Devolution not division

For some months now a disturbing proposal which contravenes everything that this country stands for has been doing the rounds: The carving up of Jamp;K into three distinct entities comprising the Valley, Jammu and Ladakh. The demand was perceived by most observers as being a communally motivated one, and the fact that the RSS had been one of its prime promoters has only added to the general impression. Union Home Minister L.K. Advani is therefore to be commended for having rejected the proposal outright. In the process, it is to be hoped, he has also nipped in the bud potentially inflammatory campaigns along these lines.

The rationale for the trifurcation of the state is simple. Indeed, it borders on a dangerous oversimplification. Jammu amp; Kashmir, it is argued, has always lacked organic unity, since the Valley happens to be Muslim dominated; Jammu, Hindu dominated; and Ladakh, Buddhist dominated. What8217;s more, it is the leaders from the Valley who dominate the 87-member Assembly, leaving the political aspirations of the people of Jammu and Ladakh unaddressed. While there may be some validity in these complaints, the answer does not, cannot, lie in slicing up the state like a pie. Earlier this year, politicians from both Jammu and Ladakh had objected stoutly to the Regional Autonomy Commission Report, mooted by the Farooq Abdullah government, on the grounds that it seeks to separate Muslim Kargil from Buddhist Leh and the Hindu-dominated districts of Jammu from the Muslim-dominated ones. Yet, the logic of trifurcation is a similar one. Once religious identity becomes a basis for creating states and sub-states, the whole fabricof a society, already under severe stress, can get torn asunder. As has been argued, time and again, once Jammu comes into being, what is to prevent leaders in Doda, Baderwah, Poonch and Rajouri from demanding their own fiefdoms. Many of them harbour deep grouses, not just against the indifference of Farooq Abdullah and company, but that of Jammu8217;s political big guns as well. In Ladakh, too, the consequences will be similar.

The answer to the state8217;s existential conundrum then lies in encouraging the process of devolution of power within the state 8212; something that the home minister himself had emphasised when he revealed that the Centre had plans to enter into a dialogue on the autonomy issue with the Jamp;K government. Certainly, the Abdullah government8217;s move to hold panchayat elections is a step in the right direction and will help the process of regional devolution considerably. In a state where, as Rajiv Gandhi had once pointed out, only about 15 paise of the development rupee reaches the people it is meant for, the involvement of local communities in the developmental and political activities of the state cannot be emphasised enough. Meanwhile, politicians who have made a fine art of hate politics, whichever community they emanate from, must be firmly kept at bay. The two-nation theory has perpetrated enough damaged in the sub-continent. It must not be given another lease of life.