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| Debate on Challenges Facing Jammu Province | | | Early Times Report
JAMMU, Mar 26: Public Opinion Forum (POF), Jammu, on Sunday organised a debate at Press Club Jammu on the challenges being faced by the people of Jammu province with a view to finding what could enable them obtain a dispensation that is their own or that empowers them to manage their own affairs themselves in a meaningful manner independent of Kashmir. It was a good initiative, notwithstanding some management problems towards the end. The panelists who took part in the discussion included Balwant Singh Mankotia, JKNPP MLA; Ashwani Sharma, JSM MLA; Tulsi Dass Langhe, President BSP; Advocate BS Salathia, President, Jammu Bar Association; Prof. Hari Om; Sohail Kazmi, Journalist; Advocate S. Surinder Singh; Advocate Sheikh Shakeel; and Prof. Virender Gupta, President JSM (Secular).
The panelists were one in highlighting nature of discrimination with the people of Jammu province. Most of them held Kashmiri leaders, Union Government and national-level political parties responsible for the all-round degeneration and neglect of Jammu province and asserted that the people of Jammu province have been suffering since the state's accession to India. "Jammu region has been neglected in all the matters, including development, allocation of funds by the state as well by the Government of India, in service sector and in admission to technical and professional institutions," they said and bemoaned that "Kashmir Valley is considered the whole of Jammu and Kashmir State and the voice of the Kashmiri leaders the voice of all the people of the state". It is because of this approach of the authorities in New Delhi and policy-planners that the "aspirations of the people of Jammu and Ladakh regions have always been ignored by the Government of India," they opined. They also opined, and very rightly, that the "accords of 1947, 1952, 1975 and 1986 were made by the Government of India with Kashmiri leadership" over the heads of the people of Jammu and Ladakh and were "imposed on them much against their wishes".
The bulk of the panelists expressed the view that "Kashmiri leadership has always tried to divide Jammu region on communal lines and separate the Muslim-dominated areas of the region from it in order to merge them with the Valley". "There is a great challenge to the geographical and cultural identity of Jammu region from the policies being pursued by the Kashmiri leadership," they opined and asserted that the "people of Jammu region have also serious apprehensions that in any future settlement by the Government of India with Kashmiri leadership their aspirations could again be ignored". This, if happens, would further strength the stranglehold of Kashmir over Jammu and Ladakh and pose a grave challenge to their very distinct identities was the upshot of their argument.
Besides acknowledging that "Jammu region is facing a leadership crisis", most of the panelists expressed no-confidence in the national-level political parties, saying the local leadership of these formations, instead of watching and protecting the interests of the people of Jammu region, only follows the diktats of their "central leadership which either prefers to appease the Kashmiri leadership" or "advances its own interests" at national level. There was unanimity among the leaders who participated in the debate that the root cause for the "ills" afflicting Jammu region is its "inadequate share in the political structure of J&K". "The undue weightage given to Kashmir region in the state assembly and Lok Sabha, coupled with the appeasement policy pursued by the Central government at the cost of Jammu region, has put Kashmir into a dominant political position" with Jammu and Ladakh being converted into "colonies of Kashmir," some panelists said. One of the panelists suggested that it was time for changing the very name of Jammu region in order to defeat the vested interests who create confusion by saying Jammu is not Jammu region. He suggested it would be better if Jammu region is described as Jammu Pradesh and Jammu city as Jamboo.
Significantly, all, but three panelists, said trifurcation/reorganisation of the state was the only lasting and viable solution to the problems being faced by the people of Jammu province and they included the BSP president, former Jammu Bar Association president, JSM MLA, Prof Hari Om and Prof Virender Gupta. The JKNPP MLA stood for reorganisation of the state and demanded separate chief minister and separate assembly for Jammu Pradesh. There was consensus that the people of Jammu Pradesh must be given the power to legislate. As for the three panelists, they neither opposed the trifurcation formulation or reorganisation demand, but, at the same time, vouched for a solution that ends discrimination with the people of Jammu Pradesh. The most significant aspect of what transpired during the debate was that almost everyone present in the hall demanded from the organisers of the debate a roadmap so that the objective could be achieved at the earliest. What transpired during the debate only vindicated those who had been saying since long that "Jammu and Kashmir is an unnatural formation" and that it must be divided so that the people inhabiting different regions become master of their own fate. |
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