Lavakare in
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<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->The supreme dominance of the Kashmir Valley and its Muslims over Jammu & Kashmir state had begun. The suppression of Jammu and the state's third region, Ladakh (predominantly Buddhist) had begun.
And the first opposition to this monopoly over the state of J&K was started more than half a century ago. Ironically, it was started by Nehru's ministerial colleague, Dr Shyama Prasad Mookerjee. <b>The Bengal tiger staked his life in his effort to (i) secure the integration of J&K with the rest of India and (ii) save the Dogras of Jammu from Sheikh Abdullah's actions that were reportedly described by a former central intelligence chief as a bid at ethnic cleansing.</b>
In a speech at Kanpur on December 29, 1952, Dr Mookerjee had made the grave charge that, "Mr Nehru and Sheikh Abdullah have jointly decided to carry on a ruthless policy of repression in Jammu." He had referred to "an impression gaining ground that with our blood and money we are carving out a virtually autonomous state for Sheikh Abdullah." Therefore, he proclaimed, "Jammu and Ladakh must be fully integrated with India according to the wishes of their people."
Dr Mookerjee categorically stated that while he did not want the partition of J&K, it had become a matter of Hobson's choice: Kashmir Valley could be made a separate state with all necessary subventions desired by the Sheikh and his advisers, but Jammu and Ladakh must not be sacrificed.
Dr Mookerjee died on June 23, 1953, under suspicious circumstances while under house arrest in an abandoned cottage on a hill outside Srinagar, with no telephone or medical facility within miles, without Nehru meeting him there even once during his 40-day detention. His soul must surely be astir now with talk gaining ground about the revived call for a separate Jammu and a separate Ladakh.
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We are paying for Nehru's blunders. These 60 odd days of struggle by people of Jammu show that
(i) they are the true followers of Gita and will not shy away from a battle for the dharma
(ii) the ideals and flame lit by Dr Mookerjee's still alive
(iii) forces of evil and intolerance have only been emboldened by the failed appeasement policies of past 60 years
(iv) Delhi (i.e., Nehru 50 years ago and his dynasty today) will sacrifice Hindus in Jammu/Kashmir/Ladhak at altar of secularism in a heart beat
There is a think-tank based on Dr Mookerjee's ideals located in Kolkota. It deserves every bit of support from every one of the billion Indians.
Lavakare continues.
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Contrary to the allegations of the pseudo-secularists, this separatist drive and the present anger in Jammu over the Amarnath land are not based on the Hindu-Muslim divide. Instead, it is entirely based on the economic deprivation and political despotism exercised by the Abdullah clan and its kith and kin from Srinagar. The charges against the Kashmir Valley clique are many. Writing in the May 2000 issue of Voice of Jammu Kashmir magazine, J N Bhat, retired judge of the J&K high court, alleged that:
Thousands of plots carved out in the suburbs of Jammu have been allotted to Kashmiris, all the beneficiaries belonging to one particular community.
In some localities of Jammu city, water is supplied after a gap of three to four days, and not even enough of it to quench the thirst of the people. Obviously, funds got for development get misused.
In the Jammu region, the Hindu minorities of Doda and Poonch districts have been tortured and many of them have found, according to sources, conversion the only option, though they prefer death to forced conversion.
Another eminent person who has made more serious accusations is Hari Om, professor of history in Jammu University, and a member of the Indian Council of Historical Research (ICHR). In a newspaper article --- eight years ago, mind you --- the professor complains that:
Though Kashmiris constitute roughly 22 per cent of the state's total population, the delimitation mechanism cleverly devised by Sheikh Abdullah's National Conference Party in 1951 enables it to capture nearly half of the total assembly and Lok Sabha seats. The trick lies in 46 assembly segments having been created in the small Valley as against 41 segments combined in Jammu and Ladakh regions that are far bigger and more populated than the Valley. This mechanism is apparently contrary to the rules framed under the Indian Parliament's Representation of People's Act and those under the relevant State Act of 1957.
Kashmiris hold over 2,30,000 positions out of a nearly 2,40,000 positions in government and semi-government organisations in the Valley. In addition, they corner nearly 25 per cent of the jobs in the regional services of Jammu and Ladakh.
All the professional and technical institutions, universities and all the big public sector industrial units like HMT, the television, telephone and cement factories located in the Valley are the sole preserve of the Kashmiris. Besides, they manipulate for themselves more than 50 per cent of the seats in Jammu's ill-equipped and under-staffed medical and engineering college and in the Agricultural University in R S Pura. No such institution exists in Ladakh.
The Kashmiris control trade, commerce, transport and industry, and own big orchards as well as landed estates. None of them is without a house. Likewise, the per capita expenditure on woollen clothes in Kashmir is perhaps the highest in the world. Till date, no one in Kashmir has, unlike in UP, Bihar and Orissa, died either of hunger or cold.
Interestingly, yet not surprisingly, a vast majority of the Kashmiris don't pay even a single penny to the state in the form of revenue due to it. It is Jammu and Ladakh that contribute over 90 per cent to the state exchequer, but a major part of this money is spent not in the extremely backward and underdeveloped Jammu and Ladakh but in the highly prosperous and developed Kashmir Valley.
As a result of the above, professor Hari Om says, "It is Kashmiris and Kashmiris everywhere and all others in the state exist nowhere."
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--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' /><!--endemo--> Didn't see that one Bodhji.