Prof Hari Om
Now that the Gupkar gang as a group and its constituents, including Farooq Abdullah’s NC, Mehbooba Mufti’s PDP and MY Tarigami’s CPIM; Sonia Gandhi Congress’ leaders like GN Azad and Saif-ud-Din Soz; and Apni Party of Altaf Bukhari, have again and again opposed the Delimitation Commission’s proposal that allots 43 seats to Jammu province, including six out of seven additional seats, in the 90-member assembly with some even urging the Commission to allot at least three seats to Kashmir out of the seven reserved seats for the SCs in Jammu province, it’s time for the Jammu-based supporters of the all these Kashmiri parties to tell the people of Jammu province if they stand with them or if they stand with their masters in Kashmir.
The Jammu-based supporters of the Kashmir-based outfits have to decide if they are with the suffering people of Jammu province or if they are with those in Kashmir who destroyed Jammu province and treated its citizens as their slaves for 72-long years and who continue to taunt, abuse and oppose them in a most brazen manner telling them that they have no other option but to groan under their oppressive misrule. They have to tell the people of Jammu province if and why they support the December 29, 2021 and January 01, 2022 anti-Jammu protests held by the Apni Party and Gupkar Gang in Srinagar.
The Jammu-based supporters of the Kashmir-based parties have to tell the people of Jammu province if they support the allotment of six additional seats to Jammu province, reservation of seven seats for the SC communities in Jammu province and reservation of nine seats for the STs, including Gujjars and Bakerwals (all Muslims) and Gaddis (all Hindus). If they support these reservations and endorse the loud clamour in Jammu province for at least 50 seats in the 90-member assembly, they must pass unambiguous resolutions to this effect and submit the same to the Delimitation Commission and hold press conferences in Jammu to tell the Gupkar gang, Azad, Soz, Bukhari, Tarigami and ilk in Kashmir, including the author of “Achievable Nationhood” and chief of the Peoples Conference Sajad Lone, that they rejected with contempt their senseless and communally-motivated opposition to the delimitation proposal.
The Jammu-based supporters of the Kashmir-based anti-Jammu parties have to admit in public print that they committed a sin against the Jammu province and the people it houses by not dissociating themselves from what the Bukharis said and did in Srinagar on December 29, what the Gupkaris said in Jammu on December 21 and wrote to the Delimitation on December 31 and what they did in Srinagar on the new year’s day in Srinagar and what Soz and Azad said on December 30.
The Jammu-based supporters of the Kashmir-based parties have to make a solemn commitment and that too in writing that they shall work for the disempowered Jammu province, defend and promote further its legitimate cause and oppose tooth and nail those in Kashmir who talk pluralism, secularism, democracy, brotherhood and peaceful co-existence in Jammu but do exactly the opposite in Kashmir. It would hardly matter if the Jammu-based supporters of the Kashmir-based parties operate from different platforms like their masters in Kashmir operate but speak for Jammu in one voice like all the Kashmir-based parties and groups speak.
It is a matter of grave concern that the Jammu-based supporters of the anti-Jammu Kashmir-based parties have maintain a stoic silence even after December 21, despite grave provocations and despite the no-holds-barred campaign unleashed by their masters in Kashmir against the discriminated against people of Jammu province, Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs included. It must also remain a matter of regret that these Jammu-based supporters of the Kashmir-based anti-Jammu parties, which also demand a semi-independent status for the UT of J&K and seek to force down the throat of Jammu province their separatist will and ideology, continue to talk secularism and democracy in Jammu even after December 20, 2021, when the erstwhile Kashmiri ruling class openly and in a most shameless manner attacked, abused and opposed the people of Jammu province.
This will not do. The Jammu-based supporters of the Kashmir-based parties will have to make a choice between the two: The suffering people of Jammu province and the arrogant, communal, radicalized, discriminatory and essentially separatist Kashmiri leadership. The Jammu-based followers of the Kashmir-based outfits cannot talk nation, secularism and democracy in Jammu and, at the same time, remain part of the Kashmiri parties, which have been subverting the polity both from within and outside and ruthlessly violating the cardinal principles of state, sovereignty, nation, nationality, secularism, democracy, humanity, brotherhood, governance, administration and justice since 1947.
It’s hoped that Jammu-based followers of the Kashmir-based anti-Jammu parties will read the writing on the wall, rise to the occasion and work for the neglected, ignored, humiliated, looked down upon, abused and taunted people of Jammu province with a renewed zeal. This is the only option available to them. Not to exercise this option or to continue to tread the same old path will only hurt them and jeopardize their own socio-political interests.