Jammu: The ignored forte of Nationalism
Ronik Sharma
Whenever we talk about the competitive exams which are being conducted by the Jammu and Kashmir public service commission especially for the gazetted posts. Like KAS , KCS and KPS the word J is missing in these kinds of government gazetted services. JKPSC the higher authority to conduct these competitive exams for the different posts throughout the state. The name which was given by the competitive authority so early is confined to Kashmir province only in which they have omitted the name of the Jammu province (J). Apart from this the successive governments which have been formed from time to time in Jammu and Kashmir state the aforesaid services continued to omit the name of Jammu region and also ignored Jammu province name from many institutes, universities and some other important places. The name of the Jammu province has been ignored by the authorities either intentionally or deliberately. Many times the issue of administrative exams in which KAS,KCS and KPS to be renamed as JKAS,JKCS,JKPS but the leadership of Kashmir not paid any attention towards this issue. It puts a question mark on Jammu province people because of the reason that why the name of the Jammu province has been ignored by the Kashmir centric politics, politicians as well as by the bureaucrats'. Missing J is not only an issue before the previous governments but there are many other things in which the people of Jammu have been treated on the name of discrimination. If we talk about the employment the people of the Jammu region not only suffered neglect and deprivation in terms of allocation of resources, assembly and Parliamentary seats etc but was being ill treated by the Kashmir centric leadership”. Kashmiri politicians they always consider Jammu province as their colony for collecting revenue only at the expense of Jammu province they have only enjoyed the power. The political class of Jammu were always taken for granted for their lame duck approach and were always treated as second class politicians having no reasoning. The political spectrum from the Jammu region must rack up this issue in the ensuing assembly session to put the cards right by inserting J word before K. so that this flaw and neglect of many years is corrected.
There are already many allegations of discrimination with Jammu and Ladakh province. There is very less representation of these provinces in the state services. Every time the recruitment is done whether for Gazetted post or Non-Gazetted posts the lion share goes to Kashmir province. The representation of Jammu and Ladakh in Secretariat, the power centre of State is also very less.
Jammu and Ladakh have always upheld the National aspiration even in the time of emergencies but the justice has not been done to these regions. Every time various Governments have made promises to give due share to these regions but nothing concrete has been done. If we take the case of Delimitation or any other issue the promises are made during election but after conclusion of elections these issues disappear for next six years. Different political parties frame their manifestos promising justice to these regions but in working they are more or less same.
It is the high for civil society to take lead and ensure that these political parties and leaders are exposed and justice is done to these regions in letter and spirit.
The author is an advocate and can be contacted at roniksharma21@gmail.com
