Is caste-ism being patronized by government in J&K?
Jammu, October 25: While India is fighting the menace of caste-ism through various means and efforts are made to abolish obsolete laws preventing development and creating wedges between various communities, Jammu and Kashmir is far behind and instead patronizes the casteism though in discreet manner taking refuge under legal framework.
The laws that prevent a section of citizens from venturing in agriculture business due to their caste is violative of fundamental rights as well as laws banning caste based discrimination, but then in J&K anything is possible as long as we harp on Article 370, PRC and so called Agrarian reforms.
This lacuna that has been the bone of contention between the Indian constitution and the separate constitution of Jammu and Kashmir, is benefiting only a particular section of the state while the majority is held to ransom to appease a few for political considerations.
The discrimination is also responsible for J&K remaining far behind in development as compared to rest of India which can be gauged from the fact that it was as early as 1890 that railways came to the state upto Jammu via Sialkot and in 1902 the then Maharaja Sir Pratap Singh got the survey done to take railways to Kashmir via three different routes i.e. Abbottabad to Srinagar, Jammu to Srinagar via two different routes through Banihal for a Narrow Gauge Railway line and another survey for Electric Railway from Jammu to Srinagar via Banihal but the construction could not be started not only due to financial constraints, while it took 125 years to the so called modern government to take-up the railway project to connect Kashmir to rest of India, which still seems a distant dream.
This means Jammu and Kashmir is some 125 years behind the rest of India in development only due to obsolete laws that prevent development.
Now the major focus of this debate is to ascertain whether Jammu and Kashmir government is patronizing casteism under legal disguise by preventing Mahajans of Jammu and Samba from acquiring agriculture land of more than four kanals that too for the residential purpose.
Now if this act is taken into consideration this is not only violating the fundamental rights of Mahajans of Jammu and Samba but also preventing development as this section belonging to business class can turn around the agriculture sector if allowed to invest for agricultural purposes without any ceiling.
This aspect was brought to notice by a news item in a local daily on September 2, 2015 under caption { Alleged case of business woman “unlawfully” possessing 280 kanals of land ; HC directs DCs of Jammu, Samba to file land status report} where it is stated that “under J&K Alienation of Land Act 1938, the State Government “has declared certain classes of persons as agriculture vide order No 546-C of 1939, and in Samba and Jammu districts, persons belonging to Mahajan community are excluded and they are, therefore a non-agriculture class”.
The news item further states that “Since Shilpi belongs to Mahajan community, she falls under non-agriculture class and thus is not entitled to retain more than four kanals of land and that too for the residential purpose only,”
This clearly indicates that J&K Govt is patronizing the casteism legally thus not only stalling liberalization in the state but also halting the development without any consideration of future and discriminating against a particular caste of the state which needs explanation. However the revenue minister could not be contacted immediately for comments on the issue.
The time demands that J&K Govt thinks ahead of time and works for APJ Abdul Kalam’s Vision 2050 instead of looking back to pre-Independence era.
The law that prevents a section of society from investing in agriculture land only because of their caste is not only illegal but also based of primitive mentality as organic farming and other types of agriculture is becoming a futuristic business but the community that excels in business is not allowed to acquire more than four kanals that too for the residential purposes speaking volumes about the developmental vision of the state.
The new dispensation of PDP-BJP alliance must take a call on this issue and remove this discriminatory section from the law to bring harmony in the society and let the state develop with a futuristic vision.