Er P L Khushu
Of late a political surge is being observed in the region of Jammu, when a new political party not known to Jammu and Kashmir so far, wants to make its entry in Jammu and Kashmir through the corridor of Jammu. Is Jammu so soft to such intrusions? If at all such a new political party novice to the political and the strategic atmosphere of Jammu and Kashmir, wants to establish itself in Jammu and Kashmir, it should come through the gateway of Kashmir, which is supposed to be its base, being the memorial capital of J & K. While portraying its banners and advertisements in Jammu and its other locations, let this political party show it done in Srinagar, Anantnag, Baramulla, Shopian, Pulwama and the other spots of Kashmir and face the brunt of crude resistance both from the people of the valley, as also taste the cocktail of the gun and bullet of the militancy of Kashmir. Of late a new trend has grown in Kashmir, when no outsider other than a local Muslim is allowed to live and practice in Kashmir. Scores of people irrespective of religion, cast, color and sex belonging to the other states of India having been living in Kashmir for earning their bread and butter for decades have been killed, simply to convey that Kashmir belongs to its locals, who are unfortunately the majority of Kashmiri Muslims, when Kashmiri Pandits have already been shown the door. Let this political party hardly ten years old in the political arena of north India, make its presence in Kashmir and see for itself what Jammu and Kashmir means in the strategic scenario of the political structure of Jammu & Kashmir. Before offering sops of sorts to the voters of Jammu, which is the fundamental manifesto of this political party, let it make its presence felt first in Kashmir and ask the perpetrators of terror in Kashmir, which is basically Pakistan, with a good base support from Kashmir, to stop the spreading of terrorism and Pan Islamic Jehadi movements in Kashmir, which has ruined Kashmir and its people. Probably this political party has no concern with that or a concern about it. The role of this political party is known when Shaheen Bagh stir in Delhi was going on. That time the Shaheen Bagh movement in Delhi was against CAA enactment in parliament and the silence of this political party which was in governance that time in Delhi was conspicuous by its mysterious silence. It was the approach of this political party not to antagonize the minorities for its vote bank politics. What can be expected from this political party in Kashmir. This political party of late through its leader the Arvind Kejriwal mocked the plight of the displaced Kashmiri Pandits after the release of the Kashmir Files Movie. He had to eat the humble pie in this regard subsequently throughout the country. How should this party be welcome in Jammu and Kashmir? Kashmiri Pandits will tooth and nail oppose its presence in the political scenario of Jammu and Kashmir. Why should the present political circumstances of Jammu and Kashmir be allowed to be exploited by a political party, which does not know the cultural and politico-economic base of Jammu and Kashmir and be allowed to poke its nose in Jammu & Kashmir and try to infiltrate in Jammu and Kashmir under the false and illusory banner of providing of good governance, that too through proxy from Delhi, when the world knows that this political party is mostly known as party of sops, which suits certain sections of society, at the cost of the real scientific development of the regions which such a party rules over.
As has been observed as per its political motto, it wants power by hook or crook, by selling sops of different denominations to woo the voters. A famous saying which says that “All that glitters is not gold”, applies to this so called emerging political party, which may vanish within its own wave as it is the development plank and manifestoes which matters ultimately with people rather than the sops which is almost silencing the growth and the economic standards of the people with such sops. Coming to the result sheet of the broader achievements of this political party in Delhi, where it has been ruling for almost from the last seven years. It is being claimed by the leaders of this political party that Delhi has achieved a very good brand in providing quality education to the students. Yes, what is seen on ground is that good building structures have been constructed under the programmer of providing of standard education to the students in Delhi. Should it be seen somewhere as to how much qualitative improvement has taken place in the fundamentals of the providing of a standard and a competitive education to the students in Delhi, mostly belonging to the depressed classes, in the present scenario of educational standards, not only in India, but equally world over. Not to speak of the elite or the upper sections of the people of Delhi, have the students of even the middle class or the lower middle-class people started going to such government schools. Probably not. Had there been a marked improvement in this area of education in Delhi, there would have been a marked shift of the students from private schools in Delhi to government schools. How many new colleges of graduate or postgraduate levels have come up during the rule of this political party in Delhi. How many new engineering or medical colleges have come up in Delhi during the rule of this political party in Delhi. How many skill development institutions, the basic feeding institutions, to guarantee skilled jobs to the unemployed youths of Delhi have been instituted in these seven years of their rule? The sad answer to all such queries is a big no. So why so much of both drum beating or even breast beating about the providing of elite education by the leaders of this political party during its rule of past seven years in Delhi. The tall claims of free electricity and water to a certain class and category of the people of Delhi is not any favor to all those people. It is at the cost of the other sections of the society in Delhi, who consume more electricity and water as per their minimum social status for better standards of living, which includes the using of air conditioners and geezers too. Such consumers are charged very high monthly pro rata fee for their consumption of electricity and water, to balance the gap between the two sections of the society for whom such charges are free and the one who are charged very exorbitantly. It is almost snatching from one and giving to the other, which is quite bad a trend for social and economic balancing in the democratic pattern of governance, between various sections of society. Same is true about the road sector when the roads of Delhi are almost of the same strength and designs as were left by Late Shiela Dixit as the Chief Minister some more than 10 years back. The road network in Delhi has not been upgraded to the level it qualifies for being the capital of the country. The pollution levels in Delhi are increasing day by day to sky heights. In fact, Delhi is one of the most polluted cities today, being the capital of a vast country India. This is all due to the fact that the super devolvement of Delhi as the capital of the country has received a big setback, as the money collected by the government of Delhi as tax revenues goes to meet the expenditures on sops, when the overall development has suffered badly. This new political party has now made inroads in Punjab too, on the same plank of providing of various sops to the people. Giving sops to the people is very good, but it must have enough sources for the state to bear its economic brunt. Such bestowment of free sops for garnering of votes should not be at the cost of the overall development of the state as a whole. As per reports recently the new chief minister of Punjab state has announced free electricity for the consumers who consume up to 300 units of electricity. It is said that this alone will cost the Punjab government about five thousand crore rupees per year. How to compensate it can be anybody’s guess? Yes, it can be compensated, but at the cost of the overall development of Punjab, which may affect the economy of Punjab in all others sectors of development. Now while eyeing to gain some ground in Jammu on the planks of providing of providing free electricity and good governance, this political party shall have to face a tough competition from the political leaders of Kashmir who are veterans in the J & K politics and the day dreaming of this political party to wrest power in Jammu and Kashmir through the corridor of Jammu will be asking for Moon for this political party. Equally a mention needs to be made here that it is not this new political party alone which is now testing its prowess on the soil of Jammu. Other political parties of Kashmir including the newer one’s have been doing so for the last decades. They are presuming Jammu to be a buffer for them thus mostly to cool their heels in Jammu, when they are not able to hold any matured mass political rallies in the prominent towns of Kashmir like Anantnag, Baramulla, Pulwama, Shopian, Budgam and Srinagar itself, due to the threat of militancy and rebuttal by the electorate of Kashmir. So why should Jammu become the testing ground for all such political activism? The political parties in Jammu shall have to introspect as to why should there be any such intrusions in Jammu. The aboriginal residents of Jammu belonging to historic Dogra Culture which has a unique cultural base amongst all other cultures of India, may have to think before others intrude in Jammu with bases unknown to the cultural heritage of Jammu and its people, when all such situations shall have to be confronted with zero tolerance. Probably there is a political vacuum in Jammu presently, which is almost self-created. But the problem with Jammu and its people is much more diverse. Jammu has been ignored since 1947, by the various dynastic ruling clans from the Kashmir, who have kept Jammu wanting in all its development fields and areas. Jammu does not need only a stable political platform, but also a separate state, so that Jammu gets its due on the national front, as per its strategic position, being a gate way to Kashmir.
For Jammu, time has come to collectively define terms of political future for Jammu in the form of asking for a full state for Jammu. That is the only alternative. Let a broad line be drawn now and Jammu made a separate state. A unified action by the people of Jammu is the need of the hour in this behalf, to strive for a separate state for Jammu. Unified attempts need to be made to see Jammu a prosperous region of India and with its declaration as full state as a prosperous state of India. This is the right time for such a struggle by the people of Jammu. With the restoration of full statehood for Jammu and Kashmir, which is in the offing, let Jammu be detached from Kashmir and made a separate state, so that Jammu gets developed with its own image and policies. It looks quite insulting to observe that Kashmir always gets a priority preference despite its pseudo separatist’s cult and that too at the cost of Jammu, which has a hard-core nationalist base. Jammu has been kept lacking in all the development fields including its socio-economic base. If Kashmir centric political leaders could forge an alliance captioned as ‘Gupkar Alliance’, with extreme regional political motives, why cannot such an alliance come up in Jammu, by the Jammu based politicians’ and intellectuals, to be called as ‘Jammu Alliance’, of course not for political purposes, but purely for developmental purposes of Jammu and stand up to seek a separate state for Jammu. Even if it turns to be a political one, on fundamental principles of not giving Jammu its due share, which has suffered miserably for its proper growth under the dynastic and hypocritical governance from Valley based politicians, it will have to be accepted by one and all. Who will bell the cat, to form this ‘Jammu Alliance’? The simple answer is the intellectuals of Jammu, having full hold on the historical background of Jammu and the proven leaders from various political entities of Jammu, forgetting their political manifestos. They shall have to take the lead in this regard. It can be a herculean task, yet not unachievable. It will mean a yeoman’s service to Jammu and its people to come out of the perpetual colonial set up of governance. Jammu’s development and its problems shall have to be faced by the people and politicians of Jammu only and not the outsiders.
(The author is a Chartered Consultant Civil Engineer,
passionately attached to his
Motherland- Jammu & Kashmir).