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| Support to demand in Jammu for statehood from Kashmiri MLA | | STARK REALITY | |
EARLY TIMES STORY
JAMMU, Mar 1: It may sound unbelievable, but it has happened. MLA representing Langate Assembly constituency in Kashmir division Engineer Rashid Ahmad has assured the people of Jammu province of his unqualified support in case they demand the status of statehood for their province. “He would be the first persons to support the move” was the bottom-line of his speech on the subject. His only pre-condition was that the “Jammu state should not be carved on religious lines”. Remember, he promised unflinching support to the idea of statehood for Jammu province on the floor of the Assembly just a week ago.
His positive gesture might have alarmed all other Kashmir-based legislators, who abhor the idea of the Jammu province getting segregated from Kashmir, obviously on the ground that the separation of Jammu from Kashmir would not only harm the economic and financial interests of the Valley, but would also limit their area of activities and influence, good or bad, to Kashmir, which is rather small in terms of land area and which cannot survive even for a day without the support of Jammu and New Delhi.
Between 1846 and 1947, Kashmiri leaders, without any exception, launched massive struggles from time to time to ensure the separation of Kashmir from the Jammu Kingdom. Each one of them bitterly opposed the March 1846 Treaty of Amritsar under which Kashmir was added to the Jammu Kingdom. They opposed the historic Treaty on the ground that the “Dogra rulers purchased the life, hounor and dignity of the Kashmiri Muslims by paying a sum of Rs 75 lakh to the British Government”. The Kashmiri leadership regarded the rule of Jammu over Kashmir as “oppressive” and of the “aliens” or “outsiders”.
But gone are those old days when Kashmiri leaders would demand separation of their province from Jammu. They are now a changed lot. They know the meaning, implications and benefits – both in political and financial terms -- of Jammu province being an integral part of the state and, hence, their opposition to the demand in Jammu for statehood. It would not be out of place to mention here that Kashmiri leaders consistently term the demand in Jammu for separate state as “anti-national”, “communal” and “separatist” and describe it as an onslaught on the “Kashmiri psyche”.
Given this background, the stand taken by the Langate MLA can be construed as a very bold admission that the people of Jammu province and Kashmir division cannot live together. MLA Rashid Ahmad has, as a matter of fact, hit the nail on the head by endorsing the idea of statehood for Jammu province.
All right-thinking people, who are aware of the extreme type of inter-regional animosity and bitterness that has been existing between Kashmir and Jammu ever since the emergence of J&K State in 1846, would surely pat the Langate MLA. Likewise, they would appreciate his suggestion that the state should not be divided on communal lines.
At the same time, however, the Langate MLA did commit a faux pas when he sought to equate the complaint of the people of Jammu province that they have been consistently discrimination against with the virtually non-existent but motivated similar complaints of discrimination in the Kashmir Valley. Kashmir in the state is the most prosperous and developed region. It is an established fact. It is also an established fact that both the State Government and the Union Government have all through accorded to Kashmir a very special and preferential treatment in every respect.
A reference here to just one recent example would be enough to clinch the whole issue and establish that it is the people of Jammu province, and not those belonging to Kashmir, who have never got their due share in maters relating to developmental schemes. Leave aside the complaint of the people of Jammu province that they have been denied their due share of representation in the state legislature.
Everyone in the state knows that Union Environment and Forest Minister Jairam Ramesh visited Jammu on February 2. That day he announced that the Union Government had earmarked Rs 350 crore for the protection and conservation of the Wullar wetland in Kashmir; that the Union Government had already sanctioned Rs 300 crores for the protection and conservation of Dal Lake and that the Union Government would spend an amount to the tune of Rs 1,000 crore to protect and conserve the Dal Lake.
As for the ancient and beautiful, but fast decaying Mansar and Surinsar Lakes in Jammu province, Jairam Ramesh said that the Union Government had already sanctioned an amount of three crore and the same could be raised to Rs seven crore. That Jairam Ramesh chose Jammu for making such statements needs no further elucidation as the meaning of his tone and tenor was more than self-explanatory.
However, to refer to this instance of glaring discrimination with Jammu province is not to undermine the significance of the stand of the Langate MLA on the issue of Jammu statehood. Will his Kashmiri counterparts also take a similar stand, which they should take in the larger interest of the people of Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh? It is a very difficult question. Only the Kashmiri legislators can answer it. But one thing is certain: Reorganization of the state on regional lines can’t be avoided for long.
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