The people of Jammu have carried out a relentless struggle to oppose what they call the “intolerant and exclusivist politics of Kashmir”. The movement that started as a protest against J&K government’s capitulation to Kashmiri political hegemony has now taken the form of a mass uprising engulfing the entire region with nationwide ramifications.
Seven young and precious lives have been lost in police atrocities, hundreds have been jailed, thousands injured and an indefinite curfew has been clamped in the entire region with ten districts and more than 55 lakh people. The sick are being prevented from reaching hospitals; doctors are not allowed to attend to their duties, important services of drinking water and electricity are in a shambles.
There has been a brutal assault on civil liberties and the media was vandalized by sealing their offices and imposing ban on local cable networks and TV channels. Dozens of journalists, cameramen and reporters were attacked and not allowed to cover the happenings despite clear orders by the Division Bench of the High Court. The Jammu region has been handed over to the army and with its help; the administration has been able to ship hundreds of trucks carrying petrol and other essential supplies to the Kashmir valley.
Unable to break the resistances of the people, the state administration and some Kashmir centric persons, have unleashed a campaign of misinformation. It is trying to give a bad name to the People’s Movement in Jammu by calling it “communal and a show of hooligans”. The fact remains that it is a popular movement that is not controlled by any communal outfit and by no political parties. In fact, all Jammu based political and non-political organizations and trade unions have lent support to the Sangharsh Samiti which is spearheading the struggle. The Hindu, Muslim, Sikh and Christian organizations in the Jammu region too are involved in the Sangharsh Samiti; and unlike Kashmir that expelled half a million persons of the minority, Jammu has stood as a real land of communal harmony and brotherhood.
Feeling the heat of resistance to their hegemony and stranglehold of the minorities in Jammu and Kashmir, the Kashmiri based politicians have re-orchestrated their blackmail and are howling hard on opening the Muzzafabad Road to Pakistan. They know for sure that the ever ready takers of this malfeasance in Delhi and elsewhere would come forward to their help in restoring their hegemony and to crush the popular dissent and sentiment in the Jammu region. Assuming that Delhi might succeed in pulverizing the minorities in J&K and the people of Jammu, it would only embolden the separatists, the fundamentalists, the intolerant and the exclusivist ideologies, not only in J&K, but also in the rest of the country with very serious consequences on the integrity and security of the nation. Delhi’s continued capitulation to the anti-national and separatist agenda has already caused an irreparable damage to the national interests in Jammu & Kashmir.
With tempers running high and emotions taking hold of the sensibilities, sanity and reason become the inevitable casualties. That is what is happening. Even the saner elements of Kashmir politics, the likes of Dr. Farooq and Prof. Soz, seem to have got carried away by the compulsions of electoral consideration. Competitive communal politics in the valley of Kashmir has had a heavy toll of reason and sanity. But the hope is still alive that in the larger interest of the people of the state, the leaders cutting across the party lines would use the present difficult situation in the state as an opportunity for accommodation and reconciliation. They would be well advised to stop shouting at each other and winning points on television debates. It is time they fan out in their respective constituencies and work for peace.
It would not help the contending parties to reopen the Pandora’s Box of two nation theory, partition, regional imbalance, delimitation of constituencies, ethnic cleansing of Hindu’s of Kashmir, etcetera, in arriving at a resolution. It is time to bury the past and start afresh and make J&K a model state of reconciliation and development. Much is expected of the Kashmiri politicians who have ruled the state now for more than 60 years.
Shailendra Aima
Seven young and precious lives have been lost in police atrocities, hundreds have been jailed, thousands injured and an indefinite curfew has been clamped in the entire region with ten districts and more than 55 lakh people. The sick are being prevented from reaching hospitals; doctors are not allowed to attend to their duties, important services of drinking water and electricity are in a shambles.
There has been a brutal assault on civil liberties and the media was vandalized by sealing their offices and imposing ban on local cable networks and TV channels. Dozens of journalists, cameramen and reporters were attacked and not allowed to cover the happenings despite clear orders by the Division Bench of the High Court. The Jammu region has been handed over to the army and with its help; the administration has been able to ship hundreds of trucks carrying petrol and other essential supplies to the Kashmir valley.
Unable to break the resistances of the people, the state administration and some Kashmir centric persons, have unleashed a campaign of misinformation. It is trying to give a bad name to the People’s Movement in Jammu by calling it “communal and a show of hooligans”. The fact remains that it is a popular movement that is not controlled by any communal outfit and by no political parties. In fact, all Jammu based political and non-political organizations and trade unions have lent support to the Sangharsh Samiti which is spearheading the struggle. The Hindu, Muslim, Sikh and Christian organizations in the Jammu region too are involved in the Sangharsh Samiti; and unlike Kashmir that expelled half a million persons of the minority, Jammu has stood as a real land of communal harmony and brotherhood.
Feeling the heat of resistance to their hegemony and stranglehold of the minorities in Jammu and Kashmir, the Kashmiri based politicians have re-orchestrated their blackmail and are howling hard on opening the Muzzafabad Road to Pakistan. They know for sure that the ever ready takers of this malfeasance in Delhi and elsewhere would come forward to their help in restoring their hegemony and to crush the popular dissent and sentiment in the Jammu region. Assuming that Delhi might succeed in pulverizing the minorities in J&K and the people of Jammu, it would only embolden the separatists, the fundamentalists, the intolerant and the exclusivist ideologies, not only in J&K, but also in the rest of the country with very serious consequences on the integrity and security of the nation. Delhi’s continued capitulation to the anti-national and separatist agenda has already caused an irreparable damage to the national interests in Jammu & Kashmir.
With tempers running high and emotions taking hold of the sensibilities, sanity and reason become the inevitable casualties. That is what is happening. Even the saner elements of Kashmir politics, the likes of Dr. Farooq and Prof. Soz, seem to have got carried away by the compulsions of electoral consideration. Competitive communal politics in the valley of Kashmir has had a heavy toll of reason and sanity. But the hope is still alive that in the larger interest of the people of the state, the leaders cutting across the party lines would use the present difficult situation in the state as an opportunity for accommodation and reconciliation. They would be well advised to stop shouting at each other and winning points on television debates. It is time they fan out in their respective constituencies and work for peace.
It would not help the contending parties to reopen the Pandora’s Box of two nation theory, partition, regional imbalance, delimitation of constituencies, ethnic cleansing of Hindu’s of Kashmir, etcetera, in arriving at a resolution. It is time to bury the past and start afresh and make J&K a model state of reconciliation and development. Much is expected of the Kashmiri politicians who have ruled the state now for more than 60 years.
Shailendra Aima
