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| Showdown Imminent | | History may repeat itself in Jammu anytime from now | |
STARK REALITY
RUSTAM
EARLY TIMES REPORT
JAMMU, Feb 23: History may repeat itself in Jammu anytime from now. The reason: The insistence of Kashmiri leaders on a dispensation that is outside the constitutional and political organization of India – something not acceptable to the people of Jammu province. They have been consistently fighting for the national integration since October 1947 and organized a number of epoch-making movements. Communalists and separatists may call these massive outbursts in Jammu as a manifestation of communalism, which has never been the case.
In needs to emphasized that between 1952 and February 2011, Jammu organized several movements, all calculated to persuade and force New Delhi to integrate the State fully with India and defeat the regressive forces in the Kashmir Valley. Of all the movements in Jammu that it engineered from time to time for bridging the constitutional and political gulf between the State and the rest of the country three were highly spectacular.
One was directed against the controversial and unsettling move of Nehru to accept the pernicious demands of Sheikh Abdullah ranging from exclusion of Jammu & Kashmir from that part of the Indian statute book that dealt with fundamental rights to the revival of a local oligarchy. He wanted absolute and unbridled legislative, executive and judicial powers for Kashmir and wanted New Delhi to have jurisdiction only over three subjects – defence, foreign affairs and communications. It happened in 1952-1953. A number of nationalists in Jammu sacrificed their precious lives in the process.
The other was again directed against Sheikh Abdullah and the Union Government. The stated objective of those who raised a banner of revolt was that Jammu would not allow New Delhi to weaken the process of integration of the State with the rest of the country by permitting Sheikh Abdullah to tinker with the central laws and institutions already extended to the state from August 1953 onwards. Jammu was very successful in its endeavours. It happened between 1975 and 1978. The immediate provocation was what is known as the 1975 Accord between the Government of India and an individual Sheikh Abdullah, a staunch votary of greater autonomy as well as a votary of plebiscite. The mood of Jammu in those days was such that Sheikh Abdullah, who had become Chief Minister of the State under the 1975 Accord, had to say at Jawahar Tunnel “goodbye to Jammu.” In other words, the mortally afraid Sheikh Abdullah had virtually suggested separation of Kashmir from Jammu. Earlier between 1932 and 1946, Sheikh Abdullah and his National Conference had also strove to the hilt to ensure segregation from Jammu of Kashmir. It was under the pressure of Jammu that Sheikh Abdullah and his son Farooq Abdullah had to bring the State under the purview of more central laws, including the anti-terror POTA.
The nation witnessed the third most spectacular movement between June and August 2008. It was directed against the regressive forces in the Valley and their supporters in New Delhi. The immediate cause of provocation was the decision of the government to take back from the Shrine Board the small piece of land at Baltal (Kashmir), which had been diverted to the Shrine Board under the High Court order for creating additional facilities on a temporary basis for the Shri Amarnath pilgrims. It was a purely ideological movement and its objectives were two: To defeat the regressive and intolerant forces in the Valley and force New Delhi and its cronies in the state to retransfer the said land to the Shrine Board. Discrimination with Jammu was another issue that also played its role in the mobilization across Jammu province against the State Government as well as the Central Government.
The movement was a great success. In fact, the Indian nation had never witnessed before and after 1947 such a movement as was engineered by Jammu. The movement resulted in the fall of the State Government, as also in the retransfer of the said piece of land. The movement attracted attention on world scale, with Kashmiri leaders, separatist or otherwise, not mustering courage to visit Jammu for months together. The movement brought Jammu on the world map and told the international community that it would be suicidal to ignore Jammu and its sentiment – sentiment that was national, secular and democratic.
In between and thereafter, Jammu engineered several other movements, all aimed at neutralizing the baneful of those who have been seeking a dispensation outside the political and constitutional organization of India or demanding autonomy, self-rule, independence and merger with Pakistan as well as those fighting against the Indian State. They have been opposing the Delhi-appointed interlocutors’ approach towards Jammu and Kashmir; they are opposing the Kashmir policy as being pursued by the Prime Minister and the Home Minister; they have been opposing the foreign policy towards Pakistan; they have been opposing the return and rehabilitation policy as has been devised and is being implemented by the State Government to pamper and benefit militants and murderers; they have not been allowing the Kashmiri separatists to vitiate the atmosphere in Jammu province; they have been urging the Union Government to hasten the process of the State’s integration into India so that the Indian Constitution is implemented in the State in full; and they have been giving unstinted moral support to the Army and paramilitary forces involved in anti-insurgency operations.
To Achieve its most cherished goal of complete integration with India and to controvert the insidious propaganda against India, Jammu has organized a number of shutdowns, demonstrations, dharnas and signature campaigns and also forced the Government of India not to export to Jammu persons with doubtful credentials. The resolve of Jammu, in short, is that it would not allow the Kashmiri separatists and the votaries of autonomy and self-rule to succeed and New Delhi to grant any political concession that has the potential of unsettling the settled in Jammu and Kashmir, appeasing the regressive forces and negating the supreme sacrifices made by it and our dedicated and committed soldiers during all these 63 years for the national cause.
It is very important to note that elections in Jammu and Kashmir, unlike other States of the Union, are not fought on democratic, administrative and economic issues. Even the menace of corruption doesn’t become an issue during the elections. Elections in the State are fought on purely ideological issues. It is always integrationists versus separatists. In Jammu, the people vote for those who pledge commitment to the national cause and in Kashmir the Valley leadership arouses and plays with religious sentiments of the people in order to garner votes, thus consistently widening the gulf between Kashmir and the rest of the country.
The fact of the matter is that it is Jammu which is standing like a rock and not allowing the secessionists to extend their tentacles beyond the Kashmir Valley. The struggle is going on unabated. Hence, it would be only appropriate to say that Jammu may witness again a massive integrate-the-state-fully-with-India-movement. It can happen anytime.
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