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| Is Jammu & Kashmir part of the so-called secular India? | | Refugees From West Pakistan - I | | Rustam
Jammu, Feb 6: Is Jammu & Kashmir part of the national mainstream, as the Congress and similar other pseudo-secular organisations give the people to understand? Are the minorities safe in Jammu & Kashmir? What is the plight of the refugees inhabiting different parts of Jammu province, especially Jammu, Samba and Kathua districts? Jammu & Kashmir is not part of the national mainstream. It is one state which has its own politico-administrative and constitutional structure that is highly biased against the non-Muslim minorities and that has made the life of the minorities a veritable hell on earth. They are consistently oppressed, persecuted and ignored.
The fact of the matter is that neither the authorities in New Delhi nor in Jammu & Kashmir consider the non-Muslim minorities in the state fit for any civil, political and economic rights. In other words, the non-Muslim minorities in the state, all inhabiting Jammu province, do not enjoy any fundamental right in the real sense of the term even after 65 years of independence. The persecuted and oppressed members of these minority communities, who constitute almost 40 per cent of the population in the state, are considered by New Delhi and the authorities in the state as subjects and not citizens. They have been practically abandoned.
It's a horrible situation that prevails in Jammu & Kashmir with the so-called champions of human rights not taking up the issue of violation of human rights of these minorities, including Hindu, Sikh and Christian. It must remain a matter of shame for the "rights" activists who denounce the Indian State, Army, paramilitary forces and police when the fanatics, separatists and terrorists are taken on by those responsible for the maintenance of law and order and unity and territorial integrity of India.
Jammu & Kashmir is the only state where a particular section of the non-Muslim minorities does not enjoy even citizenship rights and it has been happening right since October 1947, when the state acceded to India hoping that the people of Jammu & Kashmir would be entitled to exercise all those rights which were available to their fellow countrymen in rest of the country. Take, for example, the case of refugees from West Pakistan, all Hindus, predominantly members of depressed classes, called Scheduled Castes. These refugees, whose number is more than one lakh, instead of migrating to other parts of the country, migrated to Jammu to save their religion and culture and escape their physical liquidation at the hands of the votaries of the pernicious two-nation theory. They migrated to Jammu in the wake of the country's communal partition believing that they would be able to lead a dignified life and enjoy all rights all human beings are entitled in any civilised society. They never thought that they would be treated as third grade subjects by the authorities in Jammu & Kashmir and deprived of even the basic citizenship rights.
It needs to be underlined that these hapless refugees from West Pakistan do not have the right to own property anywhere in the state or to obtain jobs under the state government. Nor do they have the right to vote in the elections to the assembly and local bodies, including corporations, municipalities and panchayats. They do not have the right to avail themselves of the bank loan facilities. Nor do their wards have the right to acquire higher education or seek admission in the technical and professional colleges in the state. They have been moving heaven and earth to obtain citizenship rights since 1947, but with no result. The Kashmiri leadership has been vehemently opposing their struggle for empowerment saying the grant of citizenship rights to the refugees from West Pakistan would change the demographic profile of the state. The Kashmiri leadership, in effect, opposes the struggle of these refugees for citizenship rights on the ground that their demands, if accepted, would change the political scene in Jammu province and enable it to have more seats in the Jammu & Kashmir Legislative Assembly.
And, the Kashmiri leadership has been able to defeat these refugees with the help of the so-called secular and democratic Indian National Congress (INC). The Kashmiri leadership has been opposing the demand for the grant of citizenship rights to the refugees from West Pakistan saying Jammu & Kashmir enjoys a very special status and that it has its own citizenship rights which are reserved exclusively for the permanent residents of the state and the Congress and similar other pseudo-secular political groupings have been making common cause with the Valley leadership sharing its view. In other words, the Kashmiri leadership, which is being ably backed by the Congress and other pseudo-secular parties, says that the grant of citizenship rights to the refugees from West Pakistan would erode the state's special status. (TO be concluded) |
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