Discontent has been simmering in Jammu and Ladakh regions after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Srinagar on November 7, where he bestowed a gigantic Rs 80,000 crore development package, as the feeling spread that he had mainly addressed the valley rather than the diverse regions of the State. The reference to ‘Naya Kashmir’ jarred as it reminded people of the sectarian domination launched by Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah in the erstwhile princely state; they particularly objected to the Prime Minister omitting ‘Jai Hind’ at the end of his speech.
Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee made the same mistake while addressing a rally in Srinagar when, too, Mufti Mohammad Sayeed was Chief Minister; he later apologised. The first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru had addressed the people at Lal Chowk in 1947 and concluded his speech with ‘Jai Hind’. Subsequently, every Prime Minister who visited Kashmir concluded his/her speech with Jai Hind.
Chief Minister Mufti Sayeed in his speech paid obeisance to Bharat and spoke of the need to ensure the return of Pandits as an integral part of the state without being sequestered in a separate colony; the need to do something for refugees from Occupied Kashmir (around 15 lakh); and the need to empower panchayats and municipal bodies. Mentioning the havoc wrought by last year’s floods, he appreciated Central help in expediting the new Jammu-to-Srinagar highway, and the grant of AIIMS-like institutions to both Jammu and Kashmir provinces.
Both Mufti and People’s Democratic Party president Mehbooba Mufti spoke Urdu, though the language of the people is Kashmiri. This is perhaps the only regional language which, though backed by a powerful literary tradition, is not the official language of the state.
The Prime Minister said that in the matter of Jammu & Kashmir he was guided by Mr Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s formula of kashmiriyat, jamooriyat, insaniyat, and it was jamooriyat that ensured unprecedented polling in the recent Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha elections. Lauding the Chief Minister’s decision to give rights to panchayats to order their own affairs, he added that kashmiriyat is an integral part of Indian culture and that the Sufi tradition ensured communal harmony and united the people.
The sweet talk could not bridge the trust deficit between the disparate regions of the state. While the Prime Minister promised development for all – the Valley, Jammu, and Ladakh – the promise of Union Territory status to Ladakh, which gave the Bharatiya Janata Party a handsome victory in the recent Ladakh hill council (Leh) elections, seems remote. The PDP was routed.
The Prime Minister’s joke about ‘competition for development’ between Jammu province and the Valley underlined the inter-regional bitterness. The Union budget of February 2015 had provided for an AIIMS and IIM to J&K, which the Finance Ministry clarified to mean an AIIMS for Jammu and IIM for Kashmir. But after being sworn in as Chief Minister on March 1, Mufti Sayeed released the Agenda for Alliance which said the Valley would get the AIIMS, and Jammu an IIT and IIM.
This caused rage in Jammu province, which protested with a massive shutdown on April 24 and a complete bandh on May 27, when Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh visited the State to highlight the government’s one year achievements. As a result, the “historic rally” he was to address was reduced to an indoor meeting with party workers at KK Resort on the outskirts of the city. The Centre caved in and promised an AIIMS-type institution to both.
However, the fate of the Rs 100 crore artificial lake project over Tawi river in Jammu, which Mufti declared technically and economically unviable on May 15, remains uncertain though nearly Rs 50 crore has been spent. The project was intended as a tourist attraction for Jammu; the suspicion is that it was abandoned due to Pakistan’s objections that it might affect the flow of Indus water.
The resentment over imposition of 12.5 per cent tax on chopper service to Mata Vaishno Devi and other Hindu shrines, seen as a ploy to reduce the number of pilgrims, was succeeded by an attempt to scuttle Section 298 A, B, C and D of the Ranbir Penal Code, which banned the killing of cow and eating of beef.
When controversies over sale of beef erupted in some states which prohibited cow slaughter, some political parties and traders in the Valley decided to defy the century-old ban. A private members’ bill was submitted to the assembly, seeking to de-criminalise bovine slaughter and sale and eating of beef. When Additional Advocate General Vishal Sharma and Deputy Advocate General Parimoksh Seth sought to enforce the law, they were sacked by the PDP-controlled Law Ministry.
In August, the state authorities arrested Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, Yasin Malik and others to prevent them from travelling to Delhi to meet Pakistani National Security advisor Sartaj Aziz, prior to the scheduled talks with Indian NSA Ajit Doval. But they were almost instantly released under pressure from PDP president Mehbooba Mufti. Islamabad called off the talks at the last minute, but resentment lingers in Jammu.
As Jammu contributes over 70% of the State revenue and has the majority of the population, the demand for fresh delimitation of assembly constituencies to do justice to Jammu is gathering momentum. In February 2002, the National Conference government had passed an amendment that a delimitation commission would be set up only after 2031; this perpetuates the domination of Kashmir over the State.
The people of Jammu are restless over denial of due representation in the state assembly, cabinet, secretariat, the service sector and technical and professional institutions. The office of Chief Minister is the de facto preserve of Kashmir region, whose leaders are insensitive even to petty demands such as revival of Dogra certificate to subjects of the erstwhile kingdom.
As New Delhi hastens to complete the Rs 34,000 crore highway that will reduce the route between Jammu and Srinagar by nearly 70 kms and shorten travel from 10 to 4 hours, there is need to address the distance created by the mindset of aloofness from the rest of India. A beginning can be made by asking the State to assist in granting Union Territory status to backward Ladakh.
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