
Elections in J&K
On February 14, Union Home Minister Amit Shah refused to comment on the timing of Assembly elections in J&K, saying “a call on this has to be taken by the Election Commission of India” but reiterated “restoration of statehood after the polls”. He extensively spoke on J&K in an interview with news agency ANI and, among other things, said: “can’t comment on the timing of the polls in J&K”.
“As far as elections are concerned, do they (in this case Kashmiri politicians and Congress) not remember the local body polls, these were held under our rule, and these did not take place for 70 years. Three families (read Abdullah, Mufti, and Nehru families) were holding sway in J&K and they are making noise…Farooq Abdullah had gone to England. In whose tenure, terrorism grew, who allowed it to grow, there should be an answer,” he also said. What the HM said was absolutely correct given the nature and ideology of Kashmiri Muslim leadership and the Congress and what they did between 1947, when J&K acceded to India, and June 2018, when the BJP withdrew support to the Mehbooba Mufti-led coalition government and central rule imposed.
We are not fools
What the HM candidly said so disturbed NC chief and former 3-time CM Farooq Abdullah that he denounced the Narendra Modi government and asserted that the whole objective of the BJP is to convert J&K into a Hindu-majority state. It would be only politically prudent to quote verbatim what the frustrated and out-on-the-limb Farooq Abdullah said while condemning the Modi government. He said: “They (the government) will give a truncated statehood after elections…He thinks they (the government) don’t want to give statehood. They will give truncated statehood after elections…The motive behind the delimitation exercise, completed in UT, is to turn J&K into a Hindu-majority state. They think that we are fools, but we are not. We know what their intention is, if this was not their intention, they would not have done delimitation as well, as the way they did. They want that it should be converted into a Hindu-majority state”. Such was the level of his frustration and desperation. And it was not unexpected. He, like other Kashmiri politicians, wants Assembly elections and restoration of statehood at the earliest so that he and others of his ilk in Kashmir play the unsettling role they did before June 2019.
Unsettling, threatening statements
One thing is absolutely clear: The nation would witness explosions of portentous dimensions in Kashmir as and when Assembly elections are held and fundamentally secessionist Kashmiri politicians recapture the state power, which they surely will given the fact that Kashmir has 47 seats (all 100% Muslim) in the 90-member house and that their followers would also win 8 to 10 seats in Jammu province’s Doda, Ramban, Kishtwar, Poonch, and Rajouri districts. Statements such as “peace in Kashmir could return only if India enters into a meaningful dialogue with Pakistan and we will seek China’s support for the restoration of Article 370 (NC chief Farooq Abdullah); “J&K has only acceded to India and not merged with it”, late Pak President Gen Parvez Musharraf’s J&K framework is the best solution, we will repeal Public Safety Act if returned to power and we will not contest the assembly elections on the bijli, sadak and pani plank” (NC vice-president Omar Abdullah); “Kashmiris need love and employment but the BJP gave them bulldozers” (Rahul Gandhi); “for trust, it is necessary to listen to Kashmiris and not crush their rights under bulldozers” (Priyanka Gandhi Vadra); “Narendra Modi government has converted Kashmir into Afghanistan, India must befriend Pakistan, we will snatch everything which the Modi government snatched from Kashmiri Muslims and Indo-Pak joint control on J&K is the only solution to the Kashmir issue” (PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti); “halt the ongoing anti-encroachment drive or get ready to face hartals and stones” (DPAP chief Ghulam Nabi Azad); “the Modi government is humiliating Kashmiris”, it has no right to retrieve the state land and introduce central laws in J&K and everything should be left to the care of elected government (PC chief Sajjad Lone); and “those who demolished houses (during the ongoing anti-encroachment drive) will have to answer after elections are held and regularise the illegally-constructed colonies, shops and other commercial establishments by the rich and the poor on the state land” (JKAP chief Altaf Bukhari) clearly indicate the direction things would move in J&K after elections are held. But these are only a few of several such unsettling and threatening statements made by Kashmiri politicians of all hues. And the upshot of their whole formulations is that they not only want the restoration of the pre-August 5-6, 2019 politico-constitutional position but also to create conditions leading to J&K’s separation from India and establishment of Nizam-e-Mustafa.
Elected governments subverted polity
It was hoped that the transfer of state power from Jammu to Kashmiri Muslim leadership in October 1947 will help integrate J&K fully into India, harmonize inter-communal relations, and establish rule of law. But nothing of this sort happened. What happened was to the contrary. Backed to the hilt by the successive Congress-led and other governments at the Centre, Kashmiri leadership subverted the polity both from within and outside. It rigged elections on a massive scale and brazenly murdered democracy. It consistently challenged J&K’s accession to India and created a high wall of hatred between the Indians and the Kashmiri Muslims. It exploited the Assembly and the secretariat to promote secessionism and fan-fanaticism. It sharpened angularities between Muslims and Hindus and between the former and the Buddhists or pitted their co-religionists against the Hindus and the Buddhists. It rendered the people of Jammu and Ladakh unreal and ineffective for all practical purposes and denied citizenship rights to the Hindu-Sikh refugees from Pakistan living in Jammu since 1947. It made unjust, invidious, and humiliating distinctions between male and female subjects. The J&K daughters were denied the right to marry persons of their own choice outside J&K. It drained Jammu and Ladakh to the maximum possible extent. It rigorously excluded Jammu and Ladakh from all walks of life.
Not content with all this, the Kashmiri leadership divided Jammu’s Hindu-majority Udhampur district in 1948 to create the Muslim-majority Doda district, which was further trifurcated in 2007 by Azad into Doda, Kishtwar, and Ramban districts. In 1979, the Kashmiri leadership divided the Buddhist-majority Leh district (Ladakh) to create the Muslim-majority Kargil district. The objective was to weaken the forces of integration in the strategic Jammu province and the trans-Himalayan Ladakh. In January 1990, Kashmir was converted hundred percent; the entire miniscule minority of Hindus plus Jammu Dogras and Punjabis quit Kashmir and migrated to Jammu and other parts of the country. As a result, the original inhabitants of Kashmir, the Dogras of Jammu, and the Punjabi Hindus are today conspicuous by their absence anywhere in Kashmir.
Even all this didn’t satisfy the Kashmiri leadership. To create a Kashmir-like situation in Jammu province and Ladakh, it unleashed a demographic invasion. In 1947, the Buddhists constituted an overwhelming majority in Ladakh; they were 80 percent and the Muslims only 20 percent. Today’s demographic profile of Ladakh is altogether different: The Buddhists are only 40 percent and the Muslims 60 percent. The story of Jammu province in general and Jammu’s Kathua, Samba, Jammu, Udhampur, and Reasi districts is one of the demographic changes on a massive scale. The story of Jammu district, the border areas in Jammu province, and areas along national highways between Jammu and Banihal and between Jammu and Poonch are highly frightening because the Kashmiri leadership left no stone unturned to create a Kashmir-like situation there. That the Kashmiri leadership wilfully and as per its sinister design allowed after 1996 loot and plunder of more than 30 lakh Kanals of state, forest, and Kahcharai land in Jammu province and facilitated the establishment of new townships for their co-religionists at highly strategic locations prove the point I am trying to highlight. The whole objective behind the officially-sponsored demographic invasion was to cause Hindu migration from Jammu province and help Pakistan finish what Pakistani leadership calls the “unfinished agenda of partition”.
One can catalogue here umpteen other examples which further expose the Kashmiri leadership’s sinister ideology, and devious game plan and indicate hostility towards India and Hindus of Jammu, and Buddhists of Ladakh.
Grave evils
As said, the ultimate objective of the Kashmiri leadership is not only to restore the pre-August 5-6, 2019 politico-constitutional position but also to create conditions leading to J&K’s separation from India and the establishment of Nizam-e-Mustafa. What will it do after the Assembly elections are held or after recapturing the assembly and the secretariat and such departments and offices as finance, revenue, forest, law and advocate general? It will embarrass New Delhi by passing the atrocious resolution on PM Narendra Modi’s August 2019 reform scheme: Reading down of Article 370, abrogation of Article 35A, and division of J&K into two Union Territories. It will re-launch the demographic invasion on Jammu with full force. It will punish the revenue and forest officials and others in the establishment who are involved in the anti-encroachment drive. It will grant general amnesty to terrorists and separatists lodged in different jails in J&K and outside. It will repeal all the anti-terror and anti-separatist laws and acts. It will unleash a vilification campaign against the Indian Army and paramilitary forces involved in anti-insurgency operations. It will lift the ban on such anti-India outfits as the JKLF and the Jamaat-e-Islami and give a free hand to separatists and terrorists as before. It will adopt and implement such recruitment, trade, transport, and industrial policies and policies governing allotment of contracts which will further hurt Jammu province and its citizens. It will unleash a no-holds-barred propaganda blitz against India and in favour of Pakistan. Desperate and wounded as it is, the Kashmiri leadership will do everything under the sun to vitiate the atmosphere outside the Valley.
Conclusion
What I have hinted at is not based on mere conjectures or heresy. It is based on the stark realities and on what the defeated and frustrated Kashmiri leadership itself has been repeatedly saying, particularly since August 4, 2019. There are potent reasons to believe that the policy planners and think tanks of PM Narendra Modi and HM Amit Shah know more than what I have pointed out. Still, however, it would be desirable to warn that elections in J&K would automatically mean a big disaster and that the only logical, national, rational, and lasting solution to the Kashmir jihad is the separation of Jammu province from Kashmir and conversion of Kashmir into a Chandigarh-type UT. It’s hoped the Narendra Modi government would appreciate and implement this solution to stem the rot in Kashmir and protect and promote further the paramount national interest. The sooner it is done, the better. To mark time would be counter-productive.
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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May Farooq’s words come true.
The the failed historical land grab was conceived and executed by the Abdullas, Muftis and Nehrus. A small western educated section of the Pandits basically from amongst the Babu class were in partnership with the Abdullas and Muftis. Once the success was in sight the the pandits had to be got rid of and that is what started in the late 80s onward. It would have been a private state funded by the Indian Taxpayer. It will take some time to undo what has been done over 75 years. The waning influence of the original perpetrators, and the younger generation becoming LABHARTHIs the changes will be evident in due course.
Hope Modi and Shah read articles from Hari Om or at least aware of the ground realities. Hope they won’t act under external or internal pressure, and screw up the situation in J&K again as done by Nehru.
Farooq is getting old age phobias & fears & likely to die as a frightened man worrying about his son’s future. Well as per Hindu tradition, son can take sins of his father & do repentance