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| Ladakhis demonstrated remarkable unity demanded UT status to end Kashmiri domination | | Congress-BJP & Jammu | |
NEWS ANALYSIS -- II
EARLY TIMES REPORT
JAMMU, Nov 11: If the Congress, the LBA and the ALGA leaders and members of the Leh Autonomous Hill Development Council (LAHDC) members held the Kashmiri leadership responsible for the socio-cultural and politico-economic degeneration of the people of Ladakh and urged the authorities to grant the Union Territory status
to their region, the attitude of the BJP leadership was no different. It also narrated before the interlocutors the woeful tales of the people of the area and demanded Union Territory status, saying this was the only long-term and lasting solution to the Ladakhi problem.
It is important to note that former Member of Lok Sabha and leader of the BJP Thupstan Chhewang, who led the party delegation, told the interlocutors that the people of Ladakh had suffered enormous losses during all these years of the state’s accession to the Indian
Union owing to the discriminatory policies of the state governmentand that the authorities in the state had not taken any substantial stepto implement recommendations as contained in various reports in order to end discrimination with Ladakh. “We hope that while finding solution to the Kashmir issue, Ladakh would be separated from Jammu and Kashmir and given Union Territory status, which is the only way to bring to an end discrimination with Ladakh region,” Thupstan Chhewang told the visiting interlocutors.
What does all this indicate? It indicates that the Ladakhi leadership is one as far as the Ladakhi cause is concerned. It also indicates a glaring contradiction in the attitude of the Congress and BJP leadership as far as its attitude to the Jammu province is concerned.
It is strange that while the leadership of both these national parties favour separation of Ladakh from Jammu and Kashmir and demand Union Territory status for the trans-Himalayan region, it opposes the demand in Jammu for separation from Kashmir. In other words, both these parties have two yardsticks, one for Ladakh and other for Jammu.
This is contradiction of sorts. The nature of the Jammu problem is no different. The people of this province, like the people of Ladakh, too, have suffered enormously at the hands of the Kashmiri-dominated and Valley-centric successive governments in the state, with certain vested interests in Jammu extending unflinching support to their Kashmiri
masters.
It needs to be noted that everyone in the Congress and the BJP believes that segregation of Jammu province from Kashmir would mean handing over of Kashmir to Pakistan on a platter. But more than that, there are elements in the Congress and other political parties,
besides umpteen “think tanks”, who describe the demand in Jammu for separate state as a manifestation of communalism. In other words, they oppose tooth and nail the demand in Jammu province for statehood and denounce those demanding separation from Kashmir in downright language. As a matter of fact, they dub the votaries of separate Jammu
state as rank communalists, parochial, reactionary, backward-looking and as what not. They even go to the extent of saying that separation of Jammu province from Kashmir would “hurt the psyche of the people of Kashmir (read people belonging to a particular religion) and “harm the national interests.” So much so, they vouch for a solution that forces down the throat of the people of Jammu the Kashmir’s pernicious and
intolerant ideology, as also reduces Jammu to the status of Kashmir’s colony.
Theirs’ is a strange logic. The meaning of separation of Ladakh rom Jammu and Kashmir and separation of Jammu province from Kashmir is the same. How could one view separation of Ladakh from Kashmir as a lasting and rational, national, secular and democratic solution to the Ladakhi problem and how could one view the demand in
Jammu from Kashmir province as irrational, communal, parochial and anti-national?
The Congress and the BJP cannot adopt two yardsticks. They must treat the discriminated against and persecuted people of Jammu and Ladakh equally and apply one yardstick. They should support the demand in Jammu for statehood as they support the demand in Ladakh for Union Territory status. In fact, the Jammu-based Congress and
BJP leaders should imitate the Ladakhi leadership and come on one platform to fight for the Jammu cause. There is no doubt whatever that the people of Jammu and the Kashmiri leadership cannot co-exist. The people of Jammu province are destined to get the status of statehood, as the state, which is an unnatural formation and a byproduct of
an accident, is destined to disintegrate. The Congress and the BJP leadership take this fact into consideration and contribute to the process that has already set-in-motion – process of the state’s disintegration and empowerment of the grossly neglected people of Jammu and Ladakh. (Concluded)
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