Jammu's patience may be at an end

Hari Om When on November 2 [2002], the Congress-I, The National Panthers Party [NPP] and the People's Democratic Party [PDP] coalition took over the state power, the people of Jammu region bad expressed the hope that this government would provide a fair and state-centric dispensation and redress their over 54-year-old grievances.

They had expected that the leaders of these non-National Conference [NC] formations would surely treat them at par with those inhabiting Kashmir and say something of the blessings which they would confer on them as a part and parcel of the heterogeneous population of the state.

This hope had obviously stemmed from the fact that both the Congress and the NPP had behaved more like rank regional outfits than as national parties and contested the 2002 assembly elections in the name of the people of Jammu region and raked up some highly emotive Jammu-related issues.

And, the belief of the people of Jammu region that their night of despair and discontent would soon draw to its close and that a new day of just hopes and aspirations on their part was about to dawn was well-founded and not misplaced.

For, the Congress had just before and during its election campaign as well as in its comprehensive election manifesto held out five specific promises.

These were end of discrimination; creation of Kishtwar, Reasi and Samba [Bahu) districts; due representation in the assembly; office of chief minister; and adequately empowered regional council.

As for the NPP, it had contested the internationally hailed elections on just one plank, just one slogan "freedom from Kashmiri yoke and separate Jammu State and its full political and economic empowerment".

Let us now dispassionately examine as to what exactly have these parties done to Jammu region during the 14 months of their rule, leave alone the PDP whose core constituency was, and continues to be, the Kashmir's two districts Pulwama and Anantnag.

Such an exercise has become imperative in view of the oft-repeated charge of the people of Jammu region that both the Congress and the NPP have betrayed them and violated their mandate, outraged their sensitivities and further damaged their genuine cause.

An examination of the role of these parties has become all the more necessary in view of the prevailing widespread disappointment and dissatisfaction among all, except within a limited circle of the workers and sympathizers of the PDP, the Congress and the NPP .

Any objective state-watcher would at once vouch for the fact that the charges of the people of Jammu region are well-founded and that neither the Congress nor the NPP has done anything substantial to mitigate their hardships or redress any of their grievances.

On the contrary, he would surely share the anguish and concern of the people of Jammu and say that both the parties, in pursuit of their policies, have allowed themselves to be guided solely by Kashmir than by the state interests.

He may even go to the extent of accusing the Congress and the NPP of toeing the PDP's out and out Valley-centric line and harming to the hilt the general political, economic and social rights and interests of Jammu.

That the Congress was not really committed to empower Jammu can be seen from the statement of the JKPCC-I chief Ghulam Nabi Azad.

Immediately after the formation of the coalition government, he had said at Asia Hotel [Jammu] in response to a question from this writer that his party did commit a grave mistake by promising a regional council for Jammu.

And, his argument was indeed dumbfounding.

He had said that there already existed in the state development boards at district level and, hence, there was no need for any such council.

While saying so, he conveniently overlooked the fact that the Leh district in the cold-desert Ladakh had got an autonomous hill development council despite the existence of a district development board in the area.

He had also rejected outright the demand of delimitation of assembly constituencies while responding to my question, asserting that such an exercise was fraught with dangerous ramifications.

His stand on the creation of new districts was also equally uninspiring and disappointing.

As if all this was not enough to outrage the sensitivities of the people of Jammu region, he and his party chief Sonia Gandhi publicly humiliated them umpteen times by dismissing them as incompetent to either manage the state affairs or protect national interests and restore peace in the state.

They repeatedly said so while rejecting the claim of their own party and the NPP [whose combined strength was 24 in the 87-member assembly] to the office of chief minister and accepting the claim of the 16-member PDP legislature party to the highest political office.

It is no wonder that the Valley has established its total domination over the state's political institutions, including the cabinet and civil secretariat, with the full backing of the Congress.

As for the NPP, less said the better.

It is too well known for its politics of deceit and rhetoric.

It consistently uses all kinds of epithets and invectives for the Mufti-led government small of which it itself is a crucial partner] and repeatedly dismisses it as a "government of the militants", by the militants and for the militants as well as an "anti-Jammu government".

But it does not have the audacity to come out of it and work for the cause for which the people of Jammu region had given it the mandate.

It consistently abuses all those demanding separate Jammu State and calls them reactionaries, fundamentalists and what not, but justifies its own demand of reorganization of the state on a regional basis and formation of three independent governments, one each for Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh.

It would be only appropriate if a reference is also made here to a few instances of glaring discrimination against Jammu region in matters relating to employment, irrigation and agriculture, agrarian community, tourism promotion, development of lakes and other developmental activities.

This is a must to lay bare the disparities between the actual position as it exists in Kashmir and Jammu and the claim of the chief minister and his cabinet colleagues, including senior Congress leader and deputy chief minister, that they and their government have always acted with a desire to what is fair .

Take, for example, the rate of unemployment in Kashmir and Jammu.

There are nearly 1,40,000 registered unemployed youth in the state.

Over 95,499 belong to Jammu region alone as against 48,000 such youth in Kashmir.

While the rate of unemployment in Jammu region has gone up to nearly 69.5 percent, it is about 30 percent in Kashmir.

To be more precise, the number of registered unemployed youth in Jammu, Udhampur, Kathua, Rajouri, Poonch and Doda districts is 45, 934; 16,548; 7,461;4959; 1,588; 6,544, respectively, and that most of them are Post- Graduates, Graduates and Degree and Diploma Engineers.

Contrast to this, the number of registered unemployed youth in Srinagar, Badgam, Ananatnag, Pulwama, Baramulla and Kupwara is 17,491; 6,614; 6,220; 4,908; 10,315; and 2,370, respectively.

In Jammu district alone, the rate of unemployment is 33.42 percent as against the unemployment rate of 13 per cent in Srinagar district.

The fundamental reason behind such a huge disparity between Kashmir and Jammu is that the people of the Valley occupy over 99 percent of the positions in the regional services of Kashmir.

Another factor responsible for this disparity is that the people of the Valley control nearly 30 per cent of the official positions in the regional services of Jammu and Ladakh provinces.

The Congress-NPP-PDP government formulated the other day a comprehensive plan to irrigate Kandi and drought-prone areas, as also to augment irrigation facilities by improving the existing canal system.

This plan has also turned out to be Valley-centric.

Under this plan, the government sanctioned for the already highly developed Kashmir 28 schemes involving an expenditure of Rs.

As for the highly underdeveloped and extremely backward Jammu region, which has more land area and more population, it got only Rs.

Earlier in 2003, the state government had received from the BJP-led NDA government a special grant Rs.

400 crore for the development of water resources in the Kandi areas (mostly in Jammu region].

The Union Government had taken this step after considering the complaint of the people of these areas that they were facing serious problems owing to the acute shortage of drinking water and absence of irrigation facilities.

What did the government do with this huge sum? It earmarked Rs.

399.10 crore for Kashmir and a paltry sum of Rs.

90 lakh for Jammu.

Not just this, the state government benefited as many as 1, 97,266 Kashmiri farmers by waving off their agricultural loans to the tune of Rs.

It may appear unbelievable but it is fact that in Jammu region only 55,406 farmer were given such relief.

This, despite the fact that it was Jammu region which had suffered more on account of severe drought conditions and that the number of farmers in this region is more as compared to their counterparts in Kashmir.

Between November 2002 and January 10,2004, chief minister Mufti Syed announced no less than 180 developmental schemes.

The break up is like this: Kashmir- schemes 154, expenditure 10473.13 lakh and Jammu region -schemes 26, expenditure 1629.36 lakh.

Further break up is like this: [Kashmir) Srinagar district -schemes 28, expenditure Rs.

4792.69 lakh; Anantnag district -schemes 64, expenditure Rs.

4109.73 lakh; Pulwama district schemes 21, expenditure Rs.

883 lakh; Badgam district -schemes 15, expenditure Rs.

557.02 lakh; and Kupwara district schemes 6, expenditure Rs.

[Jammu region] Jammu district - schemes 8, expenditure Rs.

275.64 lakh; Doda district -schemes 3, expenditure Rs.

490.00 lakh; Rajouri district -scbemes 4, expenditure 97.85 lakh; Kathua district schemes 3, expenditure.

70.00 lakh; Udhampur district schemes 8, expenditure 895.87 lakh.

There are several other similar examples of gross discrimination against the people of Jammu region.

For instance, the state government sanctioned Rs.

179 crore for the development of the Kashmir's already rather developed Wullar lake as against nil for the Mansar and Surinsar lakes in Jammu and granted Rs.

6.29 crore for the promotion of tourism in Kashmir as against Rs.

94 lakh for Jammu.

Similarly, it set apart Rs 3 crore for the Srinagar Municipal Corporation as against Rs.

one crore for the Jammu Municipal Corporation and created 50 new MBBS seats for Kashmir as against nil for Jammu.

It is indeed impossible to avoid the conclusion that the accusations of the people of Jammu region are well founded.

The Congress and the NPP would do well to review their whole approach to the policies being pursued by their government.

The best thing for them would be to immediately fulfill their 2002 promises.

Any failure on their part to do so would be to end the patience of the people of Jammu region and face their wrath.

They did succeed in averting a humiliating defeat at the hands of the extremely angry Jammu electorate by forcing the Mufti to defer indefinitely the already announced elections to the civic bodies, including Jammu Municipal Corporation.

But they simply cannot make the Chief Election Commissioner of India to play to their tunes and force him not to hold parliamentary elections in the state.

*(The writer is Dean, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Jammu and spokes person of J&K Unit of BJP)