Manoj Thappa
Please refer to Vikramaditya Singh’s article “Mufti Govt has initiated several reforms” (DE. June 12, 2015). Vikramaditya Singh has given people of J&K to understand that PDP-BJP agenda of alliance is a great document that fulfills the aspirations and meets the needs of all the three regions of the state — Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh. It is not a correct evaluation. It appears he has not studied the agenda of alliance and its short-term and long-term implications for the state, its people and India as a whole. It contains everything for Kashmir. It also gives respectability to Hurriyat and Islamabad because it considers them internal and external stakeholders, respectively, in J&K. Besides, it maintains a status quo as far as the J&K’s political and constitutional status within India is concerned. The people of Jammu region had voted for the BJP to break this questionable status-quo and bring J&K closer to India then ever before. The agenda of alliance is a negation of the mandate that the people of Jammu region gave to the BJP. The agenda of alliance also questions the presence of Indian Army in the state and application of such laws as AFSPA and PSA, which are essential for fighting out the menace of terrorism and separatism in Kashmir. The fine point is that the agenda of alliance, if implemented in its present form, will undo all that New Delhi did during the past 67 years to bring J&K closer to India, as it talks about many reconciliations as if the state is still an unsettled issue.
The agenda of alliance contains nothing whatsoever for Jammu and Ladakh. It only makes some vague assurances. It says delimitation commission will be appointed as per rules. In other words, it says there could be delimitation of assembly constituencies after the 2031 census operation. The 2002 constitutional amendment says delimitation of assembly constituencies would be possible only after the census operations which would take place after 2026 and that too if the government of the times repealed the 2002 anti-Jammu and anti-democratic amendment. Paradoxically, all the 8 BJP MLAs had voted for the amendment and exposed their pro-Kashmir leanings like the BJP is doing it today. Besides, the agenda of alliance gives a very prominent place to Kashmiriyat and has no reference whatever to Dogriyat and Ladakhiyat known for tolerance, brotherhood, peaceful co-existence and accommodation. The agenda of alliance, in addition, seeks to divide Jammu region into three regions on religious and ethnic lines. It says there are Chenab Valley and Pir Panjal regions in Jammu province, apart from the plains of Jammu. It pits the people of the erstwhile Doda district and Poonch-Rajouri belt (which are part of the Pir Panjal mountain)) against others in Jammu province. The agenda of alliance also gives nothing to the refugees from West Pakistan. It instead of assuring them that they would be granted all citizenship rights only talks about their “sustenance and livelihood”. They are not slaves; they are respectful Indian nationals in J&K, who deserve equal status with the state subjects in the state. Similarly, the agenda of alliance doesn’t grant what the internally-displaced Kashmiri Pandits had been longing for since their exodus in early 1990.
Vikramaditya Singh would do well to go through the agenda of alliance, which is being dismissed in Jammu as “an agenda of subversion” and “a new charter of bondage”. People of Jammu want him to play the role his party colleagues didn’t play during all these years of the PDP formation. It is hoped that he would recognize the signs of time and adopt a holistic and nationalist approach to the issues confronting Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh considering the fact that the PDP-BJP coalition has only disappointed Jammu and Ladakh.
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