The first part of the article can be accessed here: Part 1. This is the second part
Central University of Jammu
The Manmohan Singh-led UPA government announced the Central University for Jammu and Kashmir during the 2009 budget session. The Omar Abdullah-led National Conference (NC) and Congress coalition government decided to establish the sanctioned university in Kashmir, giving the people to understanding that the Centre had sanctioned it for Kashmir. The decision, as expected, resulted in widespread unrest in Jammu province, with concerned sections of society and the student community accusing both the State government and the Central government again of giving preferential treatment to Kashmir and perpetrating injustice after injustice on the already rather marginalised people of Jammu province.
It was again the Jammu Joint Students Federation (JJSF) and this writer who took the initiative to counter the arguments of the NC-led coalition government in favour of its decision to set up Central University in Kashmir. A meeting was held in the Jammu Press Club, and Jammu Central University Morcha (JCUM), a conglomerate of eight small political, social, and student groups, was formed. Its stated objective was not just the establishment of Central University in Jammu but also the appointment of some “local academician” as its Vice-Chancellor. (There were media reports that the Congress-led UPA government could appoint former Vice-Chancellor of Jammu University, Amitabh Mattoo, as its Vice-Chancellor.)
Tempers were running very high. The political situation in Jammu province was worsening with each passing moment. The J&K High Court Bar Association (JKHCBA), the traders’ leading associations, including Jammu Chamber of Commerce and Industry (JCCI), Chamber of Traders Federation (CTF) and several other influential social groups, like the JCUM, too, had denounced the decision to establish Central University in Kashmir and warned the government not to play with the sentiments of Jammu. Results would be disastrous, they had warned. Not just this, the BJP and the RSS’s student wing, ABVP, which also formed a parallel body, Central University Andolan Samiti (CUAS) sensing the Jammu’s angry mood, had also taken the plunge and threatened that they would launch an agitation in case the authorities failed to establish Central University in Jammu.
Fearing a 1998-like agitation in Jammu, the mortally afraid Omar Abdullah-led government arranged a meeting at the Civil Secretariat, Jammu, between the government representatives led by Congress leader and then Deputy Chief Minister, Tara Chand, and representatives of several organizations, including those representing student community, the JKHCBA, the JCCI, CTF and transporters’ organizations. This writer was also one of the invitees. As was expected, the official representatives defended the government’s stand by putting forth untenable arguments. This writer, in 1998, again countered the official stand with facts and figures and laid bare the disparities between the official stand and the factual position: The UPA government had not sanctioned Central University for Kashmir. There were some heated exchanges as well between this writer and a senior NC leader. The role played by the representatives of the JKHCBA, the JCCI, the CTF, and other organizations was very inspiring. Both sides held their ground firmly. The result was a deadlock and the possibility of some anti-NC/ Congress major political explosions taking place across Jammu province.
However, good sense finally prevailed and the NC-led government on August 6, 2009 fielded four Cabinet ministers — three from Congress and one from the NC and all from Jammu province – Surjit Singh Slathia (currently in BJP), Shamlal Sharma (now in BJP), R S Chib (currently in the almost non-existent Ghulam Nabi Azad’s Democratic Progressive Azad Party (DPAP) and Raman Bhalla — to cool the tempers in Jammu. That day, they addressed media persons and revealed that the proposal of the State government seeking two Central u
niversities, one each for Jammu province and Kashmir division, had been approved by the Central government “keeping in view the aspirations of both the regions of the State” and that “under the new arrangement, the university at Jammu would be established first and for that purpose the work would be started soon.” They also rejected the allegation that the Omar Abdullah-led government had “hijacked the sanctioned university to Kashmir” and said that this “mischief” was the brain-child of “some ‘self-styled organizations’ supported by PDP in Valley and BJP in Jammu to create a wedge between the regions.”
It needs to be underlined that Omar Abdullah and his otherwise fundamentally Kashmir-centric and one-community-centric NC had become very weak because they had, like in 2002, won only 28 seats in the 87-member Assembly in 2008, and the future of their government depended on the Congress’s support. Besides, there are reasons to believe that pressure from below in Jammu and the fear of backlash from its own constituency in the region had motivated/ pressured the Jammu-based Congress ministers to persuade the Congress-led government at the Centre to establish two Central universities in J&K.
However, the August 6 announcement didn’t satisfy the JCUM. The reason: They wanted a definite assurance from the government that a “local academician” will be appointed Vice-Chancellor of the Central University of Jammu. The official attitude to the demand was indifferent. The result was that it continued to attack the authorities. On May 1, 2010, Jammu observed a complete bandh over the issue on the call given by the JCUM. All or nearly all Jammu-based associations, including the associations of traders, lawyers, and transporters, the general masses, and the student community, supported the bandh call to make it a big success.
The powers-that-be at the Centre finally accepted the demand to keep the situation in Jammu province under control. The Central University of Jammu was established at Rahya-Suchani village in Samba district of Jammu province in 2011. However, the authorities didn’t appoint a local academician as its Vice-Chancellor; they appointed former Chief Secretary to the J&K government, Sudhir Singh Bloeria, a resident of Jammu province, as its first Vice-Chancellor.
All-India Institute of Medical Sciences
On February 28, 2015, then Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley announced the setting up of an All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) and Indian Institute of Management (IIM) for J&K. The Finance Ministry said that “the AIIMS has been approved for Jammu.” The Previous BJP-led NDA government, which was headed by Atal Bihari Vajpayee, had also announced the setting up of AIIMS for Jammu in 2003. And, the then Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare, Sushma Swaraj, had even laid the foundation stone of the up-gradation of GMC Jammu to AIIMS on January 25, 2004. (This writer was present on the occasion.) But later, the anti-Jammu Congress-led UPA government played a mischief and reduced the project to upgradation of the Government Medical College (GMC), Jammu.
It was expected that the BJP, which had won 25 Assembly seats (all in Jammu province) for the first time and joined the Mufti Sayeed-led coalition government as a junior partner, would not behave like the Congress behaved all through to placate Kashmir and appease the Kashmiri ruling class. But it didn’t happen. In fact, it went a step further to please Kashmir and the Mufti to enjoy some loaves and fishes of office. That it went a step further could be seen from the fact that the printed PDP-BJP Agenda of Alliance, which was made public by none other than the Mufti himself in Jammu on March 01, 2015, when he took oath of office as Chief Minister in the Jammu University’s Zorawar Singh Auditorium, among other things, said: “Super Speciality, AIIMS will be established in the Valley.” This writer was present in the Auditorium.
Arun Jaitley-headed Finance Ministry making it loud and clear on February 28, 2015, that the sanctioned AIIMS will be established in Jammu and the Mufti making the printed PDP-BJP Agenda of Alliance public on March 01, 2015, which said AIIMS will be established in Kashmir, could not be considered a mere coincidence. It was, undoubtedly, a sinister part of the mischief.
What happened on March 01 created widespread disappointment and dissatisfaction among all in Jammu province, except in a limited circle of those close to the corridors of power. And, what added more fuel to the fire and aggravated the already volatile situation in Jammu province was the April 24, 2015, statement of senior BJP leader and Deputy Chief Minister, Nirmal Singh. He had reportedly said: “There is no question of snatching AIIMS from Kashmir and giving it to Jammu…NC and Congress, both trying to create a regional divide in the state in a bid to serve their political interests. We will not allow that to happen. We take J&K as one entity, and the AIIMS is being given to the state and not to any region.”
No wonder then that all the leading and influential organizations and associations representing the community of lawyers, trade/ commerce/ industry, transport, student community, and social groups, including Rajput Sabha and Brahmin Sabha, denounced both the PDP and the BJP and threatened a full-scale agitation. A number of meetings were held to discuss the whole situation. Finally, the meeting that took place in the office of JKHCBA under the chairmanship of its president, Abhinav Sharma (currently in the BJP), decided to form the AIIMS Coordination Committee to spearhead the movement for the establishment of AIIMS in Jammu. This writer, who was then Political Advisor to J&K BJP chief Jugal Kishore Sharma (currently Lok Sabha MP), also participated in the meeting and spoke on the issue. The AIIMS Coordination Committee was an amalgam of more than 70 social, religious, political, business, transport, and student organizations based in Jammu. And, the AIIMS Coordination Committee launched full-scale agitation in right earnest.
The most significant aspect of the whole situation was not just the support extended to the movement by the Jammu-based Congress leaders. It was the support for the movement from an unexpected quarter: NC. Take, for example, what the NC ideologue and former Finance Minister A R Rather did and said on April 24. That day, he – apart from submitting a memorandum to the anti-Jammu governor N N Vohra that sought establishment of AIIMS in Jammu – had said: “We support AIIMS for Kashmir, but not at the cost of Jammu…NC has no problem with AIIMS in the state, but the government should keep in mind that shifting such a facility from one region to another will only trigger resentment and hatred.”
And, the worst part was what the J&K BJP chief Jugal Kishore Sharma had said. He had accused the AIIMS Coordination Committee of “playing in the hands of opposition parties,” and said, “the NC and the Congress are using the Coordination Committee for their political interest.”
It was on August 5, 2015, that the AIIMS Coordination Committee called off the agitation and also suspended the Jammu bandh call. It took the decision after the Centre asked the State government to identify pieces of land both in Jammu province and Kashmir for the establishment of AIIMS in both the regions. Reflecting on the development, Abhinav Sharma had said: “It is good that the Centre has asked to identify 200 acres (1600 kanals) of land each in both the regions.”
Between March 2015 and August 5, 2015, Jammu province witnessed a complete shutdown and a chain hunger strike for several days, police-crowd clashes, some of which were violent, police lathi charge on the protestors, and scenes of stone pelting at several places. Educational institutions remained closed, and transport remained off the road for many days. The always busy Tawi Bridge in Jammu was blocked on many occasions. The protestors burned the effigies of the NC and the BJP and accused the BJP of betraying the people of Jammu province.
Besides, in between, former JKHCBA president and Senior Advocate B S Slathia and this writer, who had, along with Rajput Sabha president Narain Singh (currently in BJP) and advocates Ravinder Sharma and Chander Mohan Sharma, had crisiscrossed Rajouri and Poonch districts to educate public opinion on the issue, had openly questioned the manner in which the AIIMS Coordination Committee president Abhinav Sharma had suspended the agitation on June 18. He and a couple of other leading members of the Coordination Committee, including CCI president Rakesh Gupta, had met with the Deputy Chief Minister without taking B S Slathia and this writer into confidence, and after the meeting, they had suspended the agitation. They had told media persons that they took this step after the Deputy Chief Minister gave them a “categorical assurance” that AIIMS will be established in Jammu. This so-called categorical assurance had turned out to be a mere hoax, and the AIIMS Coordination Committee had to resume agitation on July 21, 2015.
Anyway, such things happen during big agitations. The best part was that the agitation had brought the PDP-BJP coalition government to its knees in Jammu. Indeed, it was a grand success. And, it was on February 24, 2024, that PM Narendra Modi came all the way from New Delhi to inaugurate the AIIMS at Vijaypur, Jammu.
To be continued…
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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Jammu should be a separate state.