Sunday, March 26, 2000		Lead Article

J&K: Yet another Pandora’s box

The recommendations of the Regional Autonomy Committee (RAC), dividing Jammu and Kashmir into eight regions, have evoked varied reactions, says M.L. Kak

THE recommendations of the Regional Autonomy Committee (RAC), dividing Jammu and Kashmir into eight regions or provinces, are being sceptically viewed by a majority of Jammu residents who have been demanding internal autonomy for the last five decades. They had raised the demand for regional autonomy on the basis of their claim that the Jammu province had been given a raw deal by the Kashmiri-dominated political set-up.

The furore over the RAC report has had intellectuals of the calibre of Dr Hari Om, Head of the Department of History, Jammu University, favouring trifurcation of the state. He says, "Nothing would be more positive than withdrawing the RAC report and recommending trifuraction of the state."

To him carving out the three full-fledged states of Jammu, Ladakh and Kashmir was the only solution to "end the domination of the Jammu and Ladakh regions by the valley."

Dividing the state into several regions or provinces is nothing new. Akbar had divided Kashmir into four regions namely (eastern Kashmir Maraz), (western Kashmir Kamraj), central Kashmir and external Kashmir. The external Kashmir comprised outer mountain regions, including Banihal, Kishtwar, Rajouri and Poonch. This region also included Gilgit, Askardo and Ladakh. The Dogra rulers had initially divided the state into six and later into four regions called . wazarats. These divisions were meant for purely administrative purposes.

Gul explains that the RAC recommendations will enable different ethnic groups and those belonging to remote and backward areas to have a say in policy-making decisions. The proposed set-up is expected to decentralise power from the two capitals to the bloc level.

However, a prominent columnist and working Chairman of the RAC, Balraj Puri, who was removed from the committee for reasons known to the Chief Minister only, says the report does not indicate what political powers are to be delegated to the reorganised regions. He has questioned the RAC exercise in dividing the state into eight regions on the plea that there was no such terms of reference before the committee.

Puri has filed a writ in the high court, seeking legal intervention for forcing the government to release the original report. According to him, there were six members in the RAC and when the report was submitted to the government, it had been signed only by three members.

It was in November, 1996, that a six-member Regional Autonomy Committee was constituted to examine the possibilities of promoting better involvement and participation of people in different regions for balanced political, social and cultural development and evolving of instrumentalities, like local organs of power, at all levels. The committee had been assigned the task of examining the powers that such organs needed to be vested with for achieving the objectives and finding whether any change in the state constitution was required.

The RAC finally recommended two models. Under the first model, the RAC has recommended the establishment of regional or provincial councils in the state to meet the requirement of devolution of power to different regions in the state. The second model envisages setting up of district councils. It has recommended that members of the regional or the district councils be elected in the same manner as the state Assembly is constituted. Both these models provide councils with the executive and taxation powers which were to be limited to the subjects allotted to the councils. In both the models provision has been made to keep 25 per cent of the seats reserved for women.

What actually seems to have caused misgivings among a section of people belonging to the Jammu and Ladakh regions is the recommendation of the RAC to divide the state into eight regions: Kamaraz, comprising Baramulla and Kupwara districts of Kashmir, Nundabad, with Srinagar and Budgam districts; Maraz, Anantnag and Pulwama districts; Chenab valley constituting Doda district, and Mahore tehsil of Udhampur; Jammu region with the districts of Udhampur (excluding Mahore, Kathua and Jammu); Pir Panchal comprising Poonch and Rajouri districts; Ladakh with Leh district, and Kargil district as the eighth region.

M.M. Khajooria, a former Director General of Police, says the RAC recommendation for carving out the Pir Panchal and Chenab valley regions has expectedly raised a storm. He fears that the report if implemented may divide the Jammu region into communal lines under the "garb of concern" about ethnicity and underdeveloped areas. In support o0f his contention, he says there was no rationale behind linking the Muslim-dominated Mahore tehsil of Udhampur with Doda district in the Chenab valley region.

To him the proposed two new regions, Chenab valley and Pir Panchal, are terrorist-infested and the communal balance is already under "strain" there.

Mubarak Gul, MLA, and B.A. Kichloo, Minister for Social Welfare, seem to be upset over the campaign launched against the National Conference over the RAC report. They are of the view that the proposed reorganisation of the regions has been done purely to safeguard the interests of the people belonging to hilly and backward areas.

Kichloo says "The RAC proposal suits us. At least for the first time, people in far-flung areas of Doda, Poonch and Rajouri districts will have a say in framing policies for their future."

Haji Buland Khan, MLC and a prominent Gujjar leader, does not find any lacuna in the RAC report. "It will not divide Jammu on communal lines. Mahore being close to Doda deserved a better treatment which it can get if it is included in the Chenab valley region, "he says. He fully agrees with Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah’s assertion that the state not only comprises Jammu, Srinagar, Anantnag, Udhampur but it also includes vast stretches of backward and hilly belts where people belonging to different ethnic groups live.

The Chairman (Political Affairs) of Panun Kashmir, Dr Ajay Chrungoo, finds the RAC report a part of the plan of the National Conference to redefine the present regions on a communal basis, thereby recasting the boundaries of secular entities of the Ladakh and Jammu regions.

Dr Chrungoo has accused the National Conference of pursuing "subtle communal politics" by allowing Kashmiri Sunni elite to monoplise the political power during the last five decades.

CPM leader and MLA M.Y. Tarigami is of the opinion that regional autonomy should be linked with the demand for greater autonomy. He says once greater autonomy is given to the state and aspirations of all ethnic groups in the state are safeguarded under regional autonomy, the state-centre relations would improve, and the ongoing turmoil would be resolved. At the same time, he says, he would prefer to have three regional councils with safeguards for people belonging to the backward and hilly areas. Three regional councils for Ladakh, Jammu and Kashmir with the amended Panchayat Act could ensure participation of the people belonging to different ethnic groups in policy-making.

Chering Dorjay, MLA and a prominent Buddhist leader, has opposed the RAC report on the ground that it would divide the Ladakh and Jammu regions on communal lines. He too favours establishment of only three regional councils and he feels that in case district councils have to be set up there should be some advisory body in each region to supervise the working of the councils. Referring to the Leh Hill Development Council, Dorjay expresses anger over the way the council’s powers have been curtailed. "When employees are not under the council how can you expect the smooth functioning of the administration and discipline," he asks.

M.M. Khajooria does not favour even the second model — establishment of autonomous district councils — on the plea that it would "obliterate the very identity of regions." He says the only solution lies in "democratic decentralisation," involving devolution of powers from the state to the panchayats and blocks via districts and regions.

Dr Hari Om explains that political empowerment and economic regeneration have all long been the two fundamental watchwords of the people of the Jammu and Ladakh regions. They have, according to him, stood for the reorganisation of the state’s polity on a regional basis and a radical change in the state’s existing unitary constitutional set-up on the plea that such a step alone could redress their grievances and compensate for the political and economic losses they have suffered so far at the hands of the leadership.

The RAC report, he says, cannot meet their legitimate needs, aspirations and demands. He describes the report as "most retrograde, reactionary and one that is fatal to the interests of Jammu and Ladakh."

The plan to divide Jammu into three regions on communal lines, he says, is unjust and dangerous. He feels it is humiliating to find how the RAC has classified the Muslim dominated Mahore tehsil in Hindu-dominated Udhampur district and Hindu dominated Sunderbani, Kalakote and Nowshera tehsils in Muslim dominated Rajouri district.

The report with a rider that grant of regional autonomy to Jammu and Ladakh shall, in no way, affect the institutions of the state like office of Governor, Chief Minister, and working of the Cabinet, Legislative Assembly, judiciary and state services may ultimately turn the exercise meaningless.

Dr Hari Om is of the opinion that RACs outright refusal to grant the people of Jammu and Ladakh the power to legislate and the right to shape and control their political and economic future will render the proposed district councils ineffective.

A senior bureaucrat, who wished to remain unidentified, has accused the Centre of opening Pandora’s box by agreeing to have the Hill Development Council in the Buddhist - dominated Leh district. He says if Buddhists can get a separate Hill Council then why should not the Muslim-dominated districts of Doda, Poonch and Rajouri get a similar status?

Mubarak Gul refers to the statement of Shyama Prasad Mukherjee , president the Jan Sangh in 1953, in which he had announced the decision to withdraw Praja Parshad agitation in Jammu if the principle of autonomy was applied to the province of Jammu, Ladakh and the Kashmir valley. However several BJP leaders are of the opinion that Mukherjee had favoured internal autonomy for the three regions that existed then and today and he had never envisaged reorganisation of the Jammu and Ladakh regions on communal lines.

Whatever may be arguments in favour and against the RAC report, one thing is clear that a major section of the people in the Jammu and Ladakh regions are unhappy over the recommendations. At the same time two Cabinet Ministers, one belonging to the Jammu region, are of the opinion that the uproar against the RAC report is a "calculated move on the part of Hindus of Jammu district to retain their hegemony over the entire region".

Though Dr Farooq Abdullah had announced on the Floor of the Assembly that his government would adopt the RAC report, he has , at the same time, explained to the political leaders that the report should not be treated as final. He has asked political leaders and other prominent citizens to make suggestions so that the RAC report may be amended before it is adopted by the Assembly.

— Dr Hari Om

"Instead of dealing with the problem of political and economic autonomy to the regions as was required, the RAC recommends re-organisation of the regions so that the Hindu-dominated districts of Jammu, Udhampur and Kathua would become a separate region while Muslim dominated districts of Rajouri, Poonch and Doda would constitute separate regions."

— Balraj Puri

Haji Buland Khan, MLC and a prominent Gujjar leader, does not find any lacuna in the RAC report. "It will not divide Jammu on communal lines. Mahore being close to Doda deserved a better treatment which it can get if it is included in the Chenab valley region," he says.

— Haji Buland Khan

"The RAC is aiming at dividing the Jammu region on a communal basis under the garb of fake concern for ethnicity and underdeveloped areas. If Mahore is to be part of the Chenab valley, why should not the stretch between Kali Dhar and Rajouri town, contiguous to Jammu, and areas of Doda lying to the south of the Chenab river touching Udhampur district be included in the proposed Jammu region?"

— M.M. Khajooria

CPM leader and MLA M.Y. Tarigami is of the opinion that regional autonomy should be linked with the demand for greater autonomy. He says once greater autonomy is given to the state and aspirations of all ethnic groups in the state are safeguarded under regional autonomy, the state-centre relations would improve, and the ongoing turmoil would be resolved. At the same time, he says, he would prefer to have three regional councils with safeguards for people belonging to the backward and hilly areas. Three regional councils for Ladakh, Jammu and Kashmir with the amended Panchayat Act could ensure participation of the people belonging to different ethnic groups in policy-making.

— M.Y. Tarigami

“In the context of the ongoing proxy war both the greater autonomy report which seeks dilutions of Indian sovereignty over Jammu and Kashmir and the RAC recommendations which are in tune with Dixonian proposals have serious security implications for the country. The two reports are complementary to each other and will undermine the integrity of the state.”

— Dr Ajay Chrungoo