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| Resolve Kashmir, but what about the oppressed and suppressed Jammu? | | Needed: A Holistic Approach | | Neha
JAMMU, Sep 15: Minister of State for Home Affairs in the Omar Abdullah's Council of Ministers has boasted that Omar Abdullah is the first ever Chief Minister in the state who has demanded a political solution to the so-called Kashmir problem. In other words, he has sought to convey an impression that the state is a disputed territory that needs a political solution. Greater autonomy, according to the NC, could be the solution to the so-called Kashmir problem.
The attitude of the main opposition party in the state - PDP -- has been no different. It, like the NC, also advocates similar views. Its solution is self-rule that not only ends the state's politico-constitutional ties with India but also gives a larger role to Pakistan in the Indian Jammu and Kashmir. The attitude of the CPI-M and the CPI is also identical. They, like the NC and the PDP, also seek a solution that takes the state out of the political and constitutional organization of India. To be more precise, the NC, the PDP, the CPI and the CPI-M are one and the same. The only difference is that they are putting forth almost similar solutions from different platforms. Mercifully, the attitude of the Kashmir-based Congress leaders and ministers is also identical. They behave like the NC, the PDP, the CPI and the CPI-M leaders behave.
Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, Yasin Malik, Shabbir Ahmad Shah and others of their ilk represent another strand. Rabidly anti-India, they are vertically divided into three camps demanding Pakistan, implementation of the Musharaf's four-point Kashmir formula as a first step towards the final settlement of the issue and independence from both Pakistan and India. The vocal members of the Kashmiri civil society have also no love lost for India. They too want a solution outside the Indian constitutional framework.
The most disturbing aspect of the whole situation is the support the Kashmiri leaders are getting from certain elements in the Indian political establishment, media, and even from some foreign forces, especially those based in the United States, Pakistan and several European countries. Even more disturbing perhaps is the conspicuous absence of any reference to Jammu and Ladakh, which house almost half of the state's population and occupy over 88 per cent of the state's land area despite the fact that it is the people of these two provinces who have suffered immensely from total exclusion from all walks of life, political or otherwise.
One can understand the reasons behind the politics of exclusiveness as indulged in by Kashmiri leaders of all varieties. But one fails to comprehend why certain elements in the Indian political establishment, in the media and in the so-called think-tanks should refuse to give any space in their scheme of things to the oppressed, suppressed and persecuted Jammu and Ladakh and behave in a fashion that conveys an impression that since it Kashmir that is "alienated" from India, it is incumbent upon New Delhi to undertake concrete measures or announce confidence-building measures to "assuage the hurt feelings of Kashmir" and win over the "alienated Kashmiri Muslims". And, their undesirable and questionable behaviour notwithstanding the fact that it is Kashmir that has been ruling the state and consistently exploiting and destroying Jammu and Ladakh since 1947.
The approach the Kashmiri leadership and certain elements in the establishment, in the media and in the think-tanks have adopted cannot and will not do. It will not help resolve the issues facing different regions of the state. What is urgently needed is a holistic approach to the issues afflicting different people inhabiting different regions of the state. Not to recognise the ground realities in the state or to continue to cling to the out-moded approach would be only to create more problems than resolving the existing ones. Jammu and Ladakh are the state's two distinct regions, accept this reality and introduce reforms that not only empower the oppressed, suppressed and persecuted Jammu and Ladakh but also integrate Kashmir fully into India. There is no logic in treating Kashmir in the fashion the British treated the Muslim-majority areas in the British India at the behest of the fanatic Muslim League leadership in the pre-1947 days that led to the country's communal partition.
India is a secular and democratic country in which there is no place whatever for the communalists and separatists. We are not the erstwhile USSR. We are like the Americans are who do not recognise the right to secede and who at the same time believe in the full empowerment of all the regions in the United States. |
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