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| Jammu & Kashmir in the words of Padgaonkar | | Inter-Regional Relations | |
Rustam
Jammu, Dec 28: Interlocutors on Jammu and Kashmir Dileep Padgaonkar, Radha Kumar and MM Ansari submitted their report to Union Home Minister P Chidambaram on October 12, 2011. The report has not been made public so far. Hence, one cannot say what exactly the report contains. However, one can say with some authority about what Padgaonkar thinks about Jammu & Kashmir and the nature of the problem the nation has been facing in the state since decades. It would be appropriate to quote him verbatim to put things in perspective.
What he says about Jammu & Kashmir reads like this: "Our experience was that the people across the state were not satisfied. They had suffered and the reasons were different in different regions. One of the main reasons for the unrest among the youth was the acute employment problem. Youth were not getting jobs. That was the reason they were turning towards militants".
"When we tried to find what the people's political aspirations were, we found the people inhabiting different regions of the state had different and mutually exclusive political perceptions and aspirations. The people of the Valley had different political perceptions, whereas the people of Jammu and Ladakh had altogether different political perceptions. Their standpoints were altogether different. Not just this, the people of Kargil had political perceptions different from those of the people of Leh. Similarly, the political thinking of the people of the Muslim-majority districts in Jammu province was different from those of the people of Jammu city. How should one tackle all these diversities and satisfy all the interests? This was the fundamental issue before us. I think a way could be found out of the report we had submitted".
"I view the issues facing the state from three angles. One is the relations between the centre and the state. We know that the Instrument of Accession signed by Maharaja Hari Singh had restricted the jurisdiction of New Delhi to just three subjects (read defence, foreign affairs and communication) as far as Jammu & Kashmir was concerned and the rest of the subjects were under the ambit of the state government. But in course of time New Delhi eroded the internal autonomy the state enjoyed under Article 370 of the Indian Constitution and brought the state under the ambit of several central laws. The Government of India also applied various schedules of the Indian Constitution to the state. Article 370 had envisaged for the state a very special status and the purpose was to enable the state to preserve and promote its distinct identity. The application of the central laws and the various schedules of the Indian constitution caused dissatisfaction among the people of the Valley (read Kashmiri Muslims), they got alienated from India. But the people of Jammu and Ladakh felt jubilant. They accepted the central laws and central institutions very cheerfully because they were for their full integration into India".
"The other was that there were inter-regional tensions and animosities. For example, the people of Jammu and Ladakh hate the people of Kashmir (read Kashmiri Muslims) from the core of their heart. They complained that Kashmir and the people of Kashmir (read Kashmiri ruling elite) had consistently followed a policy of discrimination with them. If the people of Jammu elected one MLA at the rate of one per 100,000 voters, the people of Kashmir elected one MLA at the rate of one per 85,000 voters. It meant that the people of Kashmir had seven seats more in the assembly as compared to the people of Jammu province, although the population of this province was almost equal to that of the Valley. They also complained that it was the people of Kashmir who had occupied the bulk of positions in the vital service sector. The share of the people of Jammu province and Ladakh region in the public services was very inadequate and negligible. Not just this, it was the Kashmir province which always got more funds for developmental activities and creating infrastructure. The people of Jammu and Ladakh always got only crumbs. The people of Jammu and Ladakh were extremely angry with Kashmir. There existed in Jammu and Ladakh anti-Kashmiri sentiment. This was the internal situation in the state. It was said again and again that the inter-regional bitterness would continue to dot the state's political scene unless there was decentralization of the state power". (To be continued) |
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