Opinion Dreading the third partition
At a time when Kashmir is going through relative calm and the headlines have shifted to the mayhem in Pakistan and red threat in the mainland...
At a time when Kashmir is going through relative calm and the headlines have shifted to the mayhem in Pakistan and red threat in the mainland,there is nevertheless a worrying trend taking shape,one bound to lead to division of the state as an administrative unit along communal lines. And,again the reason is not separatist politics but the actions of a vote-obsessed mainstream especially the government.
The decision by the Centre to allot two central universities one each for Jammu and Kashmir is in fact the latest in a series of faulty policy decisions that provide a temporary solution to the problem of growing polarisation. Instead of standing up to a bizarre competition and choosing a place based on suitability,the government played a balancing act. And a central university that could have provided a rare opportunity for students from across the state to study together is now strengthening the process of polarisation. Already,in the two state universities Kashmir University and Jammu University the student community and faculty come largely from the Valley and Jammu respectively; their politics and academic orientation are poles part.
The government is giving in to the demands of communal forces masquerading as regional politics,only to temporarily avoid another Amarnath land row-type flash point. But in the attempt to prevent a crisis,governments actions are sowing the seeds of a larger disunity,and an eventual violent break up of J&K.
This dangerous trend began decades ago but remained at the fringe of the discourse. The shift,however,began to turn into an accepted political norm during the previous Congress-PDP coalition government. When then-Governor S.K. Sinha planned to extend the Amarnath yatra and set up an Amarnath development authority under the Raj Bhavan and then-CM Mufti Sayeed turned down his plan,four Jammu-based ministers from Congress resigned in protest but their colleagues from Muslim-majority districts silently supported Mufti.
The reason for this confrontation,however,lay in the governments dangerous policy of bringing major religious bodies within state control,turning them into extra-constitutional entities with no legislative oversight,and blurring the lines dividing religion and state. According to the law,the governor,if Hindu,will be the chairman of Hindu shrine boards while Waqf Board will be led by the chief minister,if Muslim. The consequent Amarnath land row last year sharpened a communal divide to such extent that the valley witnessed its first ever economic blockade from Jammu; public outrage in Kashmir soon turned into a separatist uprising. The government has learnt no lessons.
Look also at how it has been treating the official language of the State. Urdu also the language of revenue records and court was a binding force between different religious and ethnic populations; but instead of strengthening it,there is a consistent effort to diminish its use. In fact,J&Ks official language is rarely used in the winter capital,Jammu. The recent implementation of the government decision to remove Urdu as a compulsory subject for aspiring revenue officers has begun having a dangerous political fallout.
The government has already divided the state into four administrative units Jammu,Valley,Leh,and Kargil Hill Development Council. The process of division has,in fact,been sped up recently with setting up of separate directorates for almost every government department. Higher education decisions,however,have been exceptionally short-sighted. While there is a steady progress to set up S.K. Sinhas vision of a Hindu University with 40 percent reservation for Kashmiri Pandit students,the government is simultaneously supporting an Islamic university being set up by Jamiat-Ahle Hadees. (There are already three universities established by shrine boards,two in Jammu and one in Kashmir.)
Now the two new central universities are most likely coming up in Sambha district of Jammu and Ganderbal district in the valley. The additional central university has come at the cost of an IIM. If the government wakes up and resists communal forces and decides on a university and an IIM,there is a way. Doda district of Jammu,located at the bottom of the human development index in the state,wants the campus; if government agrees,the communal propagators of the two-university model would be silenced. Doda connects the Valley and Jammu,and is thus a link between the two communities as well. Similarly,the government must make a team of experts to study the most suitable location for an IIM so that the student community of the entire state is benefited.
But if,instead,the government is silently working on the re-organisation of J&K as an administrative unit,it must then aspire to allow that to happen in a peaceful manner. Myopic vote-buying and temporary crisis-averting solutions will only polarise the state to a point of no return,and lead to a catastrophic partition.
muzamil.jaleel@expressindia.com
Share
