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| Mufti partly right, partly wrong | | Jammu, not Kashmir, suffers economic deprivation & political disempowerment | |
STARK REALITY
RUSTAM
EARLY TIMES REPORT
JAMMU, Feb 15: Addressing an Indo-Pak intra Kashmir conference in New Delhi on Monday, PDP president Mehbooba Mufti asked the Government of India to “move beyond management mindset in Jammu and Kashmir to initiate actual resolution process that could close the chapter of pain, suffering and uncertainty in the state. “She also said: "Any more discussions that do not focus (on the) actual resolution are prone to be seen only as a delaying tactics by the people of the state who have suffered physical and psychological pain, economic deprivation and political disempowerment. What more do we want to tell the world or educate ourselves about through these conferences even as our people continue to suffer denial of rights."
No comment on her remarks regarding the resolution of the Kashmir issue because the only issue that still needs to be resolved between India and Pakistan is the political future of those areas which have been under the illegal occupation of Pakistan since 1947-1948. What is important here is a reflection on her statement that the “people of the state who have suffered physical and psychological pain, economic deprivation and political disempowerment” to put things in perspective.
The PDP president is partly right and partly wrong. First thing second. She says that the people of the State “suffer economic deprivation and political disempowerment.” It’s not fair. It’s absolutely wrong. It’s the people of Jammu and Ladakh who suffer economic deprivation and political disempowerment. And, it’s Kashmir and its people who enjoy absolute and unbridled powers. In fact, it’s Kashmir and its people who enjoy dictatorial powers. Kashmir has been ruling the state and exploiting the people of Jammu and Ladakh to the hilt and outraging their sensitivities since 1947. It’s Kashmir that has established its stranglehold over the state’s political, administrative, economic and social institutions. It’s Kashmir that has progressed to the maximum possible extent at the cost of Jammu and Ladakh, with New Delhi also making common cause with the Kashmiri leadership and ill-treating and ignoring the people of Jammu and Ladakh. It’s Kashmir that is the most prosperous region in the country and it’s prosperous because it controls the civil secretariat, state legislature and holds almost all the portfolios with considerable political weight, money, patronage and discretion. It’s Kashmir that has captured more than 70 per cent positions in the government and semi-government establishments, located in the state, with hundred per cent of such positions available in the Valley becoming the sole preserve of Kashmir, notwithstanding the fact it is inferior in terms of population and land area.
These are only a few instances which serve to demonstrate how powerful is Kashmir politically and economically and prove that it’s Jammu and Ladakh which suffer political disempowerment and economic deprivation. You cannot befool all the people all the time. Everyone is aware of the ground realities in Kashmir and everyone is also aware of the fact that the plight of the people of Jammu and Ladakh is miserable and pathetic. That’s the reason the people of Jammu and Ladakh are demanding union territory status and the state’s reorganization. The PDP president would do well to acknowledge these stark realities.
Mehbooba Mufti is absolutely right when she, like the Muslim League, talks of “psychological” aspect. During the Indian freedom struggle, the Muslim League leaders were, it may be recalled, caught between two fires of exclusiveness – “the Congress exclusiveness of nationalism and the Deoband’s exclusiveness of religion.” According to a Muslim historian of repute K K Aziz, “For the Congress they (Muslim League leaders) were too reactionary to enter the mainstream of Indian nationalism; for the divines (Deoband Ulema) they were too secular to lead the Muslim aright. To escape from this cross-fire they (Muslim League leaders and ideologues, including Jinnah,) created a different conception of nationalism, which was partly religious (all Muslims are a nation), partly territorial (all Muslim-majority areas should form Pakistan) and wholly psychological (we – Muslim Leaguers – feel that we are a nation).”
Hence, what Mehbooba Mufti said in this regard only shows that the PDP is following in the footsteps of the Muslim League. Since this is the case, those who are fighting against the Indian State in Kashmir are suffering “physical pain.” No State worth its name allows any of its part to go out of it just for the reason that certain people do not want to live in it or regard it their country. The PDP leaders and ideologues will have to refashion their whole approach taking into consideration this important stark reality, as also the fact that the creation of Pakistan on religious basis has not solved any problem of the community to which she belongs. Pakistan as it exists today is a failed and rogue state and it’s on the verge of collapse. She has also to refashion her approach considering the fact that the religious factor didn’t in anyway help Islamabad to keep the country intact. The case in point is the creation of Bangladesh out of Pakistan in 1971.
You cannot seek another division of the country saying certain elements and regressive forces in Kashmir are suffering psychological pain. You have to be part of India. There is no other alternative. |
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