Kr Swarn Kishore Singh
There is a saying that “if you do not ask for it, you do not get it”!
I have a very clear memory of Jammu Bandh way back in 2001 for the dispute regarding the nomenclature of Jammu Tawi Bridge when the then Chief minister decided to present the bridge as a Shradhanjali to his deceased father. Those strike were bit more aggressive than what normal strikes are, even then the chief minister remained undeterred and reached by the scheduled date to inaugurate the bridge which was named as Sher-e-Kashmir Bridge. A Sher-e Kashmir Bridge in the heart of Jammu, how strange it is! It is like having a bridge named Shaheed Bhagat Singh Setu on river Thames or a Hitler bridge on river Rhine. But more than being strange it symbolises the political subjugation Jammu is living under.
It has been a long time that Jammu people are only used as foothold for reaching the throne of CM of J&K. Once the government is formed nobody in the government bothers to reach the people of Jammu. Be it the govt of National Conference & Congress or the existing government, nobody even tries to convince the people of Jammu that they are there for them.
I should not dig it too far but even then few facts are to be put forward at the outset to set the record straight. Jammu has been experiencing the over-powering of Kashmiri politicos since 26th October 1947(the day of accession to Union of India). Perpetually Jammu has been ignored on the behest of Kashmiri appeasement. It is just because Kashmir has always kept its fidelity to New Delhi conditional and circumstantial, whereas Jammu has always been punished for its ultra-nationalist approach. Nehru never saw anyone in Jammu as a leader nor did he see their problems. Indira too was myopic enough to find a guy from Jammu to reach the people here. And when it is about dealing the issues of Jammu, New Delhi has never reached a guy who is a popular leader in the folds. Right from the early days of J&K state till the time of Ghulam Nabi Azad and now Nirmal Singh, none of them is a popular leader electorally. Nobody among them has ever won a Lok-Sabha election from J&K, but each one of them has contested. New Delhi is always in comfort while sacrificing the interests of Jammu while securing some more brownie points for Kashmir. This is very easy when the leaders like Azad & Nirmal Singh are at the helm of the affairs, as it would be done without any resistance from Jammu leaders as they are not leaders but merely politicos. Let me put some random instances of grave injustice done to Jammu only to appease Kashmir.
Kashmir got NIT in August 2003 even when it was known to one and all that this part of Jammu & Kashmir was worst hit by terrorists that time. There was a time in 1990’s when a full batch of this institute was shifted to Hamirpur as the terrorists had taken control of the complete infrastructure of the institute. It is also rumoured that the same institute at one point of time was used as ammunition store by terrorists. Regardless of the security issues the government showed no hesitation in deciding that a national level institute of a technical discipline should start working in the aegis of Lashkar-e-Toiba and Hizb-ul-Mujahideen. Everybody knows the expertise of Kashmir but still it is being showered with top institutes and a place which is a sort of education hub of Jammu & Kashmir has to live with the leftover of Kashmir.
Not only education but on the tourist map as well the discrimination with Jammu is very much visible prima facie. Even petty ponds and parks in Kashmir are developed but when it comes to some genuine places in Jammu, the government chronically ignores. Mansar Lake cries to wake the government from its deep slumber for some attention, but when the issue is regarding Nigeen Lake, there is hell of money available with the government. Government is worried for its shrinking; it is being put on the tourist map, vigorous advertisements are done for it but for Jammu there is nothing. I have seen J&K government advertising Hazratbal sufi shrine but they forget Baba Ghulam Shah Badshah, they exaggerate Jhelum but nothing for Chenab, everything for Pahalgam & nothing for Bhaderwah, glorification of Sonamarg & a cold shoulder to Poonch. Even if the sufi values are considered the sufi-shrine in Kishtwar is second to none but to our dismay the government gets blind once they cross Pir Panjal range. Padder, if developed, is nothing less than Manali of Jammu & Kashmir but we are forced to roam around the boulevard road of Srinagar and keep consoling ourselves and patting our own shoulder for having seen something wonderful.
But when Arun Jaitley in his budget on the last day of February this year announced an AIIMS for Jammu, Jammuites felt proud for the way they had voted for two consecutive elections i.e. General elections 2014 and Assembly elections 2014. Then a state government was formed and now AIIMS is also said to be installed somewhere in Kashmir. We had thought that finally the government is formed by two parties with equal tallies and Jammu being represented by a party which always stood up in the assembly highlighting the injustice done to Jammu since long. We thought the wait is over and the justice will be done to Jammu finally, but this government is exactly following the legacy of its predecessors in secretariat.
I heard that they are also shutting down the artificial lake project due to lack of funds. A simple question is why the lack of funds is not reflecting on the maintenance of the obsolete golf club in Gulmarg.
Jammu should come up with all guns blazing this time because this passiveness has done a lot of damage to us. Now is the time to stand up and make it count. Now is the time to put down your roots and express our anguish with aggression but for our genuine rights. This is the time to stand up against the discrimination done to Jammu to appease Kashmir. We have to show the establishment that we cannot be bogged down by the black mailing of Kashmir & Kashmiris. We have to prove that our ultra-nationalism should not be taken as a weakness to explore alternatives which can work for the welfare of Jammu. We, Jammuites are not fiefdom of any particular political outfit. Although we are still proud of the way we have voted but take this as a warning; do not prove our experiment wrong, we will not repeat it.
(The author is an advocate in Supreme Court of India & a political observer.)
(The views expressed are personal)
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