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| Jammu not a doormat, it will decide its own fate | | Kashmir Issue -- I | | Neha
JAMMU, Jan 9: Jammu province is not a doormat. Nor is it a bridge between Kashmir and New Delhi, as certain vested interests suggest. It is also not a colony of Kashmir. Jammu province is a distinct geographical region. It has a distinct identity and personality. It has its own glorious history. It is a region which can sustain itself without the help from any quarter, as it has plenty of natural resources, including the invaluable Chenab waters. Jammu is more than self-sufficient, notwithstanding the policy of discrimination being pursued against Jammu by the Kashmiri political class and New Delhi since October 1947. It was in 1947 that the then Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, who failed to discover India, and the Congress party, which was founded by the Britons to sabotage the Indian freedom struggle, hit the people of Jammu province below the belt and transferred the state power from Jammu to Srinagar to appease the Valley-based separatist leadership, especially Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah of the National Conference (NC), who had hatred and contempt for the Dogras of Jammu province, including the Dogra Maharaja, Hari Singh.
The grudge of the Sheikh against the Dogras was that they had ruled over Kashmir for full 101 years. He belonged to that school of thought which made the Kashmiris to believe that "Dogras purchased the life, dignity and honour of the Kashmiris by paying a sum of Rs 75 lakh to the British". It bears recalling that it was the Jammu Kingdom to which Kashmir was added in March 1846 under the Treaty of Amritsar. Maharaja Gulab Singh had purchased Kashmir from the British and the price of Kashmir was Rs 75 lakh. The single-point agenda of Sheikh Abdullah and his Muslim Conference/NC was the abrogation of the Treaty of Amritsar and separation of Kashmir from Jammu Kingdom. He wanted to set up a Switzerland-type independent Kashmir and establish his stranglehold over it.
Any way, the point of discussion is not how the State of Jammu and Kashmir came into being in March 1846. The issue under scrutiny is the vicious propaganda unleashed by the Kashmiri leadership and certain vested interests in New Delhi and elsewhere to create an impression that Kashmir means the whole of the state comprising Jammu province, Kashmir and the trans-Himalayan Ladakh and that meeting the aspirations of the Kashmiris would be the same as fulfilling the aspirations of all in the state. This vicious propaganda is going on since long and all the Kashmiri leaders, including the votaries of greater autonomy, self-rule, independence and Pakistan, are involved in this no-holds-barred misinformation campaign designed not only to enslave the people of Jammu and Ladakh but also to ensure for the whole of the state a dispensation outside the political and constitutional organization of India.
The worst part of the whole situation is that certain custodians of the Indian State have allowed themselves to be deeply influenced by this mischievous propaganda. It would be only appropriate to say that the Indian Prime Minister, the Union Home Minister, the External Affairs Minister, the AICC president and UPA chairperson, to mention only a few, belong to the category of the custodians of the Indian State who believe in what the Kashmiri leadership and others of its ilk say about Jammu and Kashmir. It was not for nothing that the state power was handed over to Omar Abdullah, grandson of Sheikh Abdullah, in January 2009, bypassing what could be termed as a chickenhearted and weak local Congress leadership. Similarly, it was not for nothing that the Congress high command again ignored the local Congress leadership and allowed Omar Abdullah of Kashmir to rule the state for another three years. The Prime Minister and the AICC president had done the same in 2002, when it overlooked the claim of the local Congress leadership and handed over the state power to a party having just 16 MLAs in the Assembly. And remember, the custodians of the Indian State handed over the state power to the Kashmiri leaders in 2002, 2009 and in 2012 (and earlier also in 1947, 1975, 1984 and 1987) in the name of what they called "national interest". (To be continued) |
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