Ikkjutt Jammu Party (IJP) on Sunday held protests in Jammu and other districts of the Jammu region to demand for separation of Jammu from Kashmir and creation of a separate Jammu state.
IJP President Ankur Sharma on Sunday said that while India became free from the British in 1947, Jammu was made a slave of Kashmir at the time.
While Sharma and his outfit have launched Jammu statehood campaign now, the demand and the idea of Jammu as a separate state is not new. The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP), and Jammu-based groups have made the demand over the years.
However, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has been consistent in its opposition of the demand. It rejected the RSS resolution in 2002 calling for a separate Jammu state and it went for bifurcation of Jammu and Kashmir in 2019 into J&K and Ladakh rather than trifurcation into Jammu, Kashmir, and Ladakh.
Here we explain the recently-launched demand for Jammu state and the case for and against Jammu's statehood.
The Jammu statehood movement, IJP's demands
The Ikkjutt Jammu Party (IJP) on Sunday launched a movement for Jammu's statehood with sharp rhetoric.
In a video shared on Twitter, IJP President Ankur Sharma said that since Independence, Jammu has been treated as a second class disempowered state and as a "colony" of Kashmir.
"Separate Jammu state is the only panacea available to meet the national requirement, empower the people of the province to manage their own affairs themselves, defeat the enemies working day and night to change Jammu’s demography and create Kashmir-like situation in this strategic region," The Daily Pioneer quoted Sharma as saying.
Sharing photographs of protests held in the Jammu region, Sharma said on Twitter, "Statehood for Jammu is our motto, our battle-cry, our watchword, The Word of Jammu’s political redemption. Nationalist Jammu Province continues to groan under the yoke of Kashmiri Muslim-centric, oppressive and highly discriminatory administration."
In an earlier tweet, Sharma listed his three demands in Hindi:
- The creation of Jammu as a separate state.
- The bifurcation of Kashmir region into two union territories, one for Hindus and other for "general Kashmiris".
- Murders of Hindus to be declared a genocide.
The case for Jammu's statehood
Ikkjutt Jammu Party (IJP) is not the first to have made the demand for Jammu's statement.
The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP), and Jammu-based groups have made similar demands in the past as well.
In 2002, RSS made the demand for separate Jammu state, which the then-Atal Bihari Vajpayee's BJP government rejected. Earlier, the VHP had made a demand that went farther than that of RSS.
IJP's current demand is similar to VHP's, which demanded J&K's division into four parts — Jammu, Ladakh, Kashmir, and a separate enclave for the Kashmiri Pandits, according to a PTI report from 2002.
The BJP and RSS had come out in open against each other in 2002 over Jammu's statehood, to the extent that RSS student wing Akhil Bharatiya Vidhyarthi Parishad (ABVP) and RSS-backed Jammu State Morcha (JMM) rose in arms against the BJP in assembly elections, according to Rediff News.
"The RSS-backed Jammu State Morcha and its right-wing brother the Bharatiya Janata Party have for all practical purposes parted ways, as both try independent rides on the wave of Jammu's age-old complaint of state neglect and discrimination," reported Rediff News in 2002 on RSS-BJP differences.
Sreekumar, the then chairman of JMM, told Rediff News in 2002 that separate Jammu would end the discrimination to people of Jammu.
He said at the time, "In every sphere, every sector, there is discrimination, whether it is about jobs, representation in the secretariat, medical, engineering, and other professions, recruitment in government jobs. Thus, overall in government, this discrimination is visible in various ways. So we want a separate state. With the state's formation, that discrimination, and our complaints, would end."
Jammu-based lawyer Chetan Prabhakar in an article made the case for Jammu state by comparing it with other states carved out of bigger states, such as Chhattisgarh and Telangana.
"As Chhattisgarh region used to compensate for the poverty of other regions of Madhya Pradesh and in a similar vogue, prosperity of Jammu region is used to compensate Kashmir Valley and also major part of the funds allocated to the J&K UT are given to the Kashmir Valley. Similarly, as the case of Telangana, Jammu region also faces injustices in the distribution of budget allocations and jobs," said Prabhakar in an article in Daily Excelsior.
There was speculation over Jammu's statehood last year after a series of meetings in Delhi. Chairman of Dogra Sadar Sabha Gurchain Singh Charak told The New Indian Express at the time that they would welcome Jammu's statehood.
He said, "Jammu is a peaceful region and has rejected militancy. The centre should separate it from Kashmir and grant it statehood."
The case against Jammu's statehood
The BJP and Atal Bihari Vajpayee's government in 2000 rejected the RSS proposal for Jammu and Kashmir's trifurcation. Then again in 2002, the BJP rejected the RSS resolution for Jammu's statehood.
"We have made it amply clear so many times that we think the sate as a whole should be thought of and we do not favour trifurcation," The Indian Express quoted Advani as saying in response to the RSS 2002 resolution.
Advani was more elaborate in BJP government's rejection of Jammu's statehood and J&K trifurcation in 2000.
"So far as the Centre is concerned, we are strongly opposed to any proposal for trifurcation. It is a remedy which is worse than the disease. I do not regard this [trifurcation] as a solution. We would like the entity of J&K to remain as it is today," said Advani in 2000 as per a PTI report at the time.
Outlook reported in 2019 that trifurcating Jammu and Kashmir into Jammu, Kashmir, and Ladakh would have appeared as an action on religious lines and a replay of two-nation theory.
"Trifurcation could have resulted in a replay of the two-nation theory. It would have hardened the anti-India feeling and gave rise to radicalisation in Kashmir. It would have been played out that Kashmir Muslims have been cornered and put in 'ghettos'. Government of India factored it significantly when taking a decision," economist Ruchi Sharma told Outlook.
"Trifurcation could have meant creating a Muslims-only Kashmir valley. There would not have been a balancing factor. The leadership of separate Kashmir state, if it had been created, would have repeated the same argument of holding 'talks with Pakistan' for solving the 'issue' with no one countering it. It would have strengthened the propaganda of Pakistan and negated the intent of scrapping Article 370," said former J&K police chief K Rajendra.
Sushant Sareen, a Senior Fellow at think tank Observer Research Foundation (ORF), said in an article for The Economic Times that the trifurcation could backfire.
In a tweet in 2019 before the scrapping of J&K's special status, Sareen expressed his fears on the subject saying, "If the rumours of trifurcation prove correct, then India might as well hand Kashmir on a platter to the Pakistanis. This step will prove to be an unmitigated disaster. I repeat an unmitigated disaster and I really really hope Narendra Modi and Amit Shah don't take such a step."
