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| PDP wants New Delhi to ignore realities in J&K | | |
STARK REALITY
RUSTAM
Early Times Report
JAMMU, Feb 22: The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) leaders, including Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, like all the Kashmiri leaders, including separatists, have again urged New Delhi to “respond to the ‘pain and aspirations’ of the state in a positive manner”. In effect, they have asked New Delhi to overlook the ground realities in the state and meet the communal and separatist demands of the Kashmiri leaders so that J&K is separated from India for all practical purposes and Pakistan enjoys equal powers with New Delhi in this border and strategic state. Something unacceptable.
How else should one interpret the February 20 Mufti Mohammad Sayeed’s statement made at Kalu Chak while addressing a public rally? At Kalu Chak, he not only asked the BJP to fall in line and support his party’s ill-designed and communally-motivated stand on J&K, but also told New Delhi that it has no other option but to respond to the “pain and aspirations of the state” and the sooner it does so the better.
The statement of Mufti Mohammad Sayeed has sought to convey an impression that the people of Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh are all one and that their aspirations are also identical. Significantly, this is also the view of all other Kashmiri leaders. When they talk of alienation, they simply mean “alienation” of those Kashmiri Muslims who do not constitute more than 22 per cent of the state’s population. But when they talk about the solution, they mean a solution that is applicable to the entire state and its people.
They have at no point of time during all these 20 years of turmoil and bloodshed recognized the fact that the “pains and aspirations” of the Kashmiri Muslim leaders and the people of Jammu and Ladakh and a bulk of the Muslim population in the state are conflicting and these contradictions are so mutually exclusive that these cannot be reconciled.
Besides, the Kashmiri leaders have never recognized the nature of complaints of the people of Jammu province and Ladakh regions, including their complaint that the successive Kashmiri-dominated government in the state have willfully ignored their aspirations and needs and which, on the contrary, have all through been biased in favour of the Valley and its people.
That the aspirations of the Kashmiri Muslim leaders and all others are conflicting can be seen from the fact that while the former insist on greater autonomy or self-rule (read semi-independence), independence and merger with Pakistan, an overwhelming majority of the people of Jammu province and Ladakh region insist on the state’s complete integration with India and extension of the Indian Constitution to the state in full.
It would be unfair if someone says that it is only the Hindus, including Kashmiri Hindus, and Buddhists who are for their total merger with India, as also for the extension of the Indian Constitution to the state. True, they are. But a vast majority of the Muslims in the state is also opposed to the demands being put forth by the likes of Mufti Mohammad Sayeed. As a matter of fact, its views are not different from the views of the alienated Hindus and Buddhists.
Take, for instance, the attitude and demands of the Gujjar and Bakerwal Muslims and the Pathowari-speaking or “Pahari-speaking Muslims inhabiting Poonch. Rajouri, Kupwara and Baramulla districts. While the Gujjar and Bakerwal Muslims, who have been enjoying the status of Scheduled Tribe (SC) communities since 1991, have been consistently demanding political reservation in accordance with the provisions of the Indian Constitution, the Pathowari-speaking Muslims have been struggling to obtain the ST status so that they could also enjoy the privileges under the relevant rules and regulations. It would not be out of place to mention here that there is not a single country in the Muslim world that provides for reservation for Muslims on any ground whatsoever.
These are the STARK REALITIES in the state and could not be overlooked. To overlook these realities and continue to insist on the demands as are being advocated by the National Conference (NC), the PDP, the APHC, the JKLF, the CPI-M, the CPI, to mention only a few, would only mean a serious conflict between the regions and the communities. There should be no doubt it. It would be better if Mufti Mohammad Sayeed and other Kashmiri leaders recognize these realities and ask New Delhi to pursue the line suggested by the late Congress stalwart and former Union President R Venkataraman to the late Indira Gandhi. That’s the only alternative available.
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