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EDITORIAL Shedding copious tears in the name of harmonious relations between different regions of Jammu and Kashmir has been the common trait of the State’s ruling elites. They have thumped their chests on this count only to raise a bigger psychological barrier between Jammu and Srinagar than the visible Pir Panjal not to speak of the one between the rest of the State and the trans-Himalayan territory of Leh. Commissions of inquiry have been set up in the past to solve regional grievances. Most of their recommendations continue to gather dust. Autonomy committees have been established to work out some mutually acceptable formulae. They have ended up leaving behind a trail of acrimony and bitterness. One would have, therefore, contemptuously dismissed Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed’s homilies about inter-regional balance delivered during his address to the members of Jammu Club recently. Unlike his predecessors, however, the Mufti deserves to be listened to because he has given a convincing proof of his good intentions by treating both the districts of Ladakh with dignity and equanimity. Leh Buddhists who had no love lost for the Farooq Abdullah.......more |
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EDITORIAL Shedding copious tears in the name of harmonious relations between different regions of Jammu and Kashmir has been the common trait of the State’s ruling elites. They have thumped their chests on this count only to raise a bigger psychological barrier between Jammu and Srinagar than the visible Pir Panjal not to speak of the one between the rest of the State and the trans-Himalayan territory of Leh. Commissions of inquiry have been set up in the past to solve regional grievances. Most of their recommendations continue to gather dust. Autonomy committees have been established to work out some mutually acceptable formulae. They have ended up leaving behind a trail of acrimony and bitterness. One would have, therefore, contemptuously dismissed Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed’s homilies about inter-regional balance delivered during his address to the members of Jammu Club recently. Unlike his predecessors, however, the Mufti deserves to be listened to because he has given a convincing proof of his good intentions by treating both the districts of Ladakh with dignity and equanimity. Leh Buddhists who had no love lost for the Farooq Abdullah Government are for the first time genuinely praising the present Chief Minister. Kargil, although a bastion of National Conference, has also been accorded due status to bring it on a par with Leh. Both the districts now have autonomous hill development councils. More importantly, there is less tension in the rarefied air in Ladakh than seen in the recent past. There are reasons to believe that if only Jammu and Kashmir provinces had been integrated politically and emotionally, the present turmoil in the Valley would not have occurred at all. Instead, almost systematically, an effort was made over the years to encourage vested interests in both the regions as a result of which they have drifted apart. If the Congress can be faulted for not having found the support of genuine leaders in the Valley, the National Conference has taken almost a vicarious pleasure in having encouraged a second-grade leadership in Jammu. Between them, the two parties have ruled the State for more than 50 years and must share the greater blame for any wrong-doing. Since the past can only generate bitterness, it may be more helpful and rewarding to look ahead in the hope that there would be stronger inter-regional ties than ever before. Nothing illustrates the need for such positive outlook more than the present predicament of the Bharatiya Janata Party. For years it had projected itself as the champion of the Jammu region. For too long its leadership, particularly those in the higher echelons of power in the country at this moment, had taken pleasure in lambasting the Kashmiri leaders from the Jammu side of the Pir Panjal without venturing into the Valley. Now its perception has entirely changed. Because of the onerous responsibility of running the country, the party’s Central leadership is no more enamoured of Jammu alone; it does realise that given the global compulsions it can’t treat the Kashmir region in isolation. Instead, it is convinced that it would be better if the State remains united in its present form contrary to what its parent organisation --- Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh --- thinks. So much so that during his last Jammu visit, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee --- one of the main architects otherwise of BJP’s Jammu fixation --- virtually chidded the people of Jammu ‘for crying that we have been eliminated’. ‘I have been seeing this for 50 years but nothing of the sort has happened’, he had added. Ask any BJP sympathiser, he would say that Mr Vajpayee had made an excellent speech at his own party’s reception ‘but for this one sentence’. This is not to mock at the Prime Minister’s observation. The fact is --- and Mr Vajpayee has effectively driven home the point --- that no one region can claim to be a sufferer when the others, too, are sailing in the same boat although for different reasons. Some of the points that the Chief Minister has made at the Jammu Club are quite relevant. He has correctly sensed the sense of insecurity prevailing among the people of Jammu about the changing demographic character of their region. People from the Valley have set up big colonies on the periphery of Jammu city. Since the majority of them happens to be the Muslims, the fear of an Islamic domination lurks in the Hindu mind and the existing situation in the sub-continent leads to even wilder interpretations. The Mufti has sought to cheer up the mood in Jammu by saying that if the Muslim migration has taken place, along with those of the Kashmiri Pandits, it is only because they ‘get love and affection from their Hindu brethren’. What is remarkable that he has invited people from Jammu to settle down in the Valley and, he has, unbelievably, offered them help in allotting land for constructing houses. This is by way of, he has said, ‘a measure of integration and communal harmony’. Of course, he has reiterated that the Kashmiri Pandits should return to their homes in the Valley. His most convincing observation is that if changes for the better are taking place in the Kashmir region, it is because the local people want them --- there is nothing that can happen without their understanding and concurrence. They do realise that a damage has been done to their ethos and it needs to be repaired. In the light of the Chief Minister’s remarks --- and before him those of the Prime Minister who must have been carried by the knowledge that he is talking to his family, his party men, with whom he has dealt for so long --- there is one thing which needs to be remembered. It is an era of finding and establishing one’s identity. First as an individual, then as a caste, then as a community, then again as a region and finally as a society. This is a vicious cycle. Who can write off the Kashmiri identity nursed so warmly by Habba Khatuns, Laldeds and Mahjoors (misconceived opera shows in Srinagar notwithstanding)? Why should one look back to the past when all whether they were Afghans or the Sikhs have become part of that overwhelming identity? Who can dare overlook brave, gallant and chivalrous Dogras of Jammu? Besides, of course, several descendants of Panjabi families who had moved to Jammu along with Maharaja Gulab Singh? To brush aside Leh and Kargil would be tearing upon the heart of the State itself. The former is the only region where Buddhism survives in J&K --- its people and grand monasteries are an immensely valuable asset. Kargil gives Shias a tremendous sense of belonging. If people from one region move to the other, it would only add a new healthy dimension to their own strong individual identities. People of Jammu must take the Mufti on his word. One is sure that they would get a warm, reciprocal response in the Valley. Only people of this State can reverse the harmful trend being witnessed elsewhere in the country --- they can create a vibrant and healthy civil society first, a mixture of all individual identities, because that alone can help build a strong nation and the lesser considerations can follow. J&K has an inherent potential to play a positive role. It should be easy to exploit it now that ruling political classes both in the State and the Centre are sensitive to the actual situation and willing to rise above partisan considerations. |
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