Dear Narendra Modi Ji,
Historical warning ignored
I write to you not just as an 80-year-old senior citizen of Bharat, but as a student of history and man on the spot in the under grave-threat strategic Jammu, as someone who has been consistently drawing the attention of the South and North Blocks since March 2, 1990 to the dangers facing the nation in the frontier and strategically vital region of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) and the conspiracies being hatched by Pakistan and its operatives and agents in Kashmir, particularly since 1994, to create a Kashmir-like situation in Jammu province in general and its Hindu-majority districts, including Jammu, in particular, but with no result.
The powers-that-be in the South and North Blocks only bungled. They only promoted fissiparous tendencies in J&K. They only undermined the national sovereignty. They willfully played dangerous games with dangerous tools. They only empowered the subversive, communal, and radical religio-political class in Kashmir to the extent that the latter disturbed the whole socio-religious and political equilibrium in Kashmir, endangered national unity and integrity, and caused a grave threat to the very unity and identity of Jammu and Ladakh. They changed the face of Jammu beyond recognition. They changed the face by changing its demographic profile on an unprecedented scale through the legislative (the 2001 Roshni Act) and executive (February 2018 executive order to the revenue magistracy and police) routes. They drained, fleeced, looted, and plundered Jammu province. They converted the Buddhist-majority Ladakh into a Buddhist-minority region. They converted Jammu province and Ladakh into Kashmir’s two colonies and rendered the people of these two regions unreal, ineffective, and helpless. They reduced the people of these two regions to the status of mere subjects whose lives were not ones of political and economic aspirations.
To achieve their sinister goal and dismember Bharat, the subversive Kashmiri ruling elite misused the excessive and preponderant share of representation in the legislature; the departments of Home, Revenue, Finance, General Administration, and Law; the office of Advocate General; and the bi-annual Darbar Move practice.
It appeared that our national barge was fast drifting towards the rocks. It appeared that the forces of disintegration would dismember Bharat sooner than later by swallowing Jammu, Kashmir, and Ladakh. Just at that critical juncture, the historical forces, which were operating beneath the surface, acted, and Bharat got a steersman in the person of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The BJP’s spectacular victory at the 2014 general elections under your inspiring, skillful, and effective leadership, after 67 years of “secular” misrule, was taken by the concerned nation to mean, and rightly, the beginning of a new era full of hope, joy, and promise for the future.
We all believed that you would lead our nation aright. The manner in which you brought down the terrorist and Pakistan-friendly Mehbooba Mufti-led PDP-BJP coalition government in June 2018; the manner in which you brought to the nation’s knees subversives of all varieties in Kashmir on August 5, 2019 by reading down the seditious Article 370, abrogating the discriminatory Article 35A and bifurcating the region into two union territories – UT of Ladakh and UT of J&K –; the manner in which the whole of the region was brought under the ambit of all the central laws and institutions; and the manner in which the destroy-Jammu province bi-annual Darbar Move practice was stopped on June 30, 2021 all established that. All these were revolutionary reforms. No wonder then that the whole grateful nation thanked, and continues to thank even today, you from the core of her heart.
However, it would be a sin against God, humanity, and the nation if I do not discharge my duty of informing you that your core constituency in Jammu province is both happy and unhappy at the same time. It is happy because you introduced epoch-making reforms to integrate the whole region fully into the country. It is unhappy because the under grave-threat and discriminated against Jammu province – the nation’s backbone in the strategic region — was not delinked from Kashmir on August 5, 2019, like Ladakh. Its liberation from Kashmir or Jammu State was a national requirement. Even the grant of UT status to Jammu province would have met the real national requirement.
It is also imperative to inform you that the holding of assembly elections in J&K in 2024 was not a politically correct decision. The need of the nation and exigency of the time was to ignore the Supreme Court’s December 11, 2023, questionable direction that elections should be held latest by September 2024. It was nothing but an undesirable judicial intervention in the nation-making and nation-saving processes, given the fact that the elections would automatically mean re-empowerment of the same Kashmiri ruling elite, which had muddied the nation’s waters in the frontier region and destroyed Jammu and Ladakh socially, religiously, culturally, politically, and economically. That holding of Assembly elections was a politically incorrect decision could be seen from what the Omar Abdullah-led government has been doing in J&K since October 16, 2024, when he assumed the office of Chief Minister for the second time. It has been working 24X7 to defeat your August 5, 2019, reform scheme.
It was hoped that the powers-that-be at the Centre would intervene and rein in Chief Minister Omar Abdullah and ilk in Kashmir, but, sadly, it did not happen. What happened was the contrary. Instead of rejecting outright the dangerous decision of the Omar Abdullah cabinet on the restoration of the bi-annual Darbar Move practice, the Raj Bhawan endorsed it. The result was that Omar Abdullah, on October 16, the day he completed one year in office, announced the restoration of the Darbar Move practice. The most notable aspect is that it was none other than Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha himself who reversed his own June 30, 2021, historic, national, and rational decision that had ended the practice of bi-annual Darbar Move.
Earlier in May 2020, the Jammu and Kashmir High Court had delivered a comprehensive ruling against the practice. Delivering its landmark judgment, the High Court had, among other things, said that the practice of the Darbar Move was not just unconstitutional but also against national security.
Mr. Prime Minister, I am also taking the liberty to bring to your kind notice the fact that Jammu province is one of your core constituencies, and it has been chaffing and seething with anger. It is feeling alienated. Before 2008, the BJP was considered only a party of Jammu’s Kachi Chowni, Kanak Mandi, and Ragunath Bazar. Its status could be determined from the fact that in 2002, the BJP could win only from the Nagrota assembly constituency and that, too, by a slender margin of less than 60 votes. It was only under your inspiration, guidance, and leadership that it got a pan-Jammu province status. The BJP won both the Lok Sabha seats in Jammu province hands down in 2014, 2019, and 2024. Your core constituency in Jammu also returned to the Assembly, 25 MLAs in 2014 and 28 MLAs in 2024. They repeatedly reposed full confidence in your leadership, and it was only natural. They see in your great leadership a ray of hope.
Sir, it is time to reciprocate. It is the most opportune time to de-link Jammu from Kashmir and grant it the status of a full-fledged State. Jammu State will not just empower the disempowered and enslaved Jammu province, but it will also help your government protect and promote further the paramount national interests in this frontier region.
We, the people of Jammu, know and believe that you will act to protect and promote your core constituency, Jammu province, and further break the backbone of Kashmir Jihad.
Sincerely yours,
Prof Hari Om
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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- An open letter to Hon’ble Prime Minister Sh. Narendra Modi: Restoration of Darbar Move practice in J&K would be disastrous - October 18, 2025
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