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| Who the interlocutors in J&K must meet to know the truth | | | RUSTAM
EARLY TIMES REPORT
Jammu, Oct 21: The displaced Kashmiri Hindus and the frightened Sikhs in the Kashmir Valley are not the only persons the interlocutors on J&K must meet with to know the truth. They must spend most of the time in Jammu province and interact with cross-sections of society there, including refugees. It is imperative. It is Jammu province that houses people who have suffered enormously during all these years of independence at the hands of the Kashmiri leaders at all levels and in all spheres.
It is hardly necessary to point out here that the people of Jammu province have no say whatsoever in the governance of the state, notwithstanding the inclusion of a few persons from Jammu in the Council of Ministers, who only dance to the tunes of their Kashmiri masters or who are always kept under check by their Delhi-based masters. It is also not necessary to reflect on the under-representation of the people of Jammu province in the state legislature, civil secretariat and vital service sector, as everyone is aware of the fact that the share of Jammu in these crucial sectors is inadequate and that it is Kashmir that has excessive and preponderant share of representation in all these spheres. It is also hardly necessary to point out that Jammu province has all along been ignored in other spheres such as agriculture, irrigation, horticulture, sericulture, floriculture, road connectivity, power generation, tourism, healthcare, education, development of infrastructure and so on and that it is Kashmir that is the most developed and highly prosperous region in the whole of the country.
However, it is necessary to point out here that the majority of the people who live below the poverty line in the state inhabit the Jammu province. In Kashmir, the percentage of people living below poverty line is not even two. Leave aside the fudged official figures. Similarly, it is necessary to point out here that Jammu province houses lakhs and lakhs of refugees. There are refugees from West Pakistan. They migrated from Pakistan to escape their physical liquidation at the hands of the ardent believers in the concept of two-nation or the radical Islamists. Their number is more than one lakh. Most of them belong to Scheduled Caste community. They are very poor. They have been moving heaven and earth since 1947 in order to obtain citizenship rights, including the right to vote, right to higher education, right to bank loan, right to own immovable property, right to obtain job under the state government, right to participate in the assembly and local-bodies' elections and so on. They are the only people in the country who do not enjoy even the basic civil, political and social rights. The interlocutors need to meet them and listen to their heart-rending stories. They are the real victims of fanaticism as represented by the Kashmiri leadership, which is deliberately denying these refugees their natural rights on the ground that the grant of citizenship rights to them would tilt the balance in favour of Jammu in the state legislature or increase Jammu's representation in the assembly and change the demographic profile of the state in general and Jammu province in particular.
Jammu province - apart from refugees from West Pakistan and Lakhs of displaced Kashmiri Hindus and Sikhs -- also houses refugees from Pakistan-occupied-Jammu and Kashmir. Their number runs into lakhs and they have been languishing in various parts of the Jammu province since 1947. They, too, like the refugees from West Pakistan and uprooted Kashmiri Hindus, are victims of fanaticism. They left their homes and hearths in 1947 in order to save their lives. They are demanding compensation ever since then, but with no result. The cause of their failure is the negative attitude of the Kashmiri leadership. These are the people the interlocutors must meet with to get a true picture of facts; to know who in Jammu and Kashmir is at the receiving end and who in the state is ruling the roost and exploiting the people.
The interlocutors must also spend adequate time in the trans-Himalayan Ladakh, which also houses people who, like the people of Jammu province, refugees of all varieties included, have all along suffered at the hands of the Kashmiri leadership. Their plight is as pathetic and miserable as that of the people of Jammu province. Besides, they are also victims of religious fanaticism.
The interlocutors, in short, should meet those in J&K who have actually suffered and who have genuine grievances and not those who are the cause of their socio-cultural and politico-economic degeneration. Their meeting with the persecuted communities and people inhabiting the ignored and marginalized regions alone would help them reach a right conclusion, would enable them to diagnose the ailment. On the contrary, the meeting between the interlocutors and those who have been ruling the roost, suppressing the truth and speaking white lies and exploiting the people of the state in the name of Islam would be nothing but an exercise in self-deception or a futile exercise. (To be continued) |
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