territories in August last year, president JKUF Ajaat Jamwal said it is time to take stock of things so that the "revolutionary changes" percolate down to the grassroots and governments in the UTs and the Centre are made aware of the currents, cross currents and undercurrents at people's level.
"We are all aware that lot needs to be done to clear the mess of the previous hegemonic political order during the past 72 years in the erstwhile state. It is critical government listens to the unheard marginalised people of the UTs. If it is done properly, that will be a sure way of moving into a period of progress, development and peace," he said.
Rizvi said the partition of India in 1947 and its impact on Jammu and Kashmir and the "genocide" of Hindus and Sikhs in Pakistan were "monumental tragedies" which were ignored and denied.
"This denial and criminal inability to respond on the part of the political class and the governments of the day led to the growth of separatism and communalism in Jammu and Kashmir. It is high time we correct this approach so that a secular, egalitarian political order emerges in which all people reap the fruits of progress on the principle of equality," he said.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
