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| Why Jammu is on the Boil? | | A tale of pent up anger and ignored warnings | | Rahul Pandit
"I had always felt that the Jammuites' patriotism and sacrifices for the nation had never been appreciated." Jagmohan former Governor of Jammu & Kashmir has written in his book My Frozen Turbulences in Kashmir. He has further added in the book "The nation, I felt, has been unjust and ungrateful to Jammu." The book written some 17 years ago clearly shows that the unjust with people of Jammu has been there since long and the Amarnath Land Row was latest milestone in State & Center Govt. negligence towards Jammu. Two months have been over, Jammu has burning but still the Govt. is hesitant in Providing just 40 Acears of Land to Amarnath Shrine Board that too on Temporary Use, all on behest of Kashmiri Politicians.
The bias started as early as November 1947, hardly within a month of Maharaja Hari Singh's Aceession to India and passage of power in hands of Shiekh Abdullah. Noted Scholar and Statesman Prof. Balraj Madhok in his book Kashmir: The Storm Center of the World has written that how Mirpur, Kotli and other areas of Jammu Province were allowed to fall in hands of enemy and no effort was made by Shiek Abdullah (who was the master of the state that time) to save the areas from Pakistani Raiders and thousands of innocent people from being killed.
Prof. Madhok has written "Pt. Prem Nath Dogra and myself met Brigadier Paranjpe, the Commander of Indian troops in Jammu and requested him to send reinforcement to Mirpur. He shared our anxiety but expressed his helplessness because as per instructions from above, all deployment of Indian troops in the State had to be done in consultation with Sh. Abdullah who was indifferent to the needs of Jammu. He informed us that Pt. Nehru was visiting Jammu en- route to Srinagar on November 25, and suggested that we should approach him and request him to give proper directions to Sh. Abdullah in the matter. I met Pt. Nehru at Satwari aerodrome and told him about the critical situation in Mirpur and requested him to order immediate reinforcement of Indian troops to the beleagured tour. I was amazed at his response. He flew into a rage and shouted: "Talk to Sheikh Sahib - talk to Sheikh Sahib. ' I then told him that Sheikh Sahib was indifferent to the plight of the Jammu region, and that he alone could do something to save the people of Mirpur. But all my entreaties fell on deaf ears. No reinforcement was sent to Mirpur. Mirpur fell on the 25th of November 1947, when the enemy broke open the back gate of the walled town by heavy gunfire. The state troops and local officers then lost heart and retreated even before the town could be evacuated by the civilians. The people, therefore, began to run in terror. The fight soon became a rout and the rout a massacre. Hardly two thousand people out of about 25 thousand living at that time in the ill-fated town managed to reach Jhangar in safety. The rest were ruthlessly butchered."
So the facts show that both center and state leadership had always been indifferent to Jammu and people of Jammu. 61 years have passed but things have changed any way, Jammu is still facing the same discrimination it faced 61 years ago. Be it jobs in state government, seats in medical and engineering colleges.
The agitation in Jammu has Nationalistic and Patriotic, with people taking the tricolor in hand and shouting "Bharat Mata ki Jai", while on the other hand the separatists in Kashmir Valley had been spreading hatred against India, by shouting pro-Pakistan and anti –India slogans with burning of Tricolor and raising of Pakistani flags. But once again the Govt. failed to understand the nationalistic aspirations of Jammu People by bowing down to the separatists demand against the transfer of land to the Amarnath Shrine Board.
This once again demonstrated that Jammu has been continuously discriminated and neglected.
Arun Jaitley, BJP General Secretary in an interview to CNN-IBN said "Today, you have in Jammu, more number of voters, numerically and yet they are under represented in the assembly. They have lesser jobs as far as state government is concerned. They have lesser admissions as far as colleges are concerned. Now the entire movement in Jammu may be because of the land-issue but there is a huge sense of discrimination that the people have..." he also added "All we are saying is that if separatists raise a demand; do not allow the aspirations of the nationalists to be cowed down..."
Leela Karan Sharma, convener of Shri Amarnath Yatra Sangarsh Samiti in an interview described the discrimination as "Population at that time was equally balanced. But when the state Constitution was framed and state has its own commission. They were given 42 seats and Jammu was given 32 seats. There was difference of 10 seats. Then we raised hue and cry and four seats were raised in the Valley and five seats in Jammu. In the present population we have more than 32 lakh voters and Kashmir has 29 lakh voters. Kashmir has three Parliamentary seats, Jammu has two. So political power is retained by them and by that they discriminated in the employment in the whole of the Secretariat where more than 3,000 employees are there. There are hardly 300-400 of the Jammu regions, including Muslims. In the medical colleges, in the engineering colleges in employment, in development, every where there was a discrimination with the Jammu people"
But one thing for sure has happened as a result of this agitation, that is people of Jammu have come together to fight this Ghost of Negligence and Discrimination, which they were facing in hand of the Kashmiri Leadership and the Center, and a point has been put forward very loudly that what ever happened in past 61 years wont be allowed to repeat in future and People of Jammuites' have now learned to fight against discrimination and they will fight for every bit of their rights. And with a hope that Baba Amarnath will keep the people of Jammu united, the Jammuites' will get the rights they were earlier deprived of. |
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