Why the chatter about a separate Jammu state is back in J&K politics

Earlier this month, a senior leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party, Sham Lal Sharma, called for a separate state of Jammu to be carved out of the union territory of Jammu and Kashmir.

The BJP was quick to distance itself from Sharma's statement, describing it as his individual opinion.

But the comment appears to have touched a nerve in the Valley.

Chief Minister Omar Abdullah was one of the first to respond. “They separated Ladakh and ruined it completely,” Abdullah told reporters. “Now, if they want to separate Jammu and ruin it as well, let them do it.”

Six years ago, the Narendra Modi government had cancelled Jammu and Kashmir's special status and unilaterally downgraded the erstwhile state into two union territories of Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh. Abdullah was referring to the growing discontent in Ladakh after being turned into a union territory without legislature in 2019.

However, Sajad Lone, the president of Peoples Conference, went ahead and backed the demand for separate administrations for Jammu and Kashmir, the first political leader from the Valley to call for such a split.

“Maybe the time has come for an amicable divorce,” he said in a statement. “It is not only about developmental matters. Jammu has become the proverbial stick to beat the Kashmiri with. I think the people of Kashmir too can't take it anymore… I am sure the desire for divorce is much, much higher in Kashmir than it ever was.”

Lone was referring to the divisive and communal debate around two educational institutes in Jammu and Kashmir, driven by groups allied to the Sangh Parivar.

First, there were sustained protests by 60 groups allied to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh against the admission of Muslim students to a new medical college in Katra. The students had qualified through the national-level National Eligibility Entrance Test.

The controversy ended with the National Medical Commission abruptly withdrawing permission to the college to run an undergraduate medical course, a move widely seen as buckling to the pressure of the RSS-backed groups.

Apparently buoyed by the success of the movement, the BJP in Jammu has now trained its sights on a proposed National Law University in Kashmir Valley, demanding that it be set up in Jammu instead.

“I hope Jammu prospers. But this obsession of [demanding] everything and anything that Kashmir wants is more of an issue of lunacy,” Lone said in his statement. “They have an IIM [Indian Institute of Management]. What is wrong if a law university comes to Kashmir?”

Chief Minister Abdullah, too, criticised the BJP's allegation that Jammu was being discriminated against. “Jammu got both an IIT [Indian Institute of Technology] and an IIM [Indian Institute of Management], where was the talk of equality then?” he asked. “There was no demand for regional balance at that time.”

Over the last few months, the polarising discourse of “Jammu versus Kashmir” has got a fresh lease of life. Even local sports teams have not been spared, with Hindutva groups protesting the higher representation of Kashmiri Muslims in them.

But political observers pointed out that the BJP has refused to endorse the demand for a separate Jammu state in the past – and is unlikely to change its stand.

Over the past month or so, Hindutva groups and the BJP have repeatedly raised questions over what they call “regional bias” against Jammu.

For instance, BJP and Congress workers objected to the fact that Jammu and Kashmir's football team for the Santosh Trophy had only one player from Jammu in the 20-member squad. This, they said, was proof of discrimination against footballers from the Jammu region.

The protests forced the government to order an inquiry into the selection process.

While Jammu and Kashmir Sports Council, the government's sports advisory body, denied the allegations of bias, the controversy died down only after an inquiry was ordered in the matter. There is no word from the government if the inquiry has been completed or not.

Weeks later, similar objections were raised against the composition of the under-14 boys' cricket team that will represent Jammu and Kashmir at the 69th National School Games. The 16-player-team had three players from the Jammu region. Again, in order to put the controversy to rest, the government constituted a five-member committee to scrutinize the score sheets of young cricketers at inter-district level on the basis of which the final team was selected.

This was followed by the agitation over barring Kashmiri Muslim students from the Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Institute of Excellence Medical College in Katra.

The newest flashpoint was the proposed law university.

In his first budget speech in March last year, chief minister Omar Abdullah had committed to the establishment of a National Law University in Jammu and Kashmir to “drive legal education reforms and research”. At that time, the promise had not stirred any controversy.

In the run-up to the Budgam by-poll in October, Abdullah, while speaking in the Assembly, had said that a temporary campus could be opened in Budgam and that its first academic session could start from April this year.

His remarks triggered a sharp response from the Bharatiya Janata Party. The party knocked on the doors of the Election Commission of India, with a complaint against Abdullah, accusing him of violating the model code of conduct in view of the upcoming by-polls.

The BJP argued that it is appropriate to construct the law university in Jammu owing to its connectivity with the rest of the country. “This is a national institution. It should be set up at a place where students from across the country can reach comfortably and benefit fully,” R S Pathania, a BJP lawmaker from Jammu said. “Budgam's accessibility challenges would hinder the smooth functioning of the university.”

Pathania has also threatened to launch an agitation over the demand. “The CM's announcement will remain only an announcement. We will ensure that this institution opens in Jammu,” he said. “We will agitate for it”.

Pathania's demand has already found favour with the Jammu's legal community. The Jammu and Kashmir High Court Bar Association at Jammu has submitted a representation to the chief minister Omar Abdullah arguing that the establishment of the law university “could aggravate existing regional disparities.”

The debate pitting Jammu interests against the Valley's has segued into the demand for separate administrations for Jammu and Kashmir.

That demand has surfaced before.

In 2010, when Sham Lal Sharma was in the Congress and a cabinet minister in the National Conference-Congress coalition government, he had advocated for the trifurcation of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir.

Another Jammu leader who has supported the idea of separating Jammu is Chaudhary Lal Singh, a Congress leader. Like BJP, the Congress too has called Singh's support of a separate Jammu state as his “personal view”.

According to a political observer in Jammu, the rhetoric around statehood for Jammu stirred up by these two leaders has to be seen in the context of their individual aspirations of creating “local relevance”.

“The BJP has never conceived a proposal of creating a separate state of Jammu because that runs contrary to the strategic interests of the Indian government vis-à-vis Kashmir,” the political commentator, who did not want to be named, explained.

Even though there is a strong feeling in Jammu that it has been discriminated against by governments dominated by Kashmiris, the BJP will not cross New Delhi's red line on the issue, he added.

“Jammu's political space is conditioned in a way where the national interest is considered to be supreme and the regional identity has to be subservient to that,” he said. “The national interest is decided by New Delhi. Therefore, the Jammu's BJP leadership has to make its regional sentiments subservient to the national interest. They have to work under that umbrella.”

In 2002, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh had passed a resolution seeking trifurcation of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir. The resolution had rejected the autonomous status of the state and demanded separation of Jammu as a state and conversion of Ladakh region into a union territory.

However, the resolution had not gone down well with the then BJP-led Atal Bihari Vajpayee government. At that time, then deputy prime minister Lal Krishna Advani had rejected the Sangh's resolution, stating that any such move would “weaken India's case on Kashmir issue”.

In 2002, an RSS-backed group, Jammu State Morcha, contested elections on the plank of creation of a separate Jammu state in an alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party. They managed to win only one seat.

The rhetoric over discrimination has led to strong responses from the Kashmiri leadership and political parties, which targeted the BJP over it.

Javed Rana, a cabinet minister in Abdullah's cabinet and a legislator from Jammu's Pir Panjal region, argued that the demand for a separate state was not backed by the entire region, especially its Muslim-majority regions of Jammu division.

“There has been no demand for a from the Pir Panjal Valley and the Chenab Valley,” he said. “The people in these valleys continue to stand with the idea of a unified Jammu and Kashmir.”

Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Mehbooba Mufti said making Jammu a separate state would negate the idea of Jammu and Kashmir's accession with India. “If Jammu and Kashmir continues to be divided on the basis of religion and Jammu is given separate statehood, it will prove that Jinnah was right,” Mufti said.

Kashmir's seniormost political figure Farooq Abdullah called those advocating separation of Jammu and Kashmir as “enemies”.

“Jammu is the head and Kashmir is the body,” the National Conference President said. “They cannot be separated from each other. Those making statements suggesting otherwise are enemies of both regions.”

Source: Scroll
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