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| Appointing Habibullah as J&K Governor would be dangerous | | | RUSTAM
EARLY TIMES REPORT
JAMMU, Sept 20: The columnist hails Wajahat Habibullah and says that “he understands the Kashmir question better than many others” and that “he has a lot to contribute to the discourse on Jammu and Kashmir.” Either the is blissfully ignorant of his credentials and views of Habibullah or he hasdeliberately suppressed the fact that Habibullah is one person who has been working for the division of Jammu and Kashmir into five zones on purely communal lines so that an autonomous Greater Kashmir comprising the whole of Kashmir and Muslim-majority areas of Jammu and Ladakh is created. It appears that the columnist has deliberately suppressed the truth for reasons best known to him. And, what he has suppressed is what Habibullah is actually opposed for in Jammu and elsewhere.
It needs to be emphasized that Habibullah is a staunch believer in the concept of greater autonomy, leave aside his perverted views on the “human rights situation in Kashmir” and Army and paramilitary forces and also leave aside his other anti-India formulations as contained in his writings. Unfortunately, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh pins faith in him. In fact, the Prime Minister’s Office had asked Chairman of the Working Group on Centre-state relations Justice Saghir Ahmad to allow the extra-constitutional authority Habibullah to make a presentation before the members of the Working Group, a move that had not been taken kindly by certain members like Harshdev Singh of the Panthers Party and Ajay Chrungoo of the Panun Kashmir. Both of them had questioned his presence in the Working Group meeting and dubbed him as “extra-constitutional authority.” It was their opposition that had made Habibullal to virtually walk out of the meeting. As a matter of fact, the embarrassed Habibullah would have walked out of the meeting had not those representing the National Conference, People’s Democratic Party and Left parties not intervened.
What are his views on Jammu and Kashmir? What is his Jammu and Kashmir solution? Habibullah believes that the Indian Jammu and Kashmir consists of five distinct geographical zones (read religious zones) and each religious zone needs to be given a separate administrative set-up. He advocated division of Jammu into two zones, plain and mountainous and hilly areas. He says there should be two regional assemblies in the Jammu province, one each for the plain areas and mountainous and hilly areas. As a matter of fact, he wants the authorities to segregate all the Muslim-majority areas from the plain area of Jammu and treat them separately. (Except for Poonch district, which is overwhelmingly Muslim-dominated, other districts like Doda, Kishtwar, Ramban and Rajouri are the areas where the population is almost evenly balanced. There are pockets which are Hindu-dominated and there are pockets which are Muslim-dominated. In addition, there are pockets, where the ratio is 55:45.)
What would be the result if his formulation is endorsed and implemented? The result would be that the overwhelmingly Hindu-majority plain areas of Jammu, Samba and Kathua districts would have a separate assembly and the hilly and mountainous areas of the remaining Jammu province would have another assembly. It needs to be noted that the bulk of area of Kathua and Samba district, as also of Jammu district is hilly. It should also be noted that it is the mountainous and hilly areas of Jammu province that house the bulk of Muslim population. The fact of the matter is that Habibullah wants to divide Jammu province on communal lines and disturb the regions socio-religious and political equilibrium.
Habibullah applies a different yardstick to the trans-Himalayan Ladakh, although he also recommends two assemblies for the region, one each for Leh district and Kargil district. His whole geographical formation gets exposed when he recommends two assemblies for Kargil and Leh. Everyone knows Ladakh is a mountainous area and the nature of terrain in the Buddhist-majority Leh and the Muslim-majority Kargil districts is identical. And, still he wants the authorities to set up two regional assemblies in the Ladakh region. He does not consider Ladakh region as one geographical zone why because his whole formulation is communally motivated and designed to facilitate the creation of Greater Kashmir. That his formulation is communally-motivated could be seen from the fact that he wants to segregate the Muslim-majority mountainous Kargil district from the Buddhist-majority mountainous Leh district. While doing so, he completely overlooks the fact that Sheikh Abdullah had communalized the Ladakhi polity in the late 70s by creating a Muslim-majority Kargil district out of the Buddhist-majority Ladakh district.
And, when Habibullah reaches Kashmir, he thinks of an altogether different yardstick. He doesn’t see any plain area in the Kashmir Valley. He forgets that Kashmir consists of two geographical zones, a small Valley measuring 30 miles by 80 miles and mountains that surround the Valley. The bulk of the geographical area of Kashmir is mountainous, but the Jinnah in Habibullah chooses to ignore this fact. Instead, he recommends one assembly for the whole of Kashmir province. Why because Kashmir province is almost 100 per cent Muslim. He even forgets what National Conference president Farooq Abdullah once said in Jammu’s Asia Hotel while reflecting on Kashmir. He had said: “You may say whatever you want to say, but it is a fact that Jammu province, like Kashmir province, is highly heterogeneous.”
This is Habibullah. The authorities in New Delhi would commit a grave mistake if they appoint such a rabidly communal person as Governor of Jammu and Kashmir, which is already passing through critical times – all creation of the Kashmiri leaders of all hues and the ambivalent and confused New Delhi. (Concluded)
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