There is substance in the long-held grievance of the residents of Jammu that the State and the Central leaderships have pampered Kashmir
The people of Jammu province, who constitute almost half of the State's population and inhabit land area two times that of Kashmir, are seething with anger. Their anger is directed towards Kashmiri leadership, New Delhi and all political parties. Radicals among them are talking in terms of replicating Telangana in Jammu province. Segregation of Jammu from Kashmir is the only panacea available to end the over-65-year-old Kashmiri domination and hegemony over the State's political, economic and social institutions, they are saying. They are also saying that if the people of Jammu remain dormant and devoid of any political activity any longer, they would be submerged entirely under the rising tide of “Kashmiri Muslim sub-nationalism” and their fate would be sealed forever.
A case in point is the Amarnath land movement in Jammu. In a space of a few days, more than 6,50,000 men, 1,52,000 women and young girls and 1,18,000 children, including school-going boys and girls, had courted arrest across Jammu province. Remember, the number of jail-goers during the Mahatma Gandhi-guided and controlled Non-Cooperation movement was less than 30,000, and during the Civil Disobedience Movement (1930-1931 & 1932-1934), the figure was 92,124.
Anyway, sensing the mood of the people, the Bharatiya Janata Party, the Jammu & Kashmir National Panthers Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party have also upped the ante and demanded change in what they call the Kashmiri-dominated unitary politico-administrative and constitutional structure — change that treats the people of Jammu province equally at all levels and in all spheres. The BJP has said that ‘political empowerment’ of Jammu has become absolutely imperative if the unity and integrity of the State is to be preserved and inter-regional relations harmonised.
The JKNPP has said that it would not accept anything short of “reorganisation of the State on a regional basis and separate Chief Minister and separate Assembly” for Jammu. The BSP has, on the other hand, demanded trifurcation of the State into Jammu, Kashmir and ladakh, and threatened a full-scale agitation to achieve its objective. It has said that the trifurcation of the State alone could end the night of discontent and despair in Jammu province and enable its inhabitants, including Dalits, OBCs, STs and refugees of all varieties, lead a dignified life as Indian citizens. Dalits, OBCs, STs and refugees constitute almost half of the population of Jammu province.
The fundamental arguments advanced by the votaries of segregation of Jammu province from Kashmir, political empowerment, reorganisation and trifurcation are three. The first is that the Kashmiri leadership is not only patently communal but also essentially separatist. The demands of Kashmiri leaders range from merger with Pakistan to complete political redemption to self-rule (quasi-independence) to greater autonomy (semi-independence) to a new dispensation. The second is that Kashmir's ruling elite is out and out Valley-centric and vindictive, and that it has been blackmailing and browbeating the Indian political class since October 1947 to extract as many concession from New Delhi as possible for a particular religious sect, to harm Jammu and ladakh and to jeopardise the rights and interests of religious and ethnic minorities and social groups like SCs, OBCs and STs. They very strongly feel that the State Government, in pursuit of its political, economic and social policies, is directed by the Valley than by the State’s interests.
Their third argument is that they want to shape and mould their political and economic future within India and under the Constitution of India.
The grievance of the people of Jammu province that they have been treated unfairly by the New Delhi-supported Kashmiri leadership during all these years of independence, just cannot be dismissed as a manifestation of their ill-will towards Kashmir. Their complaint is genuine and well-founded.
(The writer is former Dean of Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Jammu)