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| J&K symbol of secular India and, hence, non-negotiable | | | RUSTAM
EARLY TIMES REPORT
JAMMU, June 3: A close scrutiny of these books and articles, which were published during all these years of turmoil in Kashmir, however, reveals that all those who penned down their views, for the most part, refused to look beyond the Kashmir Valley on the misguided notion that the Valley of Kashmir constitutes the entire State of Jammu and Kashmir and that winning the "hearts and minds of the alienated Kashmiri Muslims" would be the same as meeting the needs and aspirations of the people of Jammu and Ladakh and all those who have never been considered part and parcel of the so-called Kashmiriyat. A study of these writings also tells that all or nearly all the authors believe that the Kashmir Valley's gross political neglect, its underdevelopment, the New Delhi's indifferent attitude towards the Valley's economic and financial needs and inadequate employment opportunities for the educated Muslim youth of the Valley are the four major breeders of terrorism in Kashmir.
The assumption that the political and economic neglect of the Kashmir Valley has been responsible for the "alienation of Kashmiri Muslims" from the national mainstream appears to be suffering from grave errors of analysis and judgment. The facts about the post-1947 Kashmir Valley clear the cobwebs of confusion and establish that right from the day of the state's accession to the Indian Dominion, political power, funds for developmental schemes and better deal in matters relating to employment and location of prestigious institutions and industrial units have become the sole privileges of the Kashmir Valley alone.
It is, however, a different matter that all these analysts, like the Valley leaders, describe the existing political system as anti-Kashmir and put forth solutions that not only seek to drive the entire State of Jammu and Kashmir away fro India, but also reject outright the demands of the people of other regions of the state - Jammu and Ladakh - for their empowerment on the ground that the Kashmir Valley makes no distinction between the Kashmiri Muslims and other State Subjects. They argue that the demand of the other State Subjects, if accepted, would "hurt the Kashmiri psyche." They, in addition, interpret the demand of the people of Jammu and Ladakh and others, who don't subscribe to the Kashmir Valley's separatist, communal and primitive ideology, for a meaningful decentralization of the State Power as the demand of the "rightists calculated to disintegrate the state."
The arguments which these trouble-shooters and protagonists of loose relations between the state and New Delhi advance against the loud clamour in other parts of the state, particularly Jammu and Ladakh regions, for reorganization of the existing politico-administrative and constitutional and economic structure on a regional basis are as abstract as they are communally and politically-motivated. Any impartial investigator with a secular and democratic outlook would immediately vouch for the fact that there are cogent reasons for the people other than the Kashmiri Muslims, particularly the Sunni Muslims, to demand an instrument that could cater to their basic political, economic and social needs. The severe inter-regional animosity and bitterness prevailing in Jammu and Kashmir demonstrates that the unitary constitutional structure under which the state has been governing after 1947 has not produced the desired results. The prime reason is that the State Constitution of 1957 takes no cognizance whatsoever of the serious and inherent contradictions between the Kashmir Valley and Jammu and between the Valley and Ladakh in respect of language, culture, ethnicity, economy, history and geography, as also of the urges of the religious and ethnic minorities in the state.
Two other crucial factors have also been overlooked by the framers of the State Constitution. One was the historical antagonism between the Kashmir Valley and Jammu in the sense that the Kashmiri Muslims viewed the people of Jammu between 1846 and 1947 as an "aliens and aggressors". Its entire struggle, particularly under the banner of the Anjuman-e-Islamia/ Muslim Conference/National Conference was shaped by the anti-Jammu stimulus. That is what a peep into the history of Jammu and Kashmir shows. The other was the sharp contradictions in the political perceptions and attitudes between the leaders of the Kashmir Valley and the people of Jammu and the former and the people of Ladakh. The state's full integration with India and application of the Indian Constitution to the state in its entirety were, and continue to be, the two fundamental watchwords of the people of Jammu and Ladakh. The Valley leadership has, on the other hand, all through been an ardent champion of limited accession with greater autonomy. (To be continued)
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