Akshay Sharma
The cruelty has its limits, but there are certain minds who think that they can execute their agenda of dismissing Jammu as a wasteland simply because of the overflowing reservoir of hate for the region. Their hatred of Jammu is rooted in their intolerance to sensible narrative emerging out of the region . They have a narrative of hate , whereas Jammu , for once , has shown that it has a better narrative which is neither communal nor parochial but pluralistic in nature and content, which they are unable to debate as the facts don’t sit on their side.
Even before the Delimitation Commission members had taken their flight back to Delhi on July 9 with their minds filled with the ideas and the bags overflowing with the memoranda submitted to them, the intolerance of the Islamists and their lackeys had started making noises because they knew when facts will be sifted from fiction they were bound to end as losers. The history has shown time and again that they are bad losers.
Anti-India and anti-Jammu lobby resorted to distortions and started weaving a deception that the Commission was “unconstitutional and illegal” , but at the same time they had to justify that their argument that “population” should be the sole criteria for allocating the assembly constituencies . This dichotomy is incomprehensible . The lack of application of mind on their part was quite clear to their own men and women as they have been led to garden path many a time and then betrayed umpteenth number of times.
It is wrong . That is over simplification of what they are saying and want others to believe , they are simply peddling hate and division of people on the communal , regional and sub-regional basis .The tragedy, so far, has been that their distortion of facts was never challenged by any of the sides at any of the places. That someone could take a different line which sat well with the reason, logic , rationality and the ground reality was beyond their imagination . They knew that their game of exploiting and single-minded narration has been exposed.
The point in question is the memorandum submitted by the National Conference unit of Jammu province to the Delimitation Commission which highlighted the criteria that the Commission should be taking note of while allocating seats to the Assembly of J&K.
What irritated these vested interests who believe in fragmentation of societies but want concentration of power in few hands and that too from a particular place and community , was the spirit of empowerment and all-inclusive Jammu and Kashmir in the memorandum. “ We are for the singular , inclusive Jammu and Kashmir,” this line hurt them like anything.
First, they didn’t expect any leader(s) of Jammu to speak of the whole of Jammu and Kashmir, it was damaging to their cause. For them acknowledging J&K as one unit and the land of unity in diversity is a sin. Their mindset has remained unchanged. Their mindset got into action immediately after the memorandum highlighting the need for justice to all regions, , sub regions, ethnicities was presented before the Commission.
In the memorandum , the highlighted portion was: “ The Delimitation Commission must give its due to all parts of Jammu region so that our commitment for the equitable empowerment of all regions and sub-regions does not get dented.” This was a fair mirror to the problems and expectations of the people of Jammu region , who were asking for their rights without impinging on the claim of others. The disturbing part for the them and their protagonists working in different fields , and also those who have been in the business of back seat driving was the “ all parts”. This summed up the whole of the geography of the region, and its different ethnicities , religions and languages. The hills and plains were on the same page. It dealt a body blow to the hate-spreaders, worse than the Corona virus carriers .
As any one could discern that the memorandum listed the real situation of Jammu region , as it said : “ There are also geographical and topographical challenges in Jammu region and certain areas are far flung, inaccessible, remote, backward and mountainous and so a need to address their issues in a manner that they can be equal partners in the process of democracy by being able to conveniently exercise their franchise.”
This made the monopolists think how could Jammu break their monopoly of peddling the single-minded narrative that population alone should be the criterion for determining the number of constituencies . More hurtful for them was that this dictum had been challenged by the leaders of National Conference that primarily is a political party of Kashmir . This dented their theories that the Kashmir-centric parties must talk of Kashmir only , and expression of any regional and sub regional aspirations is a political sin .It was also because they were reminded of the ground realities that Jammu is a vibrant region with more than five million people living in area of 26,293 sq. kms. Therefore, to draw any comparison with Ladakh that had four seats in the last Assembly with an area of 59, 119 sq. kms is ludicrous. Most of Ladakh is a desert. Jammu is having life all around , and in this fast changing era of climate change , another name for the natural disasters, each tree and stone has to be protected and that only the people of the area can do.
Here is no argument that seven million is a higher number than 5.3 million , but again the fact is that 26,295 sq. km is higher than 15,000 sq. km. When it comes to arithmetic, it should be done correctly. This is not a nowhere thing. These are real figures.
Something more about Jammu . Do these lobbyists need a reminder when the terrorists had wreaked havoc , all these population – criteria authors and speakers had fled their land come down to Jammu as they feared their own neighbours . Jammu thought that their hate toward Jammu would become a vestige of the 20th century , but they have proven Jammu wrong. A majority of seven million living in the Valley wants to have good relations with Jammu and they want Jammu to prosper as this place offers them shelter all the time . A census of theirs in Jammu would show that Jammu has not given up on its hospitality , despite the hate that the leaders and others have displayed toward the people of the region.
The kind of evil has made Jammu people think that how these lobbyists and their supporters can be so cruel . This time , these hate-mongers , have given a shocking wake-up call.
(The author is a social activist)
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