Please comment on this suggestion on division of Jammu and Kashmir

Please comment on this suggestion on division of Jammu and Kashmir

Jammu State Morcha (JSM), which has been spearheading a movement for trifurcation of the State of Jammu and Kashmir since 1990 in its own way, the other day submitted a memorandum to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Union Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde and urged them to look into the grievances of the people of Jammu province and Ladakh and religious and ethnic minorities, including the internally displaced Kashmiri Hindus, so that these discriminated against regions and sections obtain their legitimate due share in the political, economic and social processes. This was disclosed in Jammu by the JSM president Virender Gupta while addressing a press conference.

"The JSM strongly supports the demand of Telangana State and calls upon the Government of India to consider the other demands seeking creation of new States, including Jammu," he said, adding that "the people of Jammu region are neglected lot in all spheres and deprived of their share in the democratic, administrative, social and economic processes". "Carving out of a new Jammu State out of the present Jammu and Kashmir is an extremely genuine and viable demand…Jammu has all the possible infrastructure and economical viability for having the status of a separate State," he also said.

Gupta said the trifurcation of the State into Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh States and creation of a Centrally-administered piece of land in Kashmir for the internally displaced Kashmiri Hindus alone could end unrest in the State and resolve the so-called Kashmir issue on a permanent basis. In other words, he not only demanded trifurcation of the State but also bifurcation of Kashmir - a demand the internally-displaced Kashmiri Hindus have been putting forth since 1991 saying they would return to Kashmir only if Kashmir is bifurcated and separate homeland invested with Union Territory created. The people of Ladakh also have been demanding Union Territory since decades, saying they, like the people of Jammu province, cannot have any kind of truck with the Kashmiri leadership whose divisive demands range from autonomy to self-rule to azadi to Pakistan.

The demand made by the JSM indicates two things. One is that the people of Jammu province, like those in Ladakh, are fed up with the Valley domination over them as well as the discriminatory policies. No one can contest the argument of the JSM because it is an established fact that the people of this province have never got their due share in any of the spheres and this fact has been acknowledged by the various commissions which the State government appointed from time to time to look into the complaints of the people. Two, the other cause responsible for the demand of trifurcation in Jammu and Ladakh is the regressive and separatist of ideology of Kashmiri leadership. It is a fact that while Kashmiri leadership hates India and seeks a solution to the so-called Kashmir issue outside the Indian Constitutional framework, the people of Jammu and Ladakh and internally-displaced Kashmiri Hindus see a solution that not only ends their night of discontent and despair but also integrates them completely into India. This contradiction is irreconcilable.

New Delhi needs to recognize these stark realities in the larger national interest and trifurcate the State. This demand is neither divisive nor anti-national. It is a Constitutional demand. Even otherwise, smaller States are well-administered States. The trifurcation of the State is imperative considering the fact that such a division of the State will restrict the area of strife to a small part of Kashmir and enable New Delhi to tackle that area more effectively. Infact, trifurcation of the State is a historical necessity.

deepak.raina