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What more do you want for the Kashmiris?

What more do you want for the Kashmiris?

Author: Hari Om
Publication: The Indian Express
Date: June 7, 2003
URL: http://www.indianexpress.com/full_story.php?content_id=25321

In his 'Letter from Islamabad' (IE, May 29) Congress ideologue, Mani Shankar Aiyar, has said: That ''weaning the Kashmiri away from the causes of his discontent will decisively determine the course and content of the external dialogue''.

Let us now very briefly examine the status of the "alienated" Kashmiris. Take, for instance, their total control over the state's politics as well as an effective say in New Delhi. In October 1947, when the state acceded to the Indian Dominion as per the stipulations of the Indian Independence Act, they plainly told Nehru that they would endorse Maharaja Hari Singh's decision on the state accession only if the political power is transferred from Jammu to the Valley-based National Conference. And Nehru obliged them.

Ever since, they have been ruling over the state, with the people of Jammu and Ladakh being reduced to a nullity. The factor that has helped them most to retain control over the state policy is the mechanism they diligently evolved in 1951 which could always enable them to capture nearly 50 per cent of the seats in the Assembly and three of the six seats in the Lok Sabha.

Again, it was at their behest that Article 370 was incorporated in the Indian Constitution. It is under this Article that the solitary State of J&K enjoys the right to have a separate constitution and a flag other than the national Tricolour and is invested with residuary powers of legislation, including taxation. As for their share in the vital service sector, they hold over 2,30,000 positions out of a nearly 2,40,000 positions in the government and semi-government organizations in the Valley. In addition, they corner nearly 30 per cent of the jobs in the regional services of Jammu and Ladakh.

Interestingly, a vast majority of them do not pay a single penny to the state in the form of revenue due to it. It is only Jammu and Ladakh which contribute over 80 per cent to the state exchequer. A major part of this money is spent not in the extremely backward and under-developed region of Jammu and Ladakh but in the already highly prosperous and developed Kashmir Valley. The oft-repeated charge that New Delhi has consistently ignored the state's financial needs has no basis whatsoever. The fact is that J&K is a ''Special Category State'' which receives Central assistance on the basis of 90 per cent as grant and 10 per cent as loan.

What more does Aiyar want for Kashmir in order to resolve the Indo-Pak dispute?
 


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