Jammu Vs Kashmir

I chose to write on the captioned subject because in my view whatever is happening in the Valley is one of the most defining events of the present times and something which was long in waiting and although the way it has unfolded has stunned almost all the political parties and ruling governments, yet I think that this was the only logical and predictable outcome of all the subversion and indifference which the people of Jammu had faced for past half a decade. I also chose to write this because of my deep seated despise towards English Media of our country which as usual have presented a distorted half-baked picture of the scenario in their typical condescending style. Their chat shows are a mere sham and a charade in the name of a democratic debate. I agree that everyone is entitled to their opinions but I have a problem with ones who come with a pre-determined agenda and spread misinformation to achieve that. I dare to proclaim that the English Media’s intellectual liberalism is smeared with a definite Agenda and destructive criticism and a supposedly neutral media is the most polarized platform I have ever seen. Yes, the Rajdeep Sardesais and the Arindam Chowdhris of the world play on my nerves.


Let me first put the facts in the right perspective: the Jammu revolution is NOT ABOUT THE AMARNATH SHRINE LAND and it is APOLITICAL.

The Amarnath Shrine land issue is just a trigger or rather a catalyst in the bigger frame of picture. It just gave vent to the pent-up feelings of the people of Jammu. No one can deny the fact that the interests of the Jammu citizens have been shortchanged since independence for appeasing the fickle minded residents of Kashmir. The population of Jammu is almost 1.5 times that of Kashmir, yet Kasmir has more constituencies. Infact recently the Congress, in line with its age-old appeasement policies, has stalled a move delimiting the number of constituencies in Jammu. Consequently The Chief Minister had never and can never come out of the Jammu area. Kashmiris get more ration and education subsidies and many other privileges. Every policy of Central Government is Kashmir centric and not Jammu & Kashmir centric. In short the treatment meted out to the people of Kasmir and Jammu have always been highly disproportionate skewed heavily in favour of the former. Jammuaites were unwanted guests in their own states. Then happened the fateful speech given by Omar Abdullah in the Confidence Vote session in Parliament in July. Riding away on his youthful exuberation in his speech he even dared to say that the Indian Muslims know how to fight for their rights and how they have snatched back the land which belonged to them. As expected the English Media hyped the speech and gave it an iconoclastic stature. But I wish a middle-aged pragmatism would have rather come into play that this irresponsible youthful iconoclasm. This speech was like a nail in the coffin for the pride of Jammuaites. They called it enough-is-enough and a SMS campaign was started calling everyone to demonstrated the displeasure. So the revolution actually started from the middle-class kitchens and living rooms of pushed-down Jammuaites and soon snowballed into a unprecedented proportion. It was a POPULAR rebel and not a political one. That’s different that BJP jumped later into the fray. This is a movement started by the very people of Jammu and therefore of a different stature having a deeper impact on the polity of the region and country.

The movement has made it very clear that the people of Jammu & Kashmir are not happy with dialogues alone. They need a solution now. The people of Jammu are fed up with the indifference shown towards them and they have taken it to the streets. This has left not only the Congress but also the Kashmiris astounded. The time has come to take a definite course of action…..the time has come to amputate the sore limb to prevent the cancer spreading everywhere in the body. In my view the jammu state should be separated from Kashmir. Why Jammu should suffer in order to keep Kashmiris satiated? Its kashmiris who keep on crying “Azaadi” and still keep on geeting all the goodie-bags whereas Jammuaites who are more mainstream get a slipshod treatment. In my view this is the golden opportunity to take a corrective step to mend the historical blunders. I propose a three way approach:
1.Separate Jammu and Kashmir into two different states
2.Purge Kashmir off all the separatist tendencies with an upper hand (refer conflict over Gaza strip in West Bank in Israel which is very much similar to the Kashmir issue)
3.Accord special time-bound privileges to Jammu to make them more mainstream.

The Congress will have to realize that one cannot run away from issues in order to avoid the issues……rather go and kill them. You cannot deny the existence of the much rampant separatist tendencies exisiting among the people of Kashmir….accept it and then crush it. Do not get into the “appease-your-enemy Gandhiism”. Its all about a perception game. You can only deal with such tendencies and Pakistan if you are stronger. Elevate yourself and use a stronger hand if required. Admonish and slap if required but believe me once things are made straight to everyone, everything will fall in place. At times its best not to give people choices……sometimes it spoils them.

I am not professing whats happening in Jammu is right but what I am trying to say is that this was inevitable. You reap what you sow. One should still take it as an opportunity and act decisive and definite. Rarely you get a chance to correct history and people of Jammu have provided us one. Lets grab it.

I leave this question to all of you…………..SHALL JAMMU BE SEPARATED FROM KASHJMIR?