Crisis India-Pakistan:
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Times of India, March 30, 2007

Mission Kashmir

by Balraj Puri

The overwhelming focus on the Indo-Pak peace process has led to the neglect of regional aspirations of the people of Jammu and Kashmir. This is obvious in the regions of Jammu and Ladakh. Issues of state policy like grants of various departments and recruitment and promotion are now fiercely debated on the basis of regional claims.
In this situation, BJP is trying to emerge as the most vocal voice of discontent in Jammu. It is, however, giving a nationalistic slant to the regional discontent and is opposing the proposals for enlarging the autonomy of the state "as a step towards its eventual secession".
As a more desperate measure the party has revived the demand for a separate Jammu state. But its inherent weakness lies in the fact that BJP is not trusted by Muslims, who comprise a majority in three out of six districts of the region.
In the recently concluded session of the state assembly, six out of seven members from Rajouri and Poonch districts made a demand for separate regional status. Similarly, an associate member of the Congress from Doda, another Muslim majority district in Jammu, moved a Bill for a similar status for it.
In the third region of the state, namely Ladakh, in the election to the Autonomous Council in Buddhist majority Leh district, 25 out of 26 seats were won by the Union Territory Front while the Congress won the remaining Muslim majority seat.
The demand for a separation of the region from the state, however, has no support in the Muslim majority district of Kargil.
Whatever be the merits of the claims of BJP in Jammu and the Union Territory Front in Ladakh, their demands, in effect, mean separation of Hindu majority districts in Jammu and Buddhist majority district in Ladakh region from the state.
Their moves receive support from the Kashmir region also, in particular in the lengthy 266-page document titled Achievable Nationhood, recently released by Peoples' Conference leader Sajad Gani Lone.
It suggests that every district be given the option to "opt out of the arrangement where a majority of the people feel that their rights are better protected by not being a part of the J&K". More specifically, it concedes that "voices emanating from districts Jammu, Kathua and Ladakh would suggest the utilisation of the opt-out option".
The net effect of these moves is to divide the state on religious lines and carve out a Muslim state. It hardly needs to be emphasised that Kashmiri Muslims are Kashmiris as well as Muslims. Likewise, there are non-Kashmiri speaking Muslims who are as proud of their Kashmiri identity.
Other non-Kashmiri Muslim communities include Gujars, Pahari speaking, Sheena speaking, Dogri speaking and Ladakhi Muslims who in many respects are closer to their co-ethnic non-Muslims than to Muslims.
Kashmiri Muslims have to decide whether they should submerge their unique identity in a Muslim state an option which they had rejected in 1947.
Regional identities are the greatest secularising force in the state. The question, therefore, is how to reconcile the interests and urges of the three regions to make a harmonious personality of the state. Only a federal and decentralised polity can preserve emotional and political unity in a diverse state like J&K.
Jawaharlal Nehru and Sheikh Abdullah declared on July 24, 1952 that the constitution of the state would provide for regional autonomy.
Again the J&K state People's Convention, convened by Abdullah in 1968, unanimously accepted a draft on internal constitution of the state which provided for regional autonomy and further devolution of power to the district, block, and panchayat levels.
The Regional Autonomy Committee submitted a report in 1998 which discussed further details ofral safeguards to all regions and ethnic communities.
In particular, it suggested an eight-point formula for allocation of funds to regions and districts. These ideas can provide a basis for a wider discussion to evolve a consensus for building a stable and secular identity of the state.



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