Chanakya Charan Dass “Tikri”
Assembly elections to the legislature of the UT of J&K are over and the mandate of the people is out. The government shall be in place soon with Omar Abdullah heading the government. Congratulations to him and his party!!
The mandate of the people is basically fractured along the provincial lines with the electorate preferring the combination of the National Conference (NC) and Indian National Congress (INC) in Kashmir and Jammuites generally preferring the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP). INC has not won any seat in the Jammu region. BJP got 29 of the 43 seats.
The post-election utterances and social media posts of the winners are interesting. These have come from the ideologues and topmost leaders of the NC.
In one of her posts on the social media platform “X” on 09/10/2024, Manu Khajuria posted that “it is clear from the election results yesterday that Jammu province (62% of UT) and Kashmir Province (38%) are 2 states.” This post riled up Haseeb Drabu of the NC and he replied “There we go, as predicted! Originally proposed by Owen Dixon in 1950, Ambedkar favoured it, Dr. Karan Singh supported separating Jammu from Kashmir in 1966. Defence Minister, R. Venkat Raman (later the President of India) and Home Minister Indrajit Gupta favoured it. RSS, which has forever advocated it.”
Well, Haseeb Drabu dwelled on the Dixon Plan because this plan is nothing but a “fitna.” Drabu Sahib needs to be reminded that “fitna” is prohibited religiously and keeping a safe distance from the “fitnabaaz” is a religious commitment.
In any case too much water has flown down the rivers of J&K since 1950, when the “fitnabaaz” report was submitted. This report got buried under its own weight and unrealism. One of the reasons of its burial probably was that the “plan” wanted the Sheikh to resign from the PM of the state which was not to the liking of Nehru. Sometimes your own “gunah” come back to haunt you in your own lifetime.
Haseeb Drabu also mentions that Dr. Ambedkar agreed to the Dixon Plan. In fact, Dr. Ambedkar said, “give the Hindu’s & Buddhist parts to India and Muslim parts to Pakistan as we did in case of India…If we cannot save the whole of Kashmir, at least save our kith and kin.” This he said after his resignation from the Nehru’s cabinet on 11th Oct 1951. It seems that the mind games being played by Nehru and the Sheikh regarding the constitutional position of J&K with respect to the rest of India and the missteps of Nehru in referring the Kashmir dispute to the UN had so much disturbed the genious of a man, Dr. Ambedkar, that he would have the dispute done away with in any possible way. Had the Kashmir issue not been referred to the UN by Nehru the Sheikh wouldn’t have got the trump card in his hand to blackmail Nehru.
Had the Dixon Plan been implemented, where would Kashmir, Haseeb Drabu and NC have landed? This is what the proponents of autonomy, restoration of Article 370/35A and the like must keep in their minds!
The elite of J&K and Hyderabad state of the pre-1947 era, who went to Pakistan have ceased to exist. No body remembers them. Why did this happen? After all they had left India to the newly created country of their dreams where Ummah would be the first and the final word, but what happened to them and their aspirations? Aren’t the Abdullah’s and the Drabu’s lucky that they are here in India where the Sanatnis, though in a majority, generally are neither an obstacle nor are bothered about those who think about this country otherwise. Had the feet of the majority community not been trampled upon unnecessarily over last 75 years they wouldn’t have had bothered. They still wouldn’t have bothered if 500,000 of Kashmiri Hindus, the aboriginal ethnic inhabitants of Kashmir, would not have been thrown out of their home and hearth in 1989/90 because of the follies of perpetual NC and INC “accords!!”
Haseeb Drabu also mentions that the separation of Jammu from Kashmir was also an idea of Dr. Karan Singh. He is right.
In a letter addressed to Jawaharlal Nehru on 22.12.1952 Dr. Karan Singh writes:
“With particular reference to Jammu problem (Praja Parishad agitation), very close attention must be paid to framing this Constitution (J&K Constitution) in a manner in which all sections of the State feel secure that their culture, rights, and interests are fully safeguarded, and that there is absolutely no chance for the exploitation of one area of people by another. This is the clearly expressed and oft-repeated intention of Sheikh Sahib and must be practically put into effect by working out a satisfactory system of provincial autonomy”. History bears witness to the fact that this didn’t happen.
Thus, Dr. Karan Singh was the first proponents of the idea of separation of Jammu from Kashmir. We must appreciate his foresight.
Later, Dr. Karan Singh was peeved at the fact that even a mention of fairness to the people of Jammu or Regional Autonomy to fulfil their aspirations would draw flak from the political leadership of the time. He mentions an incident when the then CM, GM Sadiq in one of the press conferences on 26.06.1967 had denounced Dr. Karan Singh’s idea of regional autonomy and said that the “… the idea of regional autonomy is completely against the interest of the state. Its rather a mischievous move.” The resistance to even the utterance of justice to Jammu Province was such that, in the words of Dr. Karan Singh, “that the State Government through its Field Survey Organization was trying to completely distort the whole idea of regional autonomy and arouse caste and communal prejudices against it”.
In fact, Dr. Karan Singh considered separation of Jammu from Kashmir the last of the three options. In his letter to Indira Gandhi on 10.07.1967 he clearly stated that “the present political structure of the state does not fulfil the genuine and democratic aspirations of the people of the people of its 3 regions – Kashmir, Jammu and Ladakh. One of the approaches could be to proceed with linguistic reorganization of the State, as has been done elsewhere in India. As this presented certain difficulties, it was suggested that a solution within the framework of the present State should be considered”.
In the note attached to the letter dated 10.07.1967 titled “Regional Autonomy in Jammu and Kashmir” Dr. Karan Singh mentions as under:
“One political fact has now to be squarely faced. If Jammu continues to feel that its legitimate rights cannot be ensured within the framework of the present State, the demand for a complete breakaway from Kashmir is certain to grow. There are 3 clear alternatives open at present:
* To maintain the status quo;
* To reorganize the State on a linguistic basis, extending to it that same principle that has been applied throughout the country;
* To work out a political arrangement whereby, retaining the unity of the State, each of its three regions is given political satisfaction.
He further said that the 1st alternative is evidently unsatisfactory, because continuance of the status quo will only lead to increasing political frustration, resulting ultimately in an explosive situation which we must seek to avoid. Statesmanship lies in meeting a genuine demand well before it reaches a point of ignition, and it will be tragic if vested interests are allowed to veto any proposal for improvement. Leaving aside the 2nd alternative for the time being, although there are strong arguments in its favour, the attached paper attempts to explore the broad features of the 3rd.
The main objectives of such a scheme must be:
* To ensure that on a clear recognition of Jammu’s personality & problems, its people enjoy the satisfaction of a genuine sharing of political power, a fair share of services broadly commensurate with their population within the State, & adequate attention to their economic & developmental problems – specially irrigation, power & communication.
* To ensure that Kashmir benefits equally from the new changes, so that the sum total of political satisfaction in the State is substantially increased.
* To ensure that Ladakh, with its peculiar geographical and strategic situation, receives the special attention that it deserves.
The position today is that Kashmir has benefited politically, financially and through the development of infrastructure after the abrogation of article 370/35A as well. To an “politically unjaundiced” eye the development in Kashmir and that too on such a large scale are unbelievable. True, Jammu has also benefited in several areas of development in last 10 years. But the present elections have pulled back Jammu into the same position as prior to 2019 as far as political empowerment is concerned.
The fate of Jammu Province is once again going to be decided by the political class that derives its power from Kashmir. How can anyone expect justice from a class of politicians who have not understood the people of Jammu region? Farooq Abdullah, in one of his latest interviews says that “it is not NC that has ignored Jammu. It is Jammu that has ignored NC.” But he fails to understand that he did not have anything to offer in his manifesto for the Jammu province. The first & foremost disconnect was restoration of Art 370/35A. Does he believe that the people of Jammu have forgotten the atrocious nature of this “temporary” article of the Indian Constitution that gave people of Jammu region the status of a second-class citizens?
The Kashmir based political parties could not bear with the first ever CM of J&K from Jammu, GN Azad. They ensured that he is unable complete his term through their political manoeuvring. Can Jammuites forget the speech in the Indian Parliament where the top NC leader said that not “one inch of land can be given to Amarnath Trust for building rest rooms and other such facilities for the “yatris?” Where the Amanath “Yatris” going to stay in Baltal for ever?
It has been understood by the people of Jammu that as long as power is with the politicians who derive their political power from the 47 legislators from Kashmir, justice for Jammu is not possible. This was understood by Dr. Karan Singh in 1952 and thankfully recognized also by President R Venkat Raman and Indrajeet Gupta. Incidentally, Drabu Sahib these two people were not from RSS. Thus, throwing the name of RSS on to the face of Jammu people and frighten them is not going to help.
Statehood for Jammu, de-hyphenated from Kashmir will be beneficial not only for Jammu, but also for Kashmir as that will end the regular “chik-chik” between the two, otherwise beautiful provinces. It will also guarantee protection to the only secular division of the UT of J&K. It will also ensure that anyone can become CM of the proposed state irrespective of religion, caste, language, dialect and culture and since he/she will derive his/her power from Jammu instead of Srinagar, he/she will be loyal to the interests of the Jammu region.
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