M.L. Kak
Tribune News ServiceJammu, July 20
While the BJP is divided over the demand for the grant of statehood to the Jammu region, the National Conference, the PDP, the Congress and the BSP continue to oppose the trifurcation of the state.
With tacit support from a section of the Sangh Parivar, especially from the RSS, the All-Parties Jammu Statehood Movement (APJSM), espousing statehood for the Jammu region, has started establishing its foothold by roping in several political, religious and social organisations for its cause. The APJSM is also supporting the demand for a union territory status for Ladakh.
Though outwardly the BJP unit in Jammu has been opposing the statehood demand most of its prominent leaders, including Mr Shiv Charan Gupta, MLA, and the leader of the BJP legislature party, has been supporting the demand.
The state unit of the BJP had to maintain silence over it after the high command opposed the trifurcation demand. A section of Kashmiri pandits, who are now migrants, has also come out in the open for not only the trifurcation of state but for a separate homeland for the Kashmiri Hindus within the valley. But this demand has been opposed by the Union Minister for Home, Mr L.K. Advani.
Despite opposition from major mainstream political parties and the separatists, including militant outfits, the demand for statehood for Jammu seems to be gaining ground. The coordinator of the APJSM, Mr Yash Bhasin, has claimed that trifurcation would not only end regional disparities but also resolve the Kashmir issue.
Mr Bhasin is of the view that whenever Pakistan or Delhi or any other country talk of involvement of peoples’ representatives in the talks for the settlement of the Kashmir issue they only refer to the Kashmiris and not those living in Jammu and Ladakh regions. This, he argued, clearly revealed that the future of the people in the Kashmir valley had to be taken into consideration and not from those inhabiting Jammu and Ladakh.
The APJSM has decided to prepare a blueprint for the proposed Jammu state and elicit support from the people of the region. In fact a section of leaders belonging to the Congress in Jammu, too, have been lending indirect support for the movement for the trifurcation of the state. Since the Congress has a base in the Kashmir valley its top leaders do not want to weaken that base further by associating openly with the APJSM.
Indications are that in the next Assembly poll the demand for the trifurcation of the state would be one of the major issue in the Jammu and Ladakh regions. Inside reports said majority of people belonging to Kargil and Doda districts do not support the demand. They would like to be part of the valley in case Jammu was given a statehood status and Ladakh that of a union territory.
What has helped the APJSM in gaining ground is its success in involving several Muslim leaders in the movement, especially those
belonging to the Gujjar and Bakerwal ethnic groups.
Mr Yash Bhasin argues that once the state was trifurcated it would spare Jammu and Ladakh regions of the pain of militancy-related violence. He said it would also help the government in removing peoples’ alienation from the national mainstream.
But those opposed to the trifurcation demand are of the opinion that it would generate communal polarisation and result in total “Islamisation” of the Kashmir valley. But the protagonists of the demand do not agree with this contention and say that since people in the Kashmir valley do not want to share the fiscal burden with Jammu they would be happy if they were given the statehood status which could be lesser evil than the demand for azadi or greater autonomy.
The next poll will determine the extent of support or the trifurcation demand.
