Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Aug 27: All J&K Gujjar Bakerwal Co-ordination Committee (AJKGBCC) held a massive protest in Jammu today opposing the move of the Central Govt to grant ST status to Pahari speaking people and submitted a detailed memorandum to Divisional Commissioner Jammu expressing their concern in this regard.
The leaders of co-ordination committee while addressing the protestors said that the recent developments and reports in a section of print and social media all indicate that the non-existent Paharis and their self-styled leaders having connections at right places in the J&K establishment have joined hands to convince the authorities in J&K and New Delhi to their spurious and unjustifiable claim to Scheduled Tribe (ST) Status, so that they could share the benefits of the tribals, including Gujjars, Bakerwals, Gadis and Sippis, have been getting since April 1991.
The Gujjar leaders further said that the non-existent Paharis were granted 39% reservation under various categories under J&K Reservation rules right from 1994 till date. The Paharis do not constitute a tribe and don’t deserve ST status. It is established beyond any shadow of doubt that the conspirators are all out to jeopardize the legitimate rights and interests of the tribals and render them unreal and ineffective socially, educationally, economically and politically and create pre-1991 situation and all this is utterly unacceptable to us.
Anwar Choudhary, convener of the coordination committee said that various Commissions and committees appointed by the successive governments in J&K, not even once referred to the non-existent Paharis as a tribal group. Similarly, the census reports of 1941, 1961, 1971, 1981, to mention only a few, also didn’t refer to the so-called Paharis as a distinct tribal group, he said, adding that the BJP-led NDA too in 2002 rejected outright the unjustifiable claim of the so-called Paharis to ST status, saying the laid down rules didn’t allow any such status to them.
Ch Abdul Hamid and Ch Arshad Ali said that any move on the part of the authorities in J&K and at the Centre to grant ST status to the non-existent Paharis, who basically represent feudalism and who occupied, and continue to occupy, vital positions in the Government, would create serious problems in the border-belt in Jammu and parts of Kashmir and if it happened, the consequences would be disastrous for the nation and UT of Jammu and Kashmir. Many senior leaders also spoke on the occasion.
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