Assurance on demographic protection may turn corner in J&K

Arun Joshi

Tribune News Service

Jammu, March 16

In what could be read as the most significant and emphatic development in the past over seven months after the Centre did away with Article 370 that dismantled the special status of Jammu and Kashmir on August 5 last year, the Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s categorical assurance that no demographic change would be effected in the region should not only allay fears of people, but can also serve as an antidote to the radicalisation in J&K.

J&K’s demographics were roiled over the frequent noises made about changing the demographic character of the region as a sequel to “J&K’s complete integration with the country following the scrapping of Article 370 and 35A”. These noises were being used by radical elements to stoke anger and anti-India sentiment, and to stir the communal faultline.

Amit Shah has tried to soothe the frayed tempers not only of J&K, but also of the other Union Territory of Ladakh. That, too, had its fears and apprehensions on this count.

This assurance, if translated into real-time palpable reality, can help in countering the radical elements that are playing a spoilsport in the region and giving boost to radicalism. It is evident from the number of local militants killed or were on their way to join militancy in recent months. The real threat is not known as yet, but radicalisation is consuming Kashmiri society and adding to the challenges faced by the country vis-à-vis Kashmir.

Ever since Article 35A was brought under legal scrutiny when its validity was challenged in the Supreme Court in May 2014, and its pros and cons guided the confrontationist public discourse, there were several shutdowns in Kashmir in protest against the scrapping of the constitutional provision.

The Article 35A, now part of the forgotten chapter of the constitutional history of J&K, had conferred some unique and exclusive rights to the permanent residents of J&K. The permanent residents or state subject holders could be defined by the state legislature only, and these citizens of J&K had exclusive rights on the immovable property, jobs and scholarships. This provision was protected due to Article 370 that was a living symbol of semi-sovereignty to J&K state, that had its own constitution, most empowered state legislature and flag.

On August 5, 2019, when these provisions were revoked and the state was bifurcated into two UTs of Ladakh and J&K, fears were spawning among people in the Valley that their land, business and services would be overwhelmed by others. This “us versus they” theory had existed for decades and led to several agitations. This fault line was evoked on all matters, be it industrialisation, setting up of colony for ex-soldiers or remote thinking of giving right to own property to the central services officials who had spent decades in J&K serving people. These fears were a deliberate ploy to keep the issues of governance and accountability hostage to the high-speed political peddling. The politics of exclusiveness was used as a shield to corruption and other malpractices.

But, the fears stayed intact. Fears were tapped to stir among people that doing away with the constitutional provisions was to push the Muslim majority of J&K to the wall. This became one of the underlying factors for the renewed and reinforced radicalisation to which extra troops did not hold the answer.

Amit Shah did give the answer that people needed. Significantly, this was not in Parliament, nor through any press conference, but in an interaction with the newest political group Apni Party of J&K, comprising mostly leaders of elected representatives, some of them former ministers. Those who heard it in the North Block yesterday said it was a “direct messaging” to the people of Kashmir that their demographic character would remain unaltered.

Shah, according to a MHA release on Sunday, “emphasised that there is no intention of the government for demographic change in the region and all such talks have no basis at all”.

The Apni Party president Altaf Bukhari said, “This is the commitment coming from the highest quarters in Delhi. This is not only significant but also reassuring to the people of J&K.”

However, it should be understood, the informed quarters said, that the development of the region would happen by opening doors to investment, and that should not be taken as intrusion or transgression.