Rajan Gandhi
It all started with the signing of Instrument of Accession and with it Jammu’s independent status ended on October 26th-27th, 1947. This Jammu Dogra ruled state was once the largest princely state with an area of 84,471 sq kms and was one of the four states that were given the highest “21-gun salute” status in recognition of its prestige during the British Empire. Gulab Singh, Dhruv Dev’s direct descendant, was 16 years old when Jammu was annexed to the Sikh Empire. Gulab Singh and his two brothers, Dhyan Singh and Suchet Singh, went on to enroll with the Sikh forces and Gulab Singh soon distinguished himself in battle as such was awarded a Jagir near Jammu and he was also allowed to keep an independent army. After the conquest of Kishtwar (1821) and the subjugation of Rajouri, he was made a hereditary Raja of Jammu in 1822, with an annual allowance of three lakh rupees. His brother Dhyan Singh received Poonch and Suchet Singh Ramnagar. Thus the Jammu state was reestablished after a gap of 20 years under the suzerainty of the Sikh Empire, Gulab Singh proceeded to regain its preeminence among the hill states along with his legendary General Zorawar Singh and was able to establish the state of Jammu that included the wazarats of Gilgit-Baltistan and Ladakh, illaqas and jagirs of Poonch, Bhadarwah and Chenani and also the provinces of Jammu and Kashmir valley.
Everything worked fine under Dogra rule till the arrival of Sheikh Abdullah on political scene as he conspired with Jawahar Lal Nehru to dethrone Maharaja Hari Singh and thus one of the three preconditions of the Union of India for signing the accession treaty with the Dogra ruler was the installation of the virulently anti-Dogra-rule leader from the Kashmir Valley, Sheikh Abdullah, as the “Prime Minister” and with it totally unjustified assembly seats allocation.
Later on, the chaos, continued mishandling and the unsettled borders with our overenthusiastic hawk eyed neighbour, Pakistan, ensured that the wounds suppurate to morph it into a full-fledged armed insurgency in the Kashmir Valley, driving the national attention and imagination, essentially towards the Kashmir Valley only always. That the Jammu division though at present having more population as well as land area of 26 percent as compared to 16 percent of land of Kashmir was further pushed to wall ensuring that the practical representation amongst the state lawmakers in a participative form of democracy further veered the focus disproportionately towards the Kashmir valley, as opposed to a more equitably proportionate attention towards the perpetually neglected Jammu region. Practically Kashmir Valley has been consistently accorded the lion’s share of all investments, focus and priorities, with Jammu penalized for its mute nationalistic silence. Even the legitimate socio-economic grievances of the Jammu region have been turned down time and again so much so that narrative has boiled down to a predominantly religious perception, which detracts, diminishes and short-sells from the irrefutable Jammu’s case of discrimination. The way Kathua incident was projected in media was a classic case of the consistent script of trivialization, politicization and communalization, which ended up giving a wholly undeserved “Jammu-versus-Valley” colour to the issue, ably supported by the uncouth statements along with incompetency of Kashmir centric politicians. Rasana episode and continuous resistance to concerns of the Jammu citizens on the sudden arrival of the Rohingyas in their midst got unnecessarily and unfathomably intermixed with Gujjars and Bakarwal community who have absolutely no bearing on the Rohingyas from Myanmar.
All these perceptions and simplifications around disparate issues collocated, mucked which ultimately shamed Jammu on the national level and message across the country and at international level was as if Jammu is the place of religious rapists and whole Jammu region is protesting to protect rapists so much so that even BAR association was taken to task. Yet again, the genuineness of the Jammu’s multiple concerns were dissipated repeated let down by its own politicians.
The sense of deprivation in Jammu has increased day by day and the last experiment of PDP-BJP also could not address the Jammu’s perspective in totality as well as sincerity. Delimitation is one issue which every Government has promised but not dared to implement. The Sikri Commission in 1979 had predicatively noted the injustices to Jammu region by stating that “there existed discrimination and favoritism in the field of development, employment and education in the context of different regions, which was giving rise to irritations and tensions among the people of state”, a finding that was consistent with the earlier Gajendragadkar Commission. Why the ‘J for Jammu’ and ‘L for Ladakh’ is still missing in various state administrative services like KAS, KCS and KPS even after seventy two years of independence. Why separate laws in the shape of RPC (Ranbir Penal Code), still prevalent Articles 370 and 35 A are totally baffling as well as unacceptable to the whole nation more specifically to nationalistic people of Jammu. The Kashmir-centricity feeds a sense of contempt and domination where as Jammu and Ladakh regions are just nowhere in schemes of present and future of both the Centre and the state, which are totally tilted towards Kashmir. The inequity is clearly reflected by the fact that till 2014 NIT, AIIMS (SKIMS), five star/seven star hotels, international airport were all allocated to Kashmir and total discrimination with Jammu in allocation of funds for development of Jammu’s tourism, infrastructure, education facilities, jobs and overall representation in various state platforms. Differences between the Jammu and Kashmir regions of the state must be understood in order to comprehend the Kashmir problem fully. Bonds of language, regional identity and culture are more important than religion in Hindu-Muslim relations in the two regions. New Delhi administers only 60 percent of what was once Maharaja Hari Singh’s undivided kingdom. Furthermore, policymakers and citizens alike conflate one-third of this portion, the Kashmir Valley, with the State’s other ethno-linguistically and politically distinct provinces, namely Jammu and Ladakh. Little else is said about Maharaja’s dynasty, which once ruled over a region that is currently split between two countries. With a Valley leader, Sheikh Abdullah, at the helm in the Indian portion, the Dogra dynasty began its descent into obscurity. Jammu’s rich history, language, culture, and its voice as a stakeholder of the J&K conflict have met with the same fate.
Though Jammu region is now a forgotten case of just two MPs but it is way above its weight in terms of national service, commitment, glory, patriotism and martial ethos of the region as it feeds the bulk of Indian Army’s highly-decorated regiments like Jammu and Kashmir Rifles (former Princely State Forces), the Jammu and Kashmir Light Infantry besides populating other regiments and services and the highest gallantry award winners like the Param Veer Chakra Capt. G.S. Salaria to Subedar Bana Singh are a testimony to Jammu region’s valour and service to the nation. Recent martyrdom of Chaderkant and Parihaar brothers has set another precedent of sacrifices for holding nationalistic values. With the Parliamentary elections results declared and PM Modi once again at the helm of affairs with thumping majority, whole India rejoiced at the prospect of BJP again in power at Centre including Jammu.
Though PM Modi in his first term sanctioned a hefty package of above eighty thousand crores but BJP’s alliance with PDP for almost four years failed to deliver the things on ground practically. AIIMS is still in incubation mode and so are other major development projects of Jammu Division like river front, metro, ring road, four laning , Tawi lake to name a few. Article 370, 35A, Rohingyaas are other irritants for Jammu region which have to be addressed at the earliest. Most importantly delimitation or readjustments of assembly seats have to be immediately accounted for to end always election of discriminating and detrimental Kashmir centric governments. With the opposition totally decimated, bewildered, in disarray and BJP getting majority in both Lok Sabha as well as Rajya Sabha, Amit Shah as Home Minister and Dr. Jatinder Singh as PMO, time has come to restore Jammu’s Swabhimaan. As such in the present scenario it remains to be seen whether BJP is able to deliver this time and will this second term of PM Modi is a turning point for nationalistic Jammu or the never ending turmoil of Jammu will continue.
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