All must welcome the decision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to grant divisional status to Ladakh and all must urge him politely to grant Union Territory status to Ladakh, statehood to Jammu.

No one had ever imagined that the strategic trans-Himalaya Ladakh would ever be separated from Kashmir division, dominated by 100% Kashmir Valley-centric Muslim officers, and it will have independent divisional status, but it happened on February 8. Prime Minister Narendra Modi did it and did it much against the wishes of Kashmiri leaders, both separatists and half-separatists, and the so-called mainstream leaders, including Farooq Abdullah, Omar Abdullah, and Mehbooba Mufti. (Farooq Abdullah, Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti are dangerous than Jihadis as they have been subverting the polity since decades both from within and outside.)

The rattled and confused Sajad Lone forgot that Pir Panjal is a mountain and Chenab is a river and that there exists no law in any of the Indian statute books that could grant divisional status to a mountain or a river.

Indeed, February 8 will be remembered as a historic day in the history of Jammu & Kashmir State – history of mistrust and distrust between Ladakh and Kashmir and between Kashmir and Ladakh, notwithstanding the fact that divisional status is not a substitute to Union Territory status. Indeed, February 8 will go down in the history of Jammu & Kashmir, nay in the political history of Bharat, as a day that prepared the ground for the state’s reorganization on a regional basis. Indeed, February 8 was a day of deliverance to an extent and thanksgiving for the people of Ladakh in general. Buddhists had been struggling to achieve independence from Kashmir since November 1947 on the ground that they had nothing in common with Kashmiri Muslims; that they were for their complete merger with India and that they want to link their destiny with India for better or for worse; and that they didn’t want to have any kind of truck with Kashmiri leaders whose watchword was greater autonomy or a dispensation outside the constitutional organization of India.

What does this historic decision mean? It means that Ladakh will no more be a part of Kashmir division and that Divisional Commissioner of Kashmir will have no administrative control over Ladakh. It would also mean that Ladakh, which would have divisional headquarters at the Buddhist-majority Leh, would have its own Divisional Commissioner and its own Inspector General of Police. It would also mean that Ladakh would have all the Directorates. But more than that, it would mean a great set back to those in Kashmir, who used to dictate terms to the Ladakhis and a major change in the Constitution of Jammu & Kashmir. Jammu & Kashmir Constitution of 1957, which was framed by a 100 percent rigged Constituent Assembly and which was all-National Conference as the nomination papers of the opposition candidates were rejected without any reason whatsoever. Courtesy: Jawahar Lal Nehru’s unstinted support to his anti-Jammu and anti-Ladakh and pro-autonomy Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah.

It’s no wonder then that many so-called mainstream Kashmiri leaders on February 8 itself expressed views which clearly suggested that the decision of the Prime Minister to grant divisional status to Ladakh had rattled them, unnerved them and upset their nasty apple-cart. It rattled them to the extent that while former BJP-appointed Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti questioned the very intentions of New Delhi and demanded trifurcation of Jammu province, another former Chief Minister and National Conference Vice-President Omar Abdullah held out a categorical commitment that the National Conference, if came to power, will grant divisional status to what he called Pir Panjal region and Chenab Valley. In other words, he said that his party will break Jammu province.

There exists no such region as Pir Panjal region and there exists no such Valley as Chenab Valley anywhere in Jammu province. Pir Panjal is a mighty mountain that constitutes a natural boundary wall between Jammu and Kashmir and which is vital for national security. All the four districts of Doda, Kishtwar, Ramban and Poonch and parts of Rajouri district are located in the Pir Panjal mountain range. It appears that Mehbooba Mufti and Omar Abdullah have not read geography. Had they read geography even casually, they would have termed Pir Panjal as a mountain as it is a mountain and river Chenab, not a Valley.

Not just Mehbooba Mufti and Omar Abdullah, the BJP’s pre-poll ally and chief of the Kashmir’s Kupwara-based People’s Conference, Sajad Lone, and a known Pakistani Engineer Rashid, too, have been left rattled by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s decision. While Sajad Lone made a mockery of himself by demanding “divisional status for Pir Panjal and Chenab”, Rashid said that grant of divisional status to Ladakh means a major step forward towards “trifurcation” of Jammu & Kashmir State. The rattled and confused Sajad Lone forgot that Pir Panjal is a mountain and Chenab is a river and that there exists no law in any of the Indian statute books that could grant divisional status to a mountain or a river. But it happens and vested interests get confused when extraordinary developments took place like the one which took place on February 8.

If the decision of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi to grant divisional status has upset the applecart of pro-separatist and pro-Pakistan Kashmiri elements, it has also electrified the political scene of the politically marginalized and economically neglected Jammu province. Almost all in Jammu have welcomed the decision and termed it as a major step. They have hailed Prime Minister Narendra Modi in one voice and expressed the view that “Narendra Modi alone could undo the wrongs committed by Nehru and the London-founded Congress (December 1885) and other pseudo-secular governments at the Centre”. They appear absolutely right.

All the Chief Ministers of State till date has been from Kashmir and from a particular community and from a particular religious sect.

The grant of divisional status to Ladakh has pleased the people of Jammu province to the extent that many of them have expressed the view that the days of Kashmiri domination over Jammu are also numbered and that the day is not far when they would have a dispensation that will be of them, for them and by them. Their demands range from statehood to regional council invested with legislative, executive and financial powers. They have said that the nature of the problem confronting them since 1947 is similar to the one being faced by the Ladakhi Buddhists and that a definite political instrument under the Indian Constitution — minus Article 370 and Article 35A — for Jammu province alone could end the 71-year-old Kashmir’s domination over them and empower them to manage their own socio-cultural and politico-economic affairs themselves in a meaningful manner and as per their requirements.

It needs to be noted that the people of Jammu and Ladakh have been groaning under the yoke of Kashmiri Muslim rule since 1947. All the Chief Ministers of State till date has been from Kashmir and from a particular community and from a particular religious sect. Kashmir has more than 50 percent representation in the Legislative Assembly and Kashmir controls almost 90 percent positions in the civil secretariat, the seat of power. Kashmir returns 46 MLAs to the 87-member Assembly and Jammu and Ladakh together only 41, despite the fact that Kashmir’s land area is less than 11 percent and Jammu/Ladakh’s over 89 percent and despite the fact that the population of Jammu and Ladakh is equal to Kashmir, if not more, and that the number of voters in these two regions was more as compared to the tiny Kashmir Valley, 40X80 sq Km.

All must welcome the decision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to grant divisional status to the neglected and under-grave-threat Ladakh and all must urge him politely to grant Union Territory status to Ladakh, statehood to Jammu and Homeland to the persecuted and hounded out Kashmiri Hindus within the Kashmir Valley so that the dreaded jihad is limited to a small area in the Valley. Kashmir jihad has to be defeated to save Bharat and the 4-way split of Jammu & Kashmir is the only way out.

Thank you, Prime Minister Narendra Modi

Note:

1. The views expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of PGurus.