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Journalism of Courage
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.
