Jammu, Jammu and Kashmir, India: Jammu and Kashmir has been accorded a special status in the constitutional scheme of things in India. J&K unlike any other state in India has its own constitution, own flag as well as state penal code.
As a result of the unique constitutional arrangement, the State Assembly has been accorded carte blanche as far as affairs of the state are concerned. Any political group which manages to win the State Assembly as such become the master of the destiny of around 10 million people of the state.
J&K despite being a muslim majority region is very diverse ethnically as well as on the basis of regions as the state is practically divided among three main regions of Jammu, Kashmri and Ladakh and these areas are further subdivided.
Despite the huge variations in the regional and political aspirations, the Union government of India agreed upon a very skewed constitutional status of this state vis a vis union government. The political system which was set up after 1947 was such that more assembly seats were given to Kashmir at the cost of Jammu and Ladakh. This was done despite the fact that Jammu had more area and population.
The entire political power was handed over to Sunni muslims of Kashmir and it was ensured that Dogras of Jammu, who are Hindus basically are not able to control the state politically. As a result of this biased political situation, the people of Jammu and Ladakh have been facing discrimination in every sphere of life.
Be it developmental funds, jobs in secretariat, government jobs, seats in educational institutions every thing is controlled by the Kashmiri Muslims. Consequently, Jammu, Poonch, Rajouri, Bhaderwah, Doda, Ladakh, Kargil and similar areas which does not fall in Kashmir have faced the brunt of this regional parochialism.
However, blaming only the people and leadership of Kashmir for the wrongs faced by people of the entire state would be patently wrong. In fact the discrimination with Jammu and Ladakh is going on with active support of the top leaders of both the regions, who are perhaps scared by the political stature of the Kashmiri leaders.
None of the political leaders in Jammu have been able to fight for the cause of this region and instead have been more interested in securing their own power and pelf.
The Bharatiya Janata Party which claims to uphold the interests of the Hindus in the entire India has also failed to keep in check the dominance of the Kashmiri leadership. The party entered into a truck with National Conference an out and out Kashmiri party in 1996 and its president Omar Abdullah was made the external affairs minister.
Similarly, the Indian National Congress which has been in power in India entered into a truck with Peoples Democratic Party, a political outfit which identifies with the separatist cause and is more comfortable with militant groups.
The people of Jammu due to this political hogwash by the leadership are facing immense problems as no one is ready to address the problems being faced by them.