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| Why separate allocations for Jammu and Ladakh? Why not trifurcation? | | Union Budget | | MINCING NO WORDS
NEHA
EARLY TIMES REPORT
JAMMU, Mar 1: The Union Government on Monday provided special support worth Rs 8000 crore to J&K for its developmental needs. Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee made the announcement to this effect while presenting his budget for 2011-2012. “The Government’s special support to J&K is anchored in Rs 28,000 crore Prime Minister’s Re-construction Plan. In addition, for the current year, about Rs 8,000 crore have been provided for the State’s development needs,” he told the Lok Sabha.
The special allocation would surely – apart from enabling the state government to meet its employees’ demands, including payment of arrears to them for which they have been crying, agitating and holding demonstrations since months – help it undertake developmental activities across the state. It will be seen if the state government, which so far has adopted a confrontationist attitude towards its employees, would actually rise to the occasion and meet its employees demands and make optimum use of the remaining amount to meet the developmental needs of the people of the state in general and Jammu and Ladakh in particular because these two grossly ignored and marginalized regions deserve a special and preferential treatment considering their miserable plight. The state government now cannot say that it has no money in its kitty to meet the employees’ reasonable demands and the demands of the suffering people of Jammu and Ladakh.
Finance Minister Mukherjee not only announced a special financial package for the state, but he also made another very important announcement, notwithstanding the fact that what he announced was no more than a petty or an illusory concession aimed at drawing away the real aspirations of the people of Jammu and Ladakh. Their real aspiration is full empowerment within the Indian Constitution and independent of Kashmir. He said: "A Task Force to assess infrastructure needs that can be addressed within a time horizon of 24 months for Ladakh and Jammu regions of the State has recommended projects amounting to Rs 416 crore and Rs 497 crore, respectively. I am providing Rs 100 crore for Ladakh and Rs 150 crore for Jammu” to start with. It bears recalling that it was on September 25, 2010 that the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS), which is headed by the Prime Minister, had decided to appoint two Special Task Forces, one each for Jammu province and Ladakh region. The Task Forces submitted their reports to the Government of India in January. The members of the Task Forces have identified certain projects, which could be implemented in a period of two years.
The second announcement made by the Finance Minister was very significant. It was significant because the Government of India has finally recognized that the attitude of the successive Kashmiri-dominated governments in the state has been quite negative and that it has become imperative to deal with Jammu and Ladakh separately as far as possible. In other words, the Government of India has finally acknowledged that the complaint of the people of these two regions that they have been grossly ignored is just and well-founded and the inter-regional relations in the state are one of bitterness, animosity and distrust.
But will the allocations of separate funds for Jammu and Ladakh would end inter-regional bitterness and harmonize relations between these two regions and Kashmir? The answer cannot be in the affirmative. In fact, the answer is a big NO. For, it is not just the negative attitude of the Kashmiri leadership that has created bitterness and a sense of distrust between the regions of the state, but it is also the political neglect or the wish of the Kashmiri leadership to force down their throat its regressive and communal ideology as well as its wish to snap political and constitutional ties with New Delhi that has also added to the bitterness of Jammu and Ladakh. The negative and provocative attitude the Kashmiri leadership to the decision of the Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council to adopt a new logo that practically matches the Indian logo is a classical example that serves to demonstrate the extent of its hatred for things Indian. It is interesting to note that a section of the Kashmir-based media has denounced as seditious the decision of the LAHDC.
It would be better if the Government of India takes into consideration the irreconcilable contradictions in the political perceptions of the Kashmiri leadership and people of Jammu and Ladakh and divide the state into Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh states. In fact, this is the only alternative left to harmonize relations between Kashmir and Jammu and between the former and Ladakh. New Delhi would do well to remember that the wedlock between the three regions is unnatural and that the state consists of three disparate regions, which cannot live under one government. Divide the state as early as possible and end regional tensions on a permanent basis.
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