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| Swami Raj's flawed solution to the Jammu problem | | State Finance Commission | | NEHA
EARLY TIMES REPORT
JAMMU, Dec 8: State Finance Commission's member and Congress leader, Swami Raj Sharma, has done exceptionally well to catalogue the reasons behind the neglect of Jammu region. But the solution he has suggested to surmount the problem of discrimination with Jammu province is highly flawed. It is not workable because it doesn't provide for a definite political institution invested with the required legislative powers. He has opined that the constitution of "Regional Autonomous Planning and Development Board" for Jammu province alone could "address regional aspirations." It seems he is living in a world of the past. He has completely overlooked the fact that regional councils or development boards, or even autonomous hill councils have nowhere produced the desired results. Had that been the case, there would have no demand in Leh for the Union Territory status or there would have been no demand in Darjiling for Gorkhaland or a full-fledged state.
It appears that Sharma has not diagnosed what exactly ails Jammu province. He has, it seems, not realized that the problem facing the people of Jammu province, Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs included, is essentially political in nature and that it is the existing 53-year-old politico-constitutional set-up that is primarily responsible for the Jammu's neglect and it all-round degeneration.
The state's politico-constitutional set-up is, it needs to be underlined, unitary in character. Besides, the Valley-based leadership has created a legislative assembly that always remains under the Kashmiri domination, despite the fact that the number of voters in Jammu province is equal, if not more; despite the fact that the geographical area of Jammu province is almost two times that of Kashmir's. So long as Kashmir has excessive and preponderance share of representation in the legislative assembly, which decides questions of supreme importance to the well-being and happiness of the people, the people of Jammu province just can't think in terms of obtaining justice or getting their due share in the political and economic processes. So long as the state has a Chief Minister from Kashmir, there is no possibility whatsoever of the people of Jammu province obtaining a fair and an impartial dispensation.
Swami Raj Sharma still believes that the institution he has talked about would go a long way in addressing the issues afflicting the ignored people of Jammu province. This is based on a wrong premise. What he has suggested is nothing more than a message of trust and hopefulness. What would his "Regional Autonomous Planning and Development Board" achieve? The Kashmiri rulers, by their veto, would have their own way. Even New Delhi would not mind going with the Kashmiri leadership and causing further damage to the legitimate interests of the people of Jammu province.
Hence, what the people of Jammu province most urgently need is a definite political instrument - instrument invested with legislative powers. What the people of Jammu province need at this critical juncture to save themselves and regenerate their socio-cultural and politico-economic life is a government, national in spirit and Jammuite in personnel. In other words, the existing politico-constitutional arrangement cannot go on forever; in other words, Jammu province needs to be constituted into a separate state. Everyone is warning of the rise of a new spirit in Jammu province. All are singing the same song - you cannot go on governing in the same old spirit; you have got to deal with the people of Jammu province and their demands whatever you may think of them: A radical change, if not a revolution, is imminent.
The good-intentioned Swami Raj Sharma would do well to redesign his formulation taking into consideration the political aspirations of the people of Jammu province. |
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