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| Kashmiri separatists' propaganda based on falsehood, eggegerations | | | RUSTAM
EARLY TIMES REPORT
JAMMU, June 7: Firdous Syed writes in his open letter that the "poverty-ridden" Kashmiri Muslims are struggling to achieve "equality and justice" and that the Government of India, instead of meeting their genuine demands, has let loose a reign of senseless brutalities against them. This is false and politically motivated statement. The fact is that Kashmir is the most prosperous region of the countries and the Muslims of Kashmir the most pampered people.
Let us dispassionately examine the status in the Indian polity of the Kashmiri Muslims, whose demands include integration of the state into Pakistan, independence from India, self-rule, joint-management, dual currency, economic independence, shared sovereignty and greater autonomy, bordering on sovereignty. Such an exercise has become absolutely necessary to call the Kashmiri separatists' bluff and see if the grievances of the Muslims of Kashmir really fall within the ambit of the universally accepted meaning of "alienation". Such an exercise would also help New Delhi work out a policy designed to mitigate the hardships and sufferings of those in Jammu and Kashmir who are actually alienated from the Valley-based anti-democratic and essentially sectarian ruling class.
The people of Kashmir, minus those who vouch for the two-nation theory such as the AHPC leaders and their followers, hold the Central Government squarely responsible for their alienation from the national mainstream. Their basic arguments are four. One, New Delhi has never ever allowed the Kashmiri Muslims to manage their own political affairs themselves. Two, the vindictive Union Government has always treated the Kashmiri Muslims like "slaves". Three, New Delhi has subverted the "internal autonomy granted to the state under Article 370 of the Union Constitution in order to bring Jammu and Kashmir at par with other states". Four, the Government of India has consistently ignored the financial needs of Jammu and Kashmir.
Ironically, a bulk of the Indian political analysts, commentators, academics, peace activists and conflict-managers share the perceptions of the Kashmiri Muslim leadership. None of them has, it appears, ever tried to come to grips with the realities in the state.
A scrutiny of the official statistics establishes that there is no other community in India which is more privileged than the Muslim community of Kashmir and that New Delhi has always given them a very preferential and differential treatment.
It may appear ludicrous and unbelievable, but it is a STARK REALITY that the Kashmiri Muslims, especially those belonging to the dominant and all-powerful and well-entrenched Sunni sect, who constitute a merely 22 per cent of the state's population, have always obtained from New Delhi what a commentator calls "a system of government that is almost exclusively of them, for them and by them."
Take, for instance, their complete control over the state's polity, as also their very effective and real say in the New Delhi's corridors of power. In October 1947, when the state acceded to the Indian Dominion as per the stipulations of the Indian Independence Act, they and their leader, Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah, succeeded in influencing the New Delhi's policy towards Kashmir. They candidly told the then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru that they would endorse the Maharaja Hari Singh's decision on the state's accession only if the political power was transferred from Jammu to the Valley-based NC chief (Sheikh Abdullah) and Jawaharlal Nehru obliged them by asking Hari Singh to abdicate the state power in favour of the Sheikh. Ever since then, they have been ruling over the state. Ghulam Nabi Azad was the only Jammu-based political leader who occupied the office of Chief Minister between November 2005 and July 7, 2008. But even Azad was ethnically a Kashmiri Sunni.
The factor that greatly helped the Kashmir's political elite the most to retain control over the state polity was the mechanism it diligently evolved in 1951 which could always enable the people of Kashmir to capture more than 50 per cent seats in the Assembly from the small Valley itself. The Kashmir Valley returns 46 members to the Assembly. Jammu and Ladakh elect only 41, despite the fact that these two regions are superior to Kashmir both in terms of land area and voters. Likewise, Kashmir elects three members to the Lok Sabha. On the contrary, Jammu and Ldakh elect two and one members, respectively. This gross discrimination, notwithstanding the rules laid down by the Indian Representation of the People's Act or the Jammu and Kashmir Representation of People's Act of 1957. (To be continued)
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