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| Gujjars up in arms against interlocutors | | Why Opposition? | | Neha
EARLY TIMES REPORT
jammu, July 19: Gujjar United Front (GUF), like several other organizations, social and political, has also expressed unhappiness over the manner in which the Delhi-appointed interlocutors have been ignoring the Gujjar and Bakerwal community, which constitutes the third largest social group in the state after the Jammu Dogras and Kashmiri-speaking Sunnis. The GUF is one the premier organizations of the Gujjars in the state.
There was a time when the GUF was very active and quite vocal; it had become an important factor in the state's political situation. Its leadership was young and energetic and it used to be backed to the hilt by their elders. So much so that it had demanded in the early 90s separation of Jammu province and Gujjar-dominated parts of Kashmir province from the Valley and suggested the formation of Duggar and Gujjar Jammu State. The GJF became virtually dysfunctional some seven years ago. The reasons: The leadership crisis, ego clashes, politics within the front, opportunism, political ambitions and the desire to befriend men-in-power.
However, the GUF has again become functional to an extent. It is speaking on issues confronting the nomadic tribes. It is now articulating the problems the Gujjar and Bakerwal communities have been facing. It has been talking about backwardness of the community; about the faulty application of the reservation policy, recruitment policy and admission policy; about the non-performance of the Gujjar Advisory Board; about the failure of the government to implement the ST rules in letter and spirit and give political reservation; and so on. It has also been accusing the concerned authorities of issuing ST certificates to those who are not entitled to get the same and charging the government with adopting a policy that has only helped Kashmiris at the cost of the Gujjar and Bakerwal communities.
Why opposition of the GUF to the interlocutors? Its opposition seems to be to the oft-repeated assertion of the interlocutors that the autonomy granted to the state under Article 370 has been eroded over the years by the authorities and that it is this erosion that has led to the alienation of Kashmiri Muslims from the national mainstream. The opposition of the GUF and similar other Gujjar organizations is well-founded. They believe, and rightly, that the application of what the interlocutors have been saying and suggesting and what the NC and the PDP have been demanding would mean a direct attack on their rights and erosion of their status they have been enjoying as a ST community since April 1991. The Gujjars and Bakerwals got the ST status in April 1991 after a sustained struggle and much against the wishes of the Kashmiri Muslim leadership. Their argument has been that under the dispensation that Kashmiri Muslim leadership has been striving to achieve the Gujjars and Bakerwals would be deprived of all those rights they at present enjoy as a Scheduled Tribe community.
It is very significant to note that the GUF is of the opinion that India is the only country in the world that provides for reservation for certain deprived sections of society and that there is not a single Muslim country in the world that provides for reservation for any segment on any ground whatsoever. The GUF is right.
Hence, the opposition of the GUF and similar other organizations of the Gujjar and Bakerwal communities to the approach of the interlocutors to the issues facing these tribal people needs to be viewed in this context. It should also be viewed in the context of the positive approach of these interlocutors to the demands being put forth by the NC and the PDP, demands ranging from autonomy to self-rule. Demands, if accepted, would automatically mean negation of the ST status the Gujjars and Bakerwals and similar other communities in the state have been enjoying since years now. |
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