Rajeev Kumar Nagotra
Abrogation of article 370 possesses the magnitude of an apocalypse for the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir. It marked the end of seven decades of rule by unfair, corrupt and bigoted rulers who had harassed one half of the state with the remorselessness of the tyrant Mughals and Britishers, and glutted the other half with welfare schemes, benefits and exemptions. The successive governments, all Kashmir-centric, all dynastic, abused electoral democracy and discriminated with people of Jammu and Ladakh on the basis of their religion, language and race.
The oppressed people, meanwhile, accepted their fate as an inexorable result of their allegiance to the state their forefathers had founded. Their voices of protest were met with denial, their allegiance to the idea of India with indifference and their wellbeing, with lowest priority on the manifestos of the politicians. Abrogation of article 370 brought in a moment of hope, but only for Ladakh since it gets to chalk out its own trajectory as a separate UT. Having been its partner in despair, Jammu feels good for Ladakh and wishes it well for future. For reasons known best to Modi, Shah and Doval, Jammu gets to continue to sleep with the enemy. Still, if these gentlemen have redemption of Jammu at heart, they must act before the enemy wakes up with a more monstrous plan. They must make firm and brisk moves to assuage the political, economic as well as psychological damages inflicted on the people of Jammu. Their man at the helm, Lt. Guv. Girish Chandra Murmu, must immediately start the process of healing and bringing around Jammu.
Jammu has been kept politically dwarf from the word go. Sheikh Abdullah and his successors ensured that Kashmir dominated in political discourse and received hyena’s share in economic packages too. Despite having a much larger area, highly diversified terrain and more voters per constituency than Kashmir, Jammu remained at the receiving end what with an inadequate and disproportionate number of seats in the state assembly and spineless politicians. A fresh delimitation could change this somewhat but that would have pulled the cozy carpet from under the feet of the Kashmiri leaders. They would have found it below their dignity to play a second fiddle in the state after having had the Indian and Pakistani governments eating out of their hands. Therefore, delimitation was deferred on one pretext or another. This must change now, and delimitation must be carried out at the earliest possible so that the people of Jammu get a level playing field where their representatives can assert themselves more confidently and effectively against their overbearing Kashmiri counterparts. Of course, the number of representatives alone would not help.
Their capabilities carry more weight. That Muftis could get to call shots in both of their two coalitions and immensely benefit their constituencies is ample proof that negotiating skills, articulateness, political aggressiveness and clarity of vision are as important as the numbers. Jammu’s leaders, unfortunately, have been best known for their complacent attitude and the same attitude trickles down to the masses. Therefore, while the administration under Mr. Murmu prepares the soil for restoration of a representative Government in our UT, the people of Jammu must prepare a charismatic, articulate and visionary leadership for the important days ahead.
Simultaneously the Government must initiate development projects at the grass root level and provide the necessary funds to the newly constituted ULBs and Block Development Councils. Panches and Sarpanches must be empowered to carry out the much needed development at the local levels. Execution of these projects will help people find new faces for leadership roles as well as give Mr. Murmu the necessary warm up to take on the deeply entrenched red tapism in this region.
The discrimination with Jammu on the economic front has been no less. J&K’s economy is heavily dependent on tourism, farming and handicrafts. Jammu’s farming sector is pivoted on the traditional food grains like maize, paddy and wheat. Barring the Basmati rice and Rajmah, it does not have much to boast of. Kashmir, on the other hand, is endowed with the climatic conditions that favour exotic crops such as saffron and horticultural products like apple, almond, walnut, cherry, apricot etc. While these niche products have made the Kashmiris rich, prosperous and elite, the farmer of Jammu could barely break the lower middle class threshold. The economic profile of Kashmiri agriculturalist makes him a more important political constituency than his counterpart in Jammu.
Sadly both the state and the Central Governments remained satisfied with this status of the farmers on the two sides of the Jawahar Tunnel. And, neither felt the need to uplift the farmer of Jammu by genuinely promoting research that could generate more options for them in terms of the crops and the technology. Oil seed production, floriculture, dairy farming, fish farming etc. held a great potential for our farmers but have not been pushed enough by the Governments. As a result, the fish seed farm in Kathua has not benefitted the local economy appreciably inspite of the presence of a large water body like Ranjit Sagar Lake there.
Likewise, pockets around Jammu such as R. S. Pura, Siddhra, Surinsar and Billawar and Udhampur that have tremendous potential but are still waiting to be galvanized as big suppliers of dairy products. Having fertile soils with seventy percent irrigated area, and farmers receptive and willing to adopt improved farm technologies, Jammu’s agro-based sector is only waiting for a dynamic and visionary leadership to become a brand to reckon with. It is hoped that the new administration responds to this situation positively.
Apart from agriculture, Jammu holds great potential for the development of the cottage/small scale industry sector. It could also become a hub of processing, packaging and storage plants in addition to being Kashmir’s dissemination window to the rest of the world. Alternate trade roles such as online retailing, call centers, healthcare facilities, beauty and wellness, entertainment etc should have been promoted and the industrious and educated people of Jammu would have benefitted the most from such steps.
But Jammu’s economic empowerment would have entailed social and political empowerment as well, and that would not have augured well for the Kashmir narrative. A glaring example is the tourism sector of Jammu. The local media is replete with articles ruing the apathy of Government towards the Mubarak Mandi Complex, Jammu ropeway project and well as the Tawi lake project. The neglect that the circuits such as Surinsar, Mansar, Panchari, Reasi, Bhadarwah, Kishtwar, Bani, Basohli, Akhnoor, Rajouri and Poonch have faced is a telling example of the past Governments’ aversion to Jammu. Seven decades after independence, and most of the attractive destinations in these areas are not even connected by roads.
A well meaning Government would have developed state of the art infrastructure at these places and promoted them passionately through all wings of its machinery. This would have brought the much vital revenue to the government, employment to the local people, promoted their unique culture, crafts and traditions and given Jammu its due share of light on the global spectrum. But that was exactly what the State Government had set out to obliterate – the identity of Jammu, its traditions, its cuisine, its songs, its dance, its paintings and even its language. During a campaign in Maharashtra earlier this year, the banner of the UT Department of Tourism said “Kashmir calling” instead of “Jammu and Kashmir calling” as if no other region, ethnicity or culture exists here. The efforts to reduce the brand “Jammu and Kashmir” to brand “Kashmir” are too concerted to ignore. What is more worrisome is that even after withdrawing the special status of the State, the Government continues to tread the same old path – that of appeasing Kashmir at the expense of Jammu.
According to certain sources, at least 1000 crore rupees of Jammu businessmen is stuck in the valley due to the ongoing communication clampdown. Typically a businessman borrows money from banks, invests in business, works hard to make profit in his ventures and pays the EMI money to the lending banks. In J&K, the payments are all stuck but the banks are not willing to give any relaxation on repayments. The businessmen are running from pillar to post for help but nobody is listening to them. The government has promised attractive economic packages but none for Jammu. From $800 million apple procurement spree to Rs 30 crore construction of 12 lavish Majlis community centers, New Delhi is prepared to do everything to please the queasy Kashmir but would not pay heed to Jammu even though it is facing systemic problems of existential nature.
In an earlier article in 2017, this author had pointed out that J&K has seen transformational events at regular intervals of 100 years, and predicted that since we are about to complete another cycle of 100 years since the last major event, that is, accession, a twist in the story is imminent. Removal of article 370 is not that twist. The rebellion of Jammu can be. The soul of Jammu carries bruises from 72 years of oppression. The economic discrimination, the cultural dilution and the political neglect against Jammu, if continued, will lead disenchantment and widespread unrest amongst people here. Mr. Murmu has an opportunity to prevent this from happening or else India will lose the very people who have literally been at the forefront of the idea of Akhand Bharat.
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