Better to separate Jammu than punish it for our ‘crimes,’ say Kashmiris

A year after Jammu and Kashmir lost its statehood and regional autonomy, senior politicians and former cabinet ministers are seeking a separation between Jammu and Kashmir.

After the reading down of Article 370 and 35A from the constitution on August 5, 2019, the Ladakh region was separated from the (then) state of Jammu and Kashmir and both were declared separate Union territories.

The strongest proponents of the idea for the further division of Jammu and Kashmir are the state’s former finance minister Haseeb A Drabu and former education minister Naeem Akhtar. Both hail from the Kashmir Valley.

The two say that the premise of bifurcating Jammu and Kashmir was fundamentally an assault on the region’s diversity. And one of the latest anxieties is caused due to apprehensions that the Centre, as part of its bigger plan, could engineer a demographic change in the Muslim-majority region through delimitation of Assembly constituencies.

Akhtar, the former chief spokesperson of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP)-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) coalition government in J&K, argues that when about 2 lakh Buddhists of Ladakh cannot coexist with the 80 lakh Muslims of the Kashmir Valley, why this façade of unity between the plains of Jammu and the valleys of Kashmir now?

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“After separating Ladakh from J&K, the logical corollary is to have a division between the plains of Jammu and the valleys of Kashmir,” he told The Federal.

Why cosmetic unity?

According to Akhtar, historically Ladakh has had richer cultural and trade ties with the valleys of Kashmir than the plains of Jammu ever had. “Why continue with this theatre and façade unless your intentions are to control the Muslim-majority Kashmir through demographic engineering in Jammu,” he added.

He said that the cosmetic unity would be unfair to the people of Jammu if the BJP’s ultimate aim was to punish the Muslims of Kashmir, adding that the saffron party’s actions have lent “credence to Muhammad Ali Jinnah’s Two-Nation theory.”

In a recent interview with a Srinagar-based Weekly Kashmir Life, Akhtar had argued that “we are all victims of history”. “The political divide will continue to go the other way in Kashmir. However, Jammu and Kashmir will always continue to feel differently so far as politics is concerned, especially in view of the sharpening of the Hindutva ideology. In that, it is unfair to keep the two tied together. Unless it is to help hold Kashmir through the Jammu bureaucracy, why should they punish Jammu for Kashmir?”

Similarly, Haseeb Drabu in one of his recent opinion pieces published in The Indian Express argued that it was about time to “recognise that apart from an acrimonious history that the plains of Jammu and the valleys of Kashmir share, the two are chalk and cheese — ethnically, culturally, geographically, linguistically, politically, and in terms of religion.”

Drabu asserted, “Today, there is no ‘alternative view’ on Kashmir. The view that was the dominant one till not so long ago has dissipated overnight.” Favouring separation, he further argued that, “Rather than resort to gerrymandering through delimitation, demographic change through domicile relaxation, and social engineering to convert a demographic majority into a political minority, it will be cleaner and less contentious to separate Jammu and Kashmir.”

In Drabu’s view “seeking the restoration of statehood, as has been hinted at or demanded, is a part of the BJP’s August 5 plan. It cannot be the revival plan. It is past tense in the new grammar of politics written nationally by the BJP for Kashmir.”

Like many in Kashmir, the two former ministers Drabu and Akhtar too believe that the valleys of Chenab and Pir Panchal are a part and parcel of the valleys of Kashmir in terms of politics, culture, ethnicity, geography, and linguistics.

Waheed Parra, president of PDP’s Youth Wing, argued that if the BJP has problems with the people of Kashmir because of religious identity, why it was punishing the people of Jammu for no reason. “Let the people in the plains of Jammu have their much needed freedom from Kashmir and enjoy their life, liberty, free speech, high-speed internet and everything.”

“We in Kashmir have suffered and continue to suffer on multiple fronts. We don’t want people in other regions to suffer like us or because of us. It is a feeling we all in the mainstream camp have not articulated politically until now, but it is time for separation of the plains of Jammu from the valleys of Kashmir,” Parra told The Federal.

Similar sentiments were echoed by a senior leader of the Jammu and Kashmir National Conference (JKNC) and three-time legislator Agha Ruhullah Mehdi. Speaking to The Federal, Mehdi demanded restoration of Jammu and Kashmir’s original constitutional position.

“Honour, dignity and constitutional position of Jammu and Kashmir should be restored and then it should be left for the people to decide and manage their domestic affairs,” he said, adding, “Today, our geographical and political landscape stands divided against our will. We have been humiliated. We don’t want other regions of the state to suffer like us.

Regional and religious divide?

After the 2014 Legislative Assembly elections, the regional and religious divide between the plains of Jammu and the valleys of Kashmir have sharpened. The Jammu City and adjoining districts like Udhampur, Kathua, Samba and Reasi are considered Hindu-dominated areas. However, the areas including Doda, Kishtwar, Rajouri and Poonch are part of the valleys of Chenab and Pir Panchal range and have a markedly different cultural and linguistic setting and distinctive political landscape. People there identify more with the dominant political sentiment of the Kashmir Valley.

Dixon plan

The idea of Jammu and Kashmir’s trifurcation is not a new one, though.

It was Sir Owen Dixon, the Australian jurist chosen by the United Nations to mediate between India and Pakistan on the Kashmir issue soon after the Partition in 1947, who conceived the original idea in his detailed report. Dixon’s report is also referred to as the “Dixon Plan” of September 1950. Jammu and Kashmir’s former Sadr-e-Riyasat (President) in 1966 had also seen some merit in the division of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir.

Besides this, and interestingly, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) has also been in favour of trifurcation of Jammu and Kashmir. And, at one point in time, BR Ambedkar too had found the idea favourable and workable.

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On Kashmir’s turf, Drabu is considered the architect of the “Agenda for Alliance,” a document of governance that was agreed upon between BJP and PDP in early 2015. Importantly, the BJP had agreed in the Alliance Document (Agenda for Alliance) to maintain the constitutional position of Jammu and Kashmir within the Union of India.

Soon after the 2014 Legislative Assembly Elections in Jammu and Kashmir, the two ideologically antithetical parties had described their coalition partnership as “Governance Alliance”. In early 2015, the PDP had first perceived its grouping with the BJP as a “paradigm shift,” but within less than three years says that it actually was a “partnership in crime”.

In 2014 elections, the PDP had emerged as the single largest political party winning 28 assembly segments, mostly from the Kashmir Valley, while the BJP had won all the 25 seats from the Jammu province and drawn blank both in Ladakh and in Kashmir.

Some analysts had then defended the PDP-BJP alliance, arguing that it was a result of an “electoral arithmetic”. But key Kashmir watchers had warned that the ideologically adversative PDP-BJP partnership was an “unholy alliance” which would eventually prove a “political suicide” for the PDP. It was an ‘I told you so’ moment for the observers as PDP fell apart post-2018.

Meanwhile, in ‘Agenda for Alliance’ the BJP-PDP combine had outlined the purpose of the alliance and agreed to take forward the following initiatives:

“The Union government has recently initiated several steps to normalise the relationship with Pakistan. The coalition government will seek to support and strengthen the approach and initiatives taken by the government to create a reconciliatory environment and build stakes for all in the peace and development within the sub-continent. The same will be pursued by taking confidence building measures such as, enhancing people to people contact on both sides of the LoC, encouraging civil society exchanges, taking travel, commerce, trade and business across the LoC (Line of Control) to the next level and opening new routes across all three regions to enhancing connectivity.”

Earlier the NDA government led by Atal Bihari Vajpayee had initiated a dialogue process with all political groups, including the Hurriyat Conference, in the spirit of ‘Insaaniyat, Kashmiriyat aur Jamhooriyat’ (‘Humanism, Kashmir-ism and Democracy’).

“Following the same principles, the coalition government will facilitate and help initiate a sustained and meaningful dialogue with all internal stakeholders, which will include all political groups irrespective of their ideological views and predilections. This dialogue will seek to build a broad based consensus on resolution of all outstanding issues of J&K,” it was decided.

But, after breaking its ties with the PDP in a dramatic fashion in June 2018, the BJP revoked Jammu and Kashmir’s autonomy.