Jammu, August 03: Jammu bandh call has entered into 4th day and there seems no end to the logjam in near future as the fight for its rights has become a norm for Jammuites to get what normally should have been offered on a platter.
How long will Jammu continue to fight for its rights? This question has been going on in the minds of many thinkers and common man on street who is perplexed by the thought that every time anything big is offered to J&K a fight for wresting it to a particular region begins between Jammu and Kashmir while so far docile Ladakhis have kept themselves out of this political quagmire.
The fight has its roots in the partition of India itself and the anti-Dogra movement in early thirties which sowed the seeds of hatred, enmity and doubts between the two regions with Kashmiris blaming everything wrong on Jammu Dogras and Jammuites blaming Kashmiri political domination for what it calls discrimination with Jammu.
J&K has seen many fights on these issues right from the day Maharaja Hari Singh left the state and political scene was dominated by Kashmiris. Be it Praja Parishad movement, Darbar move agitation, Amarnath land row, Central University, B.Ed course duration or more recently AIIMS issue the two regions have fought it out every time one region felt losing to the other.
However it was the success of Central University agitation that Jammuites got more teeth in its fight against what they call discrimination by Kashmiris after forcing the central government to allot two central universities to J&K to satisfy the aspirations of both the regions.
The fight has now been converted into AIIMS agitation and even if two AIIMS are granted to J&K as is being told by BJP the fight is not going to end here as there are many more things on way to J&K which would require bifurcation or face agitation.
The status of IIT, IIM, Law University and focus on tourism are some other areas that might ignite many more agitations either in Jammu or in Kashmir as nobody is going to take things lying down now.
The central government also seems to be in big confusion about the state and has not learnt its lesson from Central University agitation as otherwise it would have either announced two AIIMS for J&K in advance or completely ignored the AIIMS and announced up-gradation of GMC Jammu and SKIMS Soura to AIIMS level so that people get better health care and political interference is avoided.
But then political people in this part of the world hardly learn from their mistakes and go on making new ones only to pay the price later.
Since Modi government is willing to take the state to the path of higher development it would be in the fitness of things if the central government takes these kinds of agitations and loud cries of discrimination into consideration well in advance and instead of creating another controversy think some out of the box solutions beforehand.
Many observers also feel that this agitation will now lead to the revival of Jammu statehood demand and now it would get more support from Congress which is trying hard to regain its lost power with its former minister Sham Lal Sharma having already gained some ground among right wing Jammuites by his remarks of separate Jammu and Hindu chief minister before elections.
The complex situation forces one to wonder that how long will this logjam continue and who will provide the succor to the people of both the regions as well as Ladakhis who have been ignored completely till now in all this political chaos.
The leadership in J&K and the centre must sit together and find some lasting solutions to this problem so that the state reaps the benefits of Modi’s governance rather than wasting its energy, money and economy on such agitations every time something new is announced for the state.