Politics

Azad rubs salt on Jammu’s wounds to pander to Islamists in Kashmir

Azad must remain ashamed for implementing Wazir Commission Report in a wrong way and by giving preferential treatment to now 100 percent Muslim Kashmir

Hari Om

May 3, 2023

Azad must remain ashamed for implementing Wazir Commission Report in a wrong way and by giving preferential treatment to now 100 percent Muslim Kashmir

Azad’s no-holds-barred propaganda

Democratic Progressive Azad Party (DPAP) chairman Ghulam Nabi Bhat alia Azad has unleashed a no-holds-barred propaganda blitz to provoke his co-religionists in Kashmir and parts of Jammu province against the PM Narendra Modi’s August 5-6, 2019 reform scheme that integrated Jammu, Kashmir, and Ladakh fully into India, segregated Ladakh from the erstwhile J&K State and created two Union Territories – UT of J&K and UT of Ladakh.

Sprinkling salt on Jammu wounds

Not just this, he is also taunting the people of Jammu province and sprinkling salt on their wounds almost on a daily basis to pander to Islamists in Kashmir. He is shamelessly patting his back and claiming that he created four new districts in the Valley and an equal number of districts in Jammu province. On March 31, he told his co-religionists in Kashmir’s terrorist-infested Shopian that it was his government that granted district status to Shopian, and on May 1, he made a similar statement in Kashmir’s Bandipora while addressing a rally. He said that it was he who granted district status to Bandipora and created seven other districts.

Wazir Commission

It bears recalling that the people of Jammu province’s Reasi, Kishtwar, and Samba had launched one movement after another to force the Kashmiri-dominated and Valley-centric successive government to create three new districts in the region. Their argument was that the land area of Jammu province was two-time that of Kashmir and the bulk of its terrain was difficult, treacherous, and inaccessible. Another refrain of the people of these areas was that it was difficult for the poor people to visit the district headquarters to get their work done. To be more precise, their demand sought an increase in the number of districts in Jammu province from six to nine.

Sadly, however, the powers that be in the state didn’t appreciate the arguments advanced repeatedly by the people of Reasi, Kishtwar, and Samba in support of their demands. Contrarily, the Sheikh Abdullah government created three new districts in Kashmir – Pulwama, Kupwara, and Budgam — in 1979 with a stroke of a pen, despite the fact that there was no demand whatsoever for new districts in the Valley. The result was explosions in Jammu province. The enraged people in Reasi, Kishtwar, and Samba took recourse to violent methods. Instead of conceding their demands, the Sheikh Abdullah government unleashed a reign of senseless brutalities against the agitating people. The Sheikh’s brutal police force shot dead at least three students in Kishtwar and left many injured.

Azad in his autobiography, Azaad an autobiography, candidly acknowledges the fact that it was Jammu which witnessed agitation on the issue of more districts in the region and that his predecessors went back on their promise that they would create new districts in Jammu province.

What Azad writes in this regard reads like this: “All my predecessors had promised to create new districts as per the demands of the public, but none of them fulfilled their promises, whereas I did it without having made any such promises. Actually, in Sheikh Sahab’s time, there was a huge agitation in Kishtwar and Reasi to demand separate districts. The Kishtwar agitation continued for a few months and three students were killed in the firing. The then BJP leader in the Assembly from Reasi, Rishi Kumar Koushal, who was a very popular leader across the state, took a vow that he would not shave his beard till Reasi was made a district…” (P. 226).

Ultimately, it was on November 21, 1981, that the Sheikh Abdullah government constituted a three-member committee under order No: 2352-GD of 1981 to look into the whole issue. Retired Chief Justice of J&K High Court Janaki Nath Wazir was appointed its chairman and G M Khan, retired Financial Commissioner, and G M Mir, retired Divisional Commissioner, as its members. The committee submitted its report to the government in December 1983.

Wrong application of report

The Wazir Commission recommended creating three new districts in Jammu province, namely Reasi, Kishtwar, and Samba, and one new district of Bandipora in Kashmir province. Between December 1983 and July 2006, J&K state was ruled or misruled by Sheikh Abdullah’s son, Farooq Abdullah; his son-in-law, Gul Shah, and Congress; again by Farooq Abdullah and Congress; and Mufti Mohammad Sayeed and Congress, but none of them implemented the Wazir Commission report. It was on July 6, 2006, that CM Azad implemented the Wazir Commission Report, but in the wrong way. He created four new districts in Kashmir, as against one recommended by the Commission, and four new districts in Jammu, as against three recommended by it.

Justifying his decision to create four new districts in Kashmir, Azad admitted that there was no demand in Kashmir for more districts, but he created these districts in the Valley because he believed in the principle of justice and equity and that he wanted to establish parity between the two regions.

Conclusion

All this only serves to demonstrate that Kashmir got three new districts in 1979 during the regime of Sheikh Abdullah and an equal number of districts during the misrule of Azad in 2006 on a platter and the people of Jammu province fought for decades and made supreme sacrifices to get new districts. It must remain a matter of shame that Azad is patting his back for implementing the Wazir Commission Report in a wrong manner and according to preferential treatment to the now 100 percent Muslim Kashmir. Leave aside his other unpardonable sins.

Note:
1. Text in Blue points to additional data on the topic.
2. The views expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of PGurus.

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