EDITORIAL
Don't
muddle the system!
Elections in this
State have always been marred by politicking. Of
course, politics is what elections is all about,
but here one sees another type of politicking.
This politicking is over things quite unrelated
to the election proper. When Sheikh Abdullah was
out, the elections in the State, though conducted
by the same Commission that oversaw elections in
the rest of the country, with the same set of
rules and regulations, were termed
'unconstitutional'. Interestingly, it was only
the shadow 'NC' under the Plebiscite Front
umbrella that called these elections illegal
while all other parties, including the
Jamat-I-Islami of current Hurriyat fame that was
a thankful participant in the elections then,
were satisfied. The first election-apart from the
'nomination-elections' that Sheikh Abdullah was
fond of 'holding' during his 'pre-53' tenure-
that National Conference called 'free and fair'
was the 1977 one which it won. Winning,
apparently, one 'clear proof' of the elections
having been 'free and fair'! And, that does not
apply this State alone but the whole nation.
Did BJP concede
that the last elections in Delhi were freely and
fairly won? Unfair onions, said these stalwarts,
hovered so heavily on the election. And so they
did! So, did an ailing Sheikh hover menacingly
over the 'free and fair' election of 1977. And, a
dead one over the next. Then came, 1987. All
except NC take that election to have been rigged,
though independent observers maintain that the
rigging could not have affected more than a dozen
of seats in the valley and none in Jammu region.
Fatuous analyses, however, have even posited that
the militancy 'originated' in those 'unfair
practices' as if the Pak agenda in Kashmir had
never existed, as if operation Balakot had never
been formulated, as if the Pak establishment and
ISI had been inert and inactive and not training
'senior' KLF leaders of today in the terrorist
training camps years before, as if the only
'initatives' of Zia had been cricket diplomacy.
But then there have been too many sincere people
in the country working overtime to accord say and
sanctity to dubious forces and agents in Kashmir.
For long, till it joined the mainstream, NC was
their darling. Once it was there, it suddenly
became a persona non grata. Now 'the opinions'
sincerely, proudly play the Hurriyat game.
That game,
dictated by the motives and forces inimical to
the interest of the State, its people and the
nation, calls for discrediting the wholesome
process of the elections, calling it into
question, creating doubts and if nothing avails
to derail the process itself. That is what the
fuss over the issue of photo-identity cards is
all about. There is hardly a person in Kashmir as
does not possess an I-card. The situation demands
it; their own safety demands it. The people would
be better off with valid irrefutable proof of
identity that they are required to show at every
hour of their concourse through the State or
outside. The people want identities that would
make it convenient for them to move about freely.
As it is, they spend pots of money getting the
I-cards, and all try to have one from the highest
authority at their own cost after spending days
and weeks over it. Yet, the issue of
photo-identities, which would be prepared by the
Government and delivered to them at their homes,
is being presented as a great disservice! Indeed,
the seemingly innocuous issue carries a kink that
is not easily seen; at the very least it portrays
election a sort of force, not freedom. The
sustained process to bring the elections into
disrepute is driven by similar considerations.
Now, where do the
Pak agendaists stand if an election takes place
on time, as per the set laws and rules in this
regard, in an open way, in the manner in which
all elections in the country are conducted? That
is a privilege the Pak people are still
struggling to have. That election would be a
sharp contrast to the one that is taking place in
Pakistan- if it takes place at all ! ----where
everything from the candidates to parties and
their planks has been manipulated through
ordinances from a president who has no mandate to
even sit in that chair. For this part of the
subcontinent it is nothing special; it is a
routine exercise, a normal affair in the
governance and exercise of their sovereign right
by the people. And, that is the ultimate
legitimacy of the election. It proves the Indian
case and contention. More than that it is an
assurance to the people that laws not whims,
rules not personal wishes, dictate the course of
events in the country. That is the legitimacy
before the people and that is all that matters.
That legitimacy of order must not be disturbed,
must not be tampered with, must not be undermined
at any cost.
Nations, and
societies live in order not on the shoulders of
personalities. It is not the personae but the
impersonal body of laws, rules and regulations
that is the ultimate proof of the democracy, the
ultimate guarantee to the people. The nations and
people who get trapped in personalities do not
fare well. There the law does not live. And law,
must apply; the sovereignty must prevail.
Ultimate sovereignty rests with the people. The
legatees of this sovereignty must renew their
mandate, on time, in accordance with the laid
down norms. The emergency of 1977 sought to defer
this renewal. All deferments of this renewal of
mandate are vicious things that must neither be
supported, must not be justified, must not be
even entertained whatever the grounds. All the
parties that are seeking a postponement of the
elections in this State are not acting under the
dictates of terrorists but they are being rather
narrow in their visions. For, it helps none to
fiddle with the system, to trample the
established norms. It may bring a temporary gain,
but it is not helping anyone in the long run. Let
not the course of law, the run of norms be
fiddled with.
|
 |
Liberty
had a close shave in Afghanistan
By M J
Akbar
The past
is littered across Kabul airport. Most of
the planes are broken neatly, snapped
like twigs by a giant. Only a few look as
if they have been subjected to a searing
torture that had defeated their forms and
mangled their innards. On one decisive
night in October, a giant, the United
States, took each machine in the service
of the Taliban Regime, civilian or
transport, apart with the laser precision
that modern bombs can deploy against
squatting ducks. The wreckage across the
field has a surreal, museum quality to
it, a memory of war, anger and deadly
revenge. Salvage would not do justice to
such wreckage. For some unknown reason a
line from Macbeth echoes in recess of the
mind: How much blood was there in the old
man. How many planes are there in the old
regime!
The only
military plane I saw a MiG, was intact,
and parked like a stuffed trophy on a
banner outside the airport, on the fork
of a road turning towards the city. To
which war did this MiG belong, to which
jihad? If had not been bombed, even by
mistake. It was a dead survivor. They
exist in countries like Afghanistan.
The live
survivors, American helicopters and
gunships, sit in obedem rows amid the art
deco of what is surely the world's only
aeroplane graveyard. The present lives,
if uneasily, between yesterday's and
tomorrow's wars.
-----
Our craft
availed twice in the air, following the
route of a racetrack, before landing on a
patch in Valley 4,000 feet above the sea,
ringed by mountains. From the air, Kabul
looks flat and flattened. Brown is the
colour of this world, of mountain, earth,
habitat and man. Even rock seems to be
made of mud, like the homes that cling to
their sides. Nothing rises higher than
the second floor, except for nature.
Occasional flashes of green in the fields
seem like lipstick and nailpolish, pretty
but marginal.
A Turkish
crescent barely stirs above the control
tower of the airport. Turkish troops are
in charge; the security of a renewned
nation has been handed over to brother
Muslims from the edge of Europe after
Britain slipped away and America decided
to concentrate on the search for an
ememy, the Taliban and Al Qaeda, that is
probably sitting elsewhere. The door
opens and we see a swarm of people who
have come to welcome the External Affairs
Minister of India, Mr Yashwant Sinha.
Paradoxically, warmth rather than
discipline creates the straight lines out
of a dispersed welcome.
Mr
Yashwant Sinha has arrived on a magic
carpet; in the first of the three
Airbus-300s that India has gifted to the
Afghan national airline, Ariana. Cake is
served with cold drinks. Speeches are
made against the backdrop of most
glorious flowers. The Afghans are
emotional. The external affairs minister
is elegant. A gift has been given with
grace and received with hope.
----
What do
you call a traffic jam that does not have
too much traffic? A traffic butter? This
was more of a traffic jalebi, a squiggle
that turned upon itself ignoring the wide
space around its internal snarl. We
wormed our way through curiosity, with
authority; we shot past the American
embassy, a fortress crowned by a forest
of technology. The Radio Afghanistan
building looked distraught; the
Afghanistan Films office forlorn. Shops
began to appear, from Khayate Abdullah,
mardana (or men's) tailor, to Popolana,
offering Italian food in a dhaba; to
Milad Computer Service, Shafaq English
and Computer Agency, D. Butcher's Market
and Sharif Market Japani. (You can take
Japan out of a market but how can you
take a market out of Japan?) The star of
the growing show is Sikander the Barber,
now proudly displaying his profession
without fear favour. Just a year ago he
would have been whipped for daring to
snip the beard of a believer by the
barbaric Taliban. The clean faces of
Kabul suddenly strike you. A year ago the
Taliban thought the police would drive
men to mosques and punish anyone who
dared to shorten a beard. Liberty has had
a close shave in Afghanistan.
-----
Is wizened
an Afghan word? It should be. Name one
country with more wizened faces. The most
wizened of them all was the face of my
driver, whose beam became broader with
each helpless gesture. Sample: morning,
and the clean, dry sun is already 30
degrees hot. We ask him to put the
airconditioner of the car on. He swivels
the button of the AC switch twice to show
how useless it is, then winds the windows
down with a broad smile to offer us air
conditioned by God. The one moment I did
not immediately recognise him was when,
most solemnly, he sat beside me at the
general banquet for the two delegations
at the Palace where President Hamid
Karzai works and King Zahir Shah, the
Baba-e-Qaum (or father of the community)
lives. There was complete lack of social
distinction at this formal lunch.
Everyone involved in the two delegations
took a seat at the table, including the
police outrider and the driver of third
vehicles. Everyone was an equal at the
table. The one difference was that my
driver beamed even more after roast meat,
pilao, bread, brinjal, beans, salad and
melon.
-----
While Mr
Yashwant Sinha served the nation with
exemplary zeal (10.10, hand over plane;
10.45 meet Foreign Minister; 11.30, meet
Finance Minister: 12, call on
Baba-e-Qaum; 12.30 talks with Mr Hamid
Karzai; and so on), I took my wizened
driver towards Baagh-e-Babar, the last
garden and final resting place of Babar.
Mr driver had some difficulty finding out
where Mr Hamid Karzai lived, but he had
no problem taking me to where Babar lay
dead.
The beauty
of this garden ascends on you. The rise
is deceptive. War and the ignorance of
the Taliban have left it desolate, but
there were lush grass lawns, beds of
hovering flowers and a straight line of
playing fountains once. Some of the
flowers have returned and foreign
restorers have brought their instruments
of alignment to begin rejuvenation, but
this beauty's scars will take time to
heal. We walk, helped by half a dozen
steps every once in a while, without
discerning the gradual slope that is
taking us towards the breast of the
mountains. We reach the first building, a
pavilion, and look back upon what once
must have been a natural delight enhanced
lay man's art. The pavilion is a shock.
Bullets and mortar have ripped it apart.
The mosque above has not been spared
either, its tiled roof tumbling out of
control. The grave is small and simple;
the obituary elegant and factual. From
the high point of the grave, the meaning
of war becomes terribly clear, both in
the immediate and in the extended view.
Below us lies a devastated area of Kabul,
hectares of homes and roads that have
been smashed by shell and wrecked by the
fire of the fiercest battles. This is the
famous road to Kabul University, the
dividing line between forces of the
Taliban and those of Ahmed Shah Masood,
leader of the Northern Alliance. Masood,
the Lion of Panjsher against the
Russians, lost out to the Taliban and was
marginalised, along with General Dostum,
to Mazaar-e-Sharif where he remained in
the fight as leader of the Northern
Alliance. Destiny was cruel to Masood. It
gave him his hour after September 11; but
it took him away a minute before the hour
struck. Masood was assassinated by two
suicide bombers who fooled him into
giving an interview by posing as European
journalists. They are building a statue
of Masood on the Great Masood Road, while
is what the principal artery of Kabul is
now called. The honour will dominate
Kabul; at least untill the next war.
-----
Well come,
says the sign at the gate of the Kabul
Intercontinental. English can go to the
devil in these circumstances; I feel
welcome. Even the Turkish soldiers who
check me out do it with a smile. We drive
through the gate and past a hall that
says what it was rather than what it is:
BALLROOM. The hotel reopened after the
defeat of the Taliban; the carpets are as
frayed as the uniforms; there is one
local soap in the bathroom and it makes
more sense to wait till the evening
brings the temperature down than complain
about airconditioning. But I feel at
home. From the Drug Store Cum Antiqu
(sic) shop in the foyer, owned by Yak
E.Bood and Yak E. Naboo, come the strains
of Aa jao tarapte hain armaan, ab raat
guzarne wali hai, which is soon followed
by Ghar aaya mera pardesi, pyas bujhi
mere ankhiyon kee. Across the hall from
the shop is the Power Room. I blink. I
have not seen a Powder Room being called
a Powder Room - ever! Bathroom. Powder
Room. Queen Victoria is alive and in
Kabul.
The
portrait of Ahmed Shah Masood looks down
upon us. But he doesn't mind, really.
Where else would a Hindi song meet Queen
Victoria except at an Intercontinental in
Kabul?
|
China
in Soviet footsteps?
By
Satyabrata Rai Chowdhuri
Perestroika
and Glasnost became buzz-words when
Soviet President Gorbachev announced in
the late 1980s that they were the two
major pillars of his country's economic
and political superstructure. He was
prompted to do it on account of growing
pressure by the West-as prerequisite for
bringing the Soviet Union into the world
of the 1990s. facilitating arms control
talks and economic and technological
collaboration with the West-to open up
the Soviet Union, liberalize it, allow
more human and political liberties, and
cease the persecution of disidents and
free thinkers.
Perestroika
meant reconstruction of State structures
and Glasnost meant transparency. In those
early stages, the paraphernalia of a
socialist economy remained almost
untouched production quotas,
collectivization, State-set prices,
sbsidies, low wages, no competition and
an emphasis on heavy industry, including
weapons and space programmes.
That was
why, paradoxically the more Moscow opened
up and liberalized politically and
restructured its institutions, the more
its economic malaise became 'transparent'
for all to see. The food shortages were
as tight as eve and the food queues as
long as ever. This tragic unfolding of
events gave rise to the oft-repeated
sinister joke that before Glasnost Russia
stood on the brink of an abyss, but
thereafter it took a big leap forward.
China's
restructuring had begun in 1979 when
Deng's visionary plans, dubbed by some as
China's 'New Deal'', started with the
''Four Modernizations'' in the domains of
industry, agriculture, science and
technology and the military. According to
those three-tiered plans, Deng was first
to mechanise agriculture and render
industry more efficeint within the first
two years, followed by a five-year second
stage which was to perform a true great
leap forward in industrial output by way
of importing onto China 120 large-scale
high-tech industrial plants. Thereafter,
between 1985 and 2000, China was to turn
to production of consumer products in
collaboration with Western industrial
giants. The military however was not
accorded high priority.
Deng
understood that some domestic
liberalization was called for if he
wanted his programme to thrust forward,
and he also grasped the danger to his
rule, should a process of democratization
gain momentum, but he did not hesitate to
follow in the Soviet footsteps by
introducing market economy step by step.
He realized that an overnight scrapping
of the socialist economy would set in
train a whole series of serious
consequences.
Deng's
idea was ''to upgrade existing systems
instead of investing in the purchase of
new and exorbitantly expensive weapons,
and to acquire new technologies in order
to foster self-production and
self-reliance.'' This goal could be
achieved, he said, even if it required
the assistance of foreign companies.
Pierre
Cardin was invited to China to ''review''
the Chinese dress customs, Coca Cola was
openly marketed in stores, and not a few
notable Chinese were seen rocking to the
sound of American pop music. Western -
style dancing balls opened in Beijing and
Western beauty parlours seemed to attract
many women in the cities all over the
country. The French were invited to build
new communication systems, the Japanese
to erect plants, the Danes new ports, and
the Swedes modern railways.
An
obsession with learning foreign
languages, especially English, swept
China, and the Middle Kingdom opened its
doors to massive tourism, thus signalling
not only China's new interest in foreign
currency, but also its ''open door''
policy, this time initiated by the
Chinese of their own volition, and not by
the gunship policy of the West. Even
Chinese television programmes began
reflecting the prevailing worldwide; the
West was no longer to corrupt bourgeoisie
on the verge of collapse, but an
energetic and creative society worthy of
emulation.
Within two
or three years a revolution of major
proportions did actually unforld, first
in the countryside, where 80 per cent of
the Chinese still find their livelihood.
The rural communes were annulled, each
family was allowed to plough its own plot
of land an extract the maximum from it,
only a fraction of the crop was imposed
as a production quota while the rest was
permitted to be marketed freely for the
sake of reaping profit. The old
quasi-slavish labour for the sake of
reaping profit. The old quasi-slavish
labour for the State, for which one
collected work-points, was scrapped.
Cottage industries sprang up in villages,
private houses were built, tractors and
trucks were purchased by farmers, and the
race towards making money began, now
sanctioned by the State which declared,
contary to classic Marxism, that if
individuals got rich, the State would
too.
In
industry and commerce too, changes
followed each other, in the free economic
zones, a new class of entrepreneurs
became so wealthy as to give rise to a
new class of bourgeois consumers.
Shopkeepers and artisans began
manufacturing and marketing their
produce, new private restaurants sprang
up like mushrooms to cater to al tastes
and income brackets, even industrial
workshop slowly moved to the limelight of
economic activity. The owners of these
worskhops were allowed to hire their own
labour force.
Pornographic
literature and movies, the epitome of
capitalist decadence, also made their
appearance and became available to eager
consumers.
At the
same time the Chinese leaders ralizes
that only if China settled its relations
with Russia could it channel all its
attention and energy to economic
development. Thus together with a growing
openness towards Japan and the West
whence capital and technology came. Chine
minimized the areas of friction with its
neighbours and went as far as undertaking
to let capitalist Hong Kong thrive after
recuperating it in 1997. Beijing also let
it be understood that it would be
amenable to a similar arrangement with
Taiwan should the latter acquiesce in
rejoining the mainland.
Moreover,
China made tremendous efforts to improve
its image in non-Communist countries by
discounting its support to local
Communist under-ground movements. Thus
China diversified its foreign policy
orientations by making up with nearly
everyone even with Israel.
The
Chinese leadership has learned from
Eastern Europe the limits and the
menances of the halfway measures
syndrome. Everyone of those who attempted
to loosen somewhat their regimes (Krentz
in Germany, Pankosky in Poland, Madnov in
Bugaria, Jasek in Czechoslovakia, etc)
were swept away by the logic of their own
reforms; if you liberalize, that is, you
let the people express their minds, then
the people will demand total liberty.
Therefore, the choice is between
political repression or a total
overhauling of the regime with the very
concrete danger of losing the reins of
power altogether. The Chinese has opted
for the former, the Soviets are learning
to live with the latter. The unitarian
Government of China will survive as it is
for another while, in a slowed-down and
tightly controlled process of
modernization, or it will collapse beyond
retrieved, when it shows its inability to
maintain revolution and modernization at
one and the same time.
PTI
Feature
|
The
legislative imbalance in J&K
By Col.
Digby Jamwal (Retd)
Article
370 of the Indian Constitution has
already granted considerably much more
extra latitude to J&K than to any
other State of the Indian Union to run
their own affairs; despite the fact that
many Clauses of Article 370, if
considered in-depth and detail, are
definitely not conducive to national
integrity, national interest or national
honour. The amount and content of
devolution of further powers to J&K
should therefore be undertaken only after
carefully weighing all pro's and con's,
the merits and necessity for additional
concessions, the benefits that should
accrue, micro and macro level
political-cum-security considerations and
most importantly, whether genuinely
required.
Discussions
with an emissary of the present National
Conference-led State Govt, needs to take
into consideration that over the past
five decades, it is this Valley-led party
which has held complete political power
unchallenged throughout. In the process
they have pulverized Indian perceptions
and correct evaluations of the issues
involved in J&K behind the facade of
Kashmiriyat, and yet shown no tangible
results to our benefit. That the
elections tentatively proposed in October
will incorporate the new thought process
of governance in the sub-continent, and
particularly the international scenario
vis-a-vis India's strong stand on J&K
and its support from world powers.
Finally, any talks which undermine
India's authority will be rejected
outright.
Background
There
seems to be a misconception in the minds
of the Valley leaders, and also with
so-called secular experts in Delhi, that
Kashmiri's of the Valley specifically are
a special people, need extra special
treatment and therefore must be
molly-coddled. It is indeed a travesty
that this false impression has been
created over the years. Does it imply
that Valley Kashmiri's face different
problems of economic, social,
educational, financial and administrative
nature which are different from the
citizens of the other two regions of the
State and the rest of the States of the
Union?
Local
political parties of other States of the
Union as well as all-India level
political groups are individually and
collectively concerned about improving
the lives of their countrymen, and in the
process, promise better governance,
administration and other benefit and
facilities. Yet, rather than work to this
end, with malafide intent, Valley-based
leaders continue to mislead their
followers with trans-national thinking,
encouraging political activity of a
nefarious variety, and concocting
hare-brained schemes.
The
Accords of 1952, 1975 and 1986 with
Congress-run Central Governments were
obviously blackmailing tactics for more
'concessions' despite Article 370. As a
matter of fact, the administrative set-up
progressively became more inefficient and
politically, the situation worsened.
Tehse arm-twisting tactics of the Valley
leadership now need to be finally stopped
once for all.
The
question that begs an honest answer
therefore is that how does autonomy, more
political concessions, pre-1953 status
status, etc give them at edge on overall
improvement. Surely the al-India
yardsticks for a better life, applicable
to all communities in India, should also
apply to them. Article 370 has already
granted them extensive funds,
multifarious loans and unfettered
advances, much above all-India averages.
If anything, this magnanimous licence to
Central largesse, practically unaudited
and totally misused, needs to be curbed
and sensibly re-distributed within the
State. Particularly, that it does not
reach anti-India groups in the Valley, as
has been the case so far.
It follows
that the elections (as per present
electoral dispensatio) which will elect
representatives to the Legislative
Assembly, must be equally adjudged
against the present legislative layout of
the three provinces of the State, Ladakh,
Jammu and the Valley, and whether after
the past 50 years with so many elections
having been held earlier, the aspirations
of the three areashave been fulfilled. If
not, the reasons behind this lack of
performance.
Legislative
Index, Impact & Fallout
As per the
Indian Constitution, seat allotments in
legislative assemblies is on the basis of
geographical size, population, road
communications etc. The criteria laid
down specifies the number of seats that
must be allotted against these
yardsticks. The aspect is covered by the
Representation of J&K People Act as
per Article 370 o the Indian
Constitution.
In this
contex, the ''Table of Population on
''Census & Area'' under ''Fact &
figures'', Kashmir Valley has an area of
16000 Kms and population of 31.01 Lacs.
Jammu Province an area of 26,500 kms and
a population of 27.0 Lacs and Ladakh an
area of 96,700 kms. with a population of
around 14.0 Lacs. Population figures are
based on 1981 census.
Applicability
of the number of seats is therefore to be
based on the following facts. Firstly;
Jammu Region is one and a half times the
size of the Valley and compries 45
percent of the States population;
Secondly; Ladakh Province is the largest
of the Regions with its population thinly
spread over a large area; Thirdly; The
Valley is much smaller in size and has a
comparatively denser population (only);
and lastly; The Ladakh & Jammu
Regions combined overall comprise more
than half the States area and over 50
percent of the total population.
Despite
these basic parameters, the initial
De-Limitation Commission, obviously under
misadvised political presure at that
point of time, made seat allotments to
the State Legislative ssembly in an
inconsistent and unproportionate manner,
effects of which have had long reaching
cosnequences on the J&K scenario.
Before proceeding further, it would be
appropriate to study the seat allotments
as made by Sheikh Mohd Abdullah post-1947
after Accession of the State tonthe
Indian Union.
Jammu was
initially given 30 seats, (later raised
to 32 seats), while Ladakh was given a
paltry 2 seats. The Valley was given a
total of 43 seats. This was a patently
un-equitable allotment put across under a
stage-managed show of representation,
which unfortunately under Sheikh
Abdullah's influence on the then PM went
unnticed. Subsequently the last
De-Limitation Commission, unwilling to
raise a hornets nest, failed to correct
the biased and parochial representation
and proceeded to retain the imbalance by
giving Jammu 37 seats but unncessarily
without valid reasons increased the
Valley representation to 46 seats. Ladakh
was not given any additional seats
despite several protestations.
After the
Praja Parishad agitation and
recommendations made under Governors
rule, the Wazir Commission was
subseqeuntly set-up in 1983 to go into
these complaints of the Jammu and Ladakh
regions. The Commission came under severe
pressure from the State Govt of Dr Farooq
Abdullah to ensure that the overall
majority allotments to the Valley were
not damaged and that the status-quo in
the imbalance was maintained.
The Wazir
Commission, while staying quiet on the
assembly seat ratios, held that three
more districts be created in Jammu
Region, at Reasi, Kishtwar and Bhau, and
that there was no necessity for any
changes in the Valle and Ladakh. This was
over-ruled by the State Govt which felt
that adding another three districts to
Jammu would convey too much weightage to
the region and create complications for
them later. Instead, three new districts
of Badgam, Kupwara and Baramulla in the
Valley and a Shia-dominated district
specifically created in Ladakh on the
sensitive Srinagar-Leh Road at Kargil.
The Ladakh
Buddhist Association vehemently protested
against this discriminatory and
potentially dangerous act of unncessarily
carving outnof a Shia Distict in Ladakh.
Dr Farooq Abdullah's sop of granting two
additional MLA seats for Ladakh did not
satisfy the Ladakhi people, who fully
supported by the Jammu Region, commenced
a determined agitation with strieks,
administrative logjams and
representations to the Central Govt.It
was indeed a fortunate circumstance that
immediately thereafter, Presidents Rule
came into operation in J&K. The
Ladakh Region's Autonomous Hill Council
status was approved, something which
could never have happened under the
National Conference Government.
Additionally,
for reasons unknown, the Valley returns
representatives to the Lok Sabha as MP's,
at the rate of one per 10 lac people,
whereas Jammu and Ladakh regions have
reps respectively in the Lok Sabha at the
rate of one per 14 lac people. This is a
further political imbalance based on
incorrect norms. The Gajendragadkar
Commission in its 1986 Report made many
detailed comemnts on the discrimination
shown and its after effects.
Unfortunately matters were allowed to
drift. Even the Sarkaria Commission
failed to spot this weightage since it
was being fed with inputs from the State
Govt, and given no special aspects to
consider.
In the
Future Context
From all
these observations, it can be seen how
legislative manipulation has ensured that
the Valley has dominated the entire
geographical territory of J&K State.
There can be no gainsaying the fact that
overtly and covertly, the Valley based
leadership, have aimed at, practiced
unhindred, and brazenly endorsed the fact
of Kashmir Valley precedence in all the
three regions, despite geographic,
demographic, cultural factors dictating
otherwise. This has been by passing
legislation at will, and then claiming it
reprsented the people's wishes as
expressed in the State Lagislature.
Under the
present allocation of MLA seats, the
overwhelming legislative majority is with
the Valley dominated party, resolutions
will continue to be passed asking for
more concessions. Even a worst-case
scenario of secession may come up and be
passed by the State Assembly causing a
furore in the country and international
circles.
The Valley
only does not comprise J&K State.
What is suitable to the Valley, does not
necessarily endorse itself to being
suitable for the other two regions. The
existing dichtomy needs to be correctd at
the earliest by the creation of equally
balanced representation within the State
Legislative Assembly. Only this can give
the other two provinces of J&K a
chance to fulfill there aspirations
without being legislatively overshadowed
and dominated. The demand for trifucation
is based on these incontroversial facts
and hence needs to be addressed at this
crucial stage. The imbalance must be
corrected so that adjustments fit into
our future plans for the State.
''Devolution
talks'' should be to enforce better
governance and specifically
decentralisation of powers, presently
totally with the Valley ; definitely not
to jeopardise our security, solidarity
and integrity. Devolution of powers must
also re-adjust the seat allotments
rationally and not pamper to or promote
secessionist ideas based on long term
plans of anti-India groups. Further
concessions of any kind whatsoever will
not change the ground situation as a
bench-mark has already been reached. As a
matter of fact hereafter, we need to take
on a proactive policy of ''assimilation''
of J&K in all spheres,. This implies
taking the larger term perspective for
shorter term policy steps. Any further
erosion of the Valley's tenuous
relationship with the Indian Union must
not be allowed under any circumswtances
whatsoever.
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