Friday, August 22, 2008

J&K POLICE: ESTD. 1914, KASHMIRI MUSLIM CHIEFS: 2

By Alee Andrabi, Greater Kashmir
Srinagar, Aug 21: JK Police was established in 1914. For nearly a century now, we have had only two Kashmiri Muslim Police Chiefs. An ‘accomplishment’ in itself, for the ‘anti nationals’, that is. The legendary and celebrated Peer Ghulam Hassan Shah was the first Kashmiri Muslim to man the Police top job. His phenomenal rise from the lowest to the highest rank, along with an incredible performance is nothing short of an epic. But he took voluntary retirement because of the treatment he could not take. Treatment, that a legend he was, rather still is, did not deserve. Ghulam Jeelani Pandit was the other Kashmiri Muslim head cop. Although being an upright and devout Muslim, he probably got the ‘benefit of doubt’ because of his surname. However, this memoir too had a blue ending when he was transferred with the eruption of militancy in the state. Obviously, for ‘reasons of national security’. All said, there have been four Kashmiri Police Chiefs overall including Dwarika Nath Koul, a scholar cop and of course the present Director General Kuldeep Khoda. It becomes imperative to get in the Sachar Committee Report in here. As has been already specified, for fair comparison the population composition in West Bengal and the respective representation makes a perfect analogy to the scenario in our state. The population composition in Bengal is exactly the opposite to that of Jammu & Kashmir as far as the Hindus and Muslims are concerned. Now imagine, if West Bengal had only two Hindu Police Chiefs over a century. No doubt, we would have had a dozen Bengals by now instead of just two! But our very own Kashmir has been made to play second fiddle to ‘everyone’ and ‘everything’. And, we have sincerely obliged. Without a revolt. Without even a squawk. And of course, without ‘Civil Disobedience’ to keep up with the modern day protocol of protests across Chenab. The fact is that the ‘alleged discriminator’ is in fact the ‘actual casualty’. The menacing wolf has always been the vulnerable lamb. The irrelevant Kashmiriyat has been a keep of the ‘jingoistic’ Ek Vidhaan, Ek Pradhan, Ek Nishan. Eternally. Moving on, the current Law and Order Management deserves a ‘tribute’ considering how indispensable it is for a critical and volatile territory like ours. The entire Law and Order bandobast is manned by ‘nationalistic forces’. Of course, Kuldeep Khoda is a genuine Kashmiri but then the Pandit representation is not a part of the discourse and discrimination. One hates this comparison but it looks like an Italian management of a Libyan Law and Order situation with no local component. I am sure by now the bogey of discrimination fuelled by the proclamations of ‘nationalistic forces’ must have come home indeed to haunt them. But that is not our concern. For us, this dishonest unethical fallacy is done and dusted! What we seek now, are answers, some serious ones. Addressing our marginalization. Our alienation. Our estrangement. Our voiceless-ness. Our empowerment. Our representation. Our emancipation. And yes, our discrimination. We are no match on the propaganda front, no one to hear us out, no one to back us up. No Advani. No Togadia. Not even a Sonia Gandhi. No Manmohan Singh. No V P Singh. Or Jyoti Basu. Anyone who voices our desperate predicament, be it a former Home Minister of India or a former BJP ally at the Centre, no distinction would be made between them and Sayed Sallahudin. Still, for the optimists we are, we wait for light at the end of this sixty year long dark tunnel. With the Kashmiri representation in Judiciary and Administration already been spelled out, the representation of ‘anti nationals’ in Police is very much a give away. The numbers are just for the record, as they say. The Gradation List of IPS Cadre boasts of 7 Director Generals (DG). Only 2 are Kashmiris in the avatar of Rajinder Tickoo and Kuldeep Khoda. The rest are from outside the state managing law, order and not to forget, Kashmiris. One Kashmiri, Dr A K Bhan, figures amongst the 2 Additional Director Generals (ADG), the other being R V Raju. Out of the 22 Inspector Generals (IG), the ‘anti national’ quarter gets 4, the ‘pro national’ quarter is one up at 5 and the rest being from outside the state. For the 20 Deputy Inspector Generals (DIG), the composition is yet again uncomfortable to say the least. Jammu with its share of 8 DIGs overpowers Kashmir, which has only 5. Moving on to the SPs within the IPS Cadre out of the total 62 Jammu gets 21, the digits reverse as Kashmir gets 12 and Ladakh 2. The rest 27, all outsiders. Way to go! The beat goes on as we go down the hierarchy. The State Police Service employs 139 SPs. ‘Minority’ Jammu gets an overwhelming 87, ‘majority’ Kashmir a shabby 46 and Ladakh chips in with 3. The DSPs of the State Cadre stand at 224. Kashmir gets an unusual 112, Jammu nearly ‘there’ at 108 and Ladakh gets 3. Closing this with Inspectors holding the post of DSPs. Out of the total 93, Jammu gets 55, Kashmir a ‘fabulous’ 37 and 1 is from Ladakh. Well then. The results are out. Incredible Jammu! Standing ovation, please! Protesting, or even analyzing, these ‘discriminating’ figures would be futile. Look at the larger picture, stupid! Was it not for this overwhelming ‘pro national’ composition in the Police force, the atoot ang wouldn’t be atoot anymore. At least this seems to be the apprehension. There in comes the need to tag Jammu along with Kashmir in a forced, insincere and inconvenient wedlock.

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

In 5 yrs, it will be Jammu Administrative Service

By Alee Andrabi, Greater Kashmir
Srinagar, Aug 19: According to a computation made by the General Administration Department (GAD) in 2005, for submission to the Sachar Committee, the state had roughly 3,52,000 employees. The Department worked out the percentage of employees to the total strength of respective communities. Hindu employees represent 4.61 percent of the 30 lakh Hindu population in the state whereas Muslims have a representation of 2.85 percent for the 68 lakh Muslim population. So relative to the respective populations, Hindus outnumber Muslims in the State government. This should question the ‘assertions’ of discrimination effusing from the winter capital. Ridicule them. Deflate them. Scanning the composition of the State administration, the claims of discrimination do come home, indeed. The irony, though, is that the victim of this discrimination is not the ‘Pro National’ Jammu wala as we have been made to believe but the ‘Anti National’ Kashmiri, to put in the latest Right wing lingo. One, which is being endorsed by our wannabe Prime Minister L K Advani as well. Starting with the Indian Administrative Service (IAS), the total cadre strength is 94 with 24 officers belonging to the Kashmir division, 27 officers belonging to the Jammu division and two from Ladakh. The other 41 babus are from outside the state. So where exactly is Jammu getting discriminated in all this? Delusion, but nothing! Further, most of the core developmental departments like Planning, Finance, R&B, PHE and Irrigation are headed by non-Kashmiris. Even the all important departments of Agriculture, Revenue, Social Welfare, Health, Home, CAPD, Industries and Commerce, Information, PDD are ‘endowed’ to non-Kashmiris. The trend is the same for Science and Technology, Transport and Culture. No Kashmiri components! Another ‘discriminating’ fact, for the record. Since 1947, out of 26 Chief Secretaries of the State, only 6 have been Kashmiri Muslims. How’s that for discrimination for the only Muslim majority state of ‘secular’ India. But no one has ever stood up for this. Makes sense, in a way. Why would a Kashmiri Muslim civil servant take the ‘risk’ of speaking against discrimination engineered by a minority and be branded as ‘anti national’. Not worth it! Never was. Now comes the real shocker. The Kashmir Administrative Service (KAS). This is where scores have to be settled, intriguing serious questions have to be asked, discrimination has to be debated and alienation of Kashmiri Muslims has to be addressed. Out of the 338 KAS cadre officers in the state, 155 officers belong to Kashmir division, 151 to Jammu division and 22 to Ladakh division. 10 officers are from junior KAS. Now how can this representation be fair, even ethical? This is unfair by any account of economic management or population distribution. The ratio is 55:45 in favor of Muslims but why has everything been worked out and settled at 50:50? It is not supposed to be that way. Kashmir outnumbers others in terms of population, but why is that they are outnumbered when it comes to Administration, Judiciary, Police and even Private enterprise? This preposterous idea of 50:50 distribution is absolutely fake, senseless by all parameters. Save your disappointment, resentment and protests for now though. Save them for the ‘administrative genocide’ I am about to illustrate. From 2001 till date, 478 KAS appointments have been made. Kashmiris are at 106, Ladakh at 12 and Jammu at a staggering overpowering figure of 360. Discrimination? No, not by any standards. This is something far beyond the term, with devastating consequences for the majority. As I said ‘administrative genocide’, if you like. Engineering, competent and successful, has been done for the next three decades and things (read Kashmiris) have been leveled out for the ‘pro National’ Jammu bureaucrats. In fact it would not even make sense to call it KAS five years down the line. It will be, rather already can be, rechristened as Jammu Administrative Service (JAS). And here in Kashmir, we would even have to import BDOs and Tehsildars! And mind you, Kashmiris are not overpowered in bureaucracy alone. It’s all across. Take for example the 641 Muslims and the 1015 Hindus figuring in the tentative seniority list of 1656 Junior Agriculture Assistants as of April 2006. Or for that matter the 114 Muslim AEEs in Works Department against the 164 Hindu AEEs as of May 2005. And be assured, it only gets worse after that. The latest recruitments don’t show any mercy to Muslims or Kashmiris. Amongst the 429 Accounts Assistants selected by the Service Selection Board in April 2008, Jammu accounts for 334 Assistants while Kashmir gets a ‘fabulous’ 95. I am not even going to comment on that. Of course, Raj Bhawan, the custodian of the constitutional rights of all sections of society remains off limits for at least one community, no prizes. The last Muslim Secretary the First Citizen of the state had was when we used to have a Sadr i Riyasat. Since then it is graciously adorned by the malis of Floriculture Department who are considered indispensable for their manicuring skills and presenting a gulab every morning to the sahib of the estate. However with the arrival of the present Governor two middle level Muslim officers from the former Chief Minister’s office are now manning the secretariat outpost of Raj Bhavan. To conclude, all this is in complete sync with the latest branding of Kashmiris. Anti Nationals, at the end of the day you see. PS: Yesterday’s piece on judiciary reflected only the current composition affected by deputation and transfers. The actual composition of the J&K High Court Bench gives Kashmir 6 slots and Jammu 6. Of these two from Jammu, Justice V K Gupta and Justice T S Thakur are already Chief Justices posted on deputation. Justice Bilal Nazki from Kashmir is a judge on deputation to the Bombay High Court. The State Hugh Court has so far sent 3 judges to the Supreme Court, one of whom, Justice Anand, served as Chief Justice of India. The other two were justice Raja Jaswant Singh and Justice R P Sethi. You know their home addresses.

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Response to Planforindia.blogspot.com

Reply to a discussion on http://planforindia.blogspot.com/2008/08/truth-about-holy-amarnath-cave-and.html
1. The shrine was discovered by a Kashmiri Muslim.
Response: According to a legend….
Reply to response:
Definition of Legend Oxford Concise English Dictionary: A traditional story popularly regarded as historical but which is not authenticated; Oxford Pocket English Dictionary: A traditional story from the past which may or may not be true
Definition of Puranas : eighteen ancient books consisting of legends and mythological narrations dealing with creation, recreation and the genealogies of sages and rulers
Definition of Mythology (Oxford Pocket English Dictionary): Set of widely held but exaggerated or false stories or beliefs.

2. The Yatra has always been conducted by Kashmiri Muslims
Response: Yes the yatra has been supported by the Malik family descendents but not conducted by them
Reply to response
Supported by Malik Family agreed. But who are the pony owners? Who give shelter to Yatris during storms? Who carry the old on their backs? For your information, they are all Muslims since you seem to have seen Kashmir only through the internet and through “mythological” stories.
3. No Yatri was ever harmed by a Kashmiri Muslim.
Response: Yes, numerous. Even this year some were killed at Bus Stand (5), grenade attack at Gulmarg, etc. Here are only some of them from previous years, it is a long list but i have taken only 3 years
Reply to response
Total No. of Kashmiri Muslims Killed (as per Govt. of India Statistics) since 1988 – 31,000
Total Number of Kashmiri Pandits Killed (as per your own blog): 361
It is grossly incorrect to term Kashmiri Muslims as terrorists. The statement “All terrorists are Kashmiri Muslims” can to an extent be a valid statement. But when you take the converse statement it is an utter violation of logical reasoning. The total Terrorist population by exaggerated estimates would be no more than 1% of the entire population.
Hence if you say Yatris were killed by Kashmiri Muslims, I suggest you go back to school and take a class in reasoning.
By the way, terrorists have no religion and have been misusing religion/race/creed since time immemorial across the world.
4. This year, we had record number of Yatris (more than 300,000) visiting the holy Shrine.
Response: Yes, that is good but it has nothing to do with the valley as the arrangements are done by the SASB. Generally Yatra’s world over are matter of faith and people endure great hardship to complete them. Kashmir being part of India, 300,000 or 3 million is no big deal.
Reply to response:
SASB had only 8 Hindu members - Justice (Retd) G D Sharma, Prof Vishnu Murti Shastri, Sunil Sachdeva, Manoj Gaur, Dr Vimla Dhar, Professor Neerja Mattoo, Raghu Modi and Dr Arun Kumar. The people who did the actual work on field were all Kashmiri Muslims. Thus, to say that just 8 people managed a gathering of 3,00,000 people is absolutely ridiculous.
5. Each and every Yatri had praises for the locals who fed them in spite of scanty supplies due to the economic blockage of the highway
Response: Well, that is what was the great sufi kashmiri culture that Paki’s wanted to destroy. This was the culture of Lal Ded and Rishi peer….
Reply to response
I absolutely agree with your statement. The primary aim of Pakistan is to destroy any and every system in India. They had been trying to disconnect the Valley from the rest of India for the past 20 years. When they didn’t succeed people in Jammu came to their aid. For God’s sake stop communalizing the whole issue.
6. Entire country including the 300,000 Yatris are fully satisfied with the arrangements
Response: Well, the arrangements were done by SASB.
Reply to response
As in point No 4
7. A handful of communal elements at Jammu have a problem.
Response: It is not as our P.M say “an issue of modalities”. It is a decision of how people will be treated. 400,000 pandits were forced out of their land, 361 were killed, their temples destroyed and sahbir shah, sajjad lone, yasin mailk and their likes are saying that Jammu has communal elements. Well it is like Pakistan accusing India of supporting Taliban
Reply to response
I’m sorry but I’ll again say that Jagmohan was responsible for the unfortunate uprooting of Kashmiri Pandits from the Valley. He planned to “cleanse” the Kasmiri separatists in an indiscriminate planned attack. He along with his agencies spread terror amongst the KPs and they used to send Military Trucks to aid the migration. Even today, 1100 KP families still live in the valley. Why did anyone not touch them?
Coming to issues at Jammu, we have heard all voices coming from Jammu and from Kashmir. The voices and actions from Jammu are categorically against Muslims to the extent that even houses of Gujjars are being destroyed and supplies to the valley have been stopped.
On the contrary, Kashmiris made all attempts to make the Yatra successful by all means. Who is communal?

8. The local Jammu Dogra has never in history protested like this.
Response: Well that is the point, their patience has now broken and the last straw in the camels backs was Omar Abdullah’s speech in the parliament. It is he who shouted “it is OUR LAND and we will die but not give it away”….
Reply to response
Excuse me; the land belongs to the people of Jammu as well, unless they choose not to associate themselves with the state. They have an equal right being state subjects. I agree that Kashmiri Pandits are also inhabitants of the land and Omar never disputed that in his speech. However, many of the Pandits chose to leave their homeland. I have read the other story about your childhood on your blog. But tell me how were Muslims different from Pandits. More Muslims who went against the terrorists were killed than Pandits. I will again reiterate that Jagmohan was responsible for the migration. Why did Sikhs and Christians never leave? Even after Chhati Singhpora incident? As I have already stated more than 31,000 Kashmiri Muslims have died due to Militancy, and the number excludes the number of Kashmiri Terrorists.
9. Some of the people who migrated from valley more than decade ago see this as an opportunity to take a revenge to rout out Muslims from Jammu
Response: Well again you are missing the point. Surely 20 years is a long time to take revenge. It is akin to agreeing that temporary structures 13000 feet at Baltal can be used for changing the demographic’s of the valley
Reply to response:
Well, if 20 years is a long time to take revenge, you would not have been blogging hatred today!
It is not about demographics. It is about pollution and contamination of ecology. The SASB started a helicopter service to add to the pollution. They were constructing permanent structures thereby destructing ecology. For evidence you may check their site at http://www.shriamarnathjishrine.com/amarnath-shrine-board.html
Moreover, if the Yatra is going on smoothly, isn’t it immaterial whether the land is transferred or not?
10. The Jammu Dogras have fallen prey to the game plan.
Response: same as above. Sadly, you are missing the point.
Reply to response
Same a/a

11. Who is benefiting from the protests?
Response: Sometimes, protests are done without immediate gains. What will be gained is that the fact that Kashmiri’s have got too much without doing anything. .…
Reply to response:
Pakistan & ISI are benefiting from the protests and from the economic blockade. Wake up!
12. Our soldiers have laid down their lives fighting militants to keep the National Highway open for the past 20 years.
Response: Yes, that is the point. The Highway is a scared piece if land for all and we cannot allow it to be used to pump in secessionist elements. Just for your information, an R.O.P (road opening party) of the army clearing the….
Reply to response:
Our soldiers died to keep the link open but our fellow citizens- brothers and citizens succeeded!
13. Whose cause are people at Jammu supporting?
Response: They are fighting for the cause of India and the right of an Indian over secessionists.
Reply to response:
By blocking the road they are supporting the plans of secessionists
14. Kashmiri Leaders want a unified state including Jammu/Kashmir/POK/Ladakh
Response: Sorry but that is not a consolation. It is and will remain unified as per the 1947 agreed boundaries. It is the writ of the Parliament that the P...
Reply to response
We want a unified state under India. Recent developments in Jammu aim at further dividing the state.
15. Protestors at Jammu want separate Jammu, Separate Kashmir, Separate KP Land, Separate Ladakh and maybe further slices of the flesh of our motherland.
Response: Haven’t heard that but there will always be multiple view points and that is the corner stone of democracy. People in valley who have been following nizam e Mustafa cannot and will not understand what a pluralistic….
Reply to response:
I’m sorry but Sikhs and Christians still continue to live in harmony with us. They, like us, never bowed down to terrorism. We have some of the leading schools run by Christian missionaries. Churches, Gurudwaras and temples and mosques continue with their religious proceedings.
If you now say that temples were destroyed, I would like you to find out how many mosques and shrines were destroyed by terrorists? Remember the destruction of one of the holiest shrines at Chraresharief? I again reiterate, terrorists don’t have any religion.

It is very unfortunate that sometimes ill informed individuals start to "blog" half-truths encouraging communalism. In the world today when everyone is striving towards peace, please use your efforts to contribute for a better tomorrow. Dont sow seeds of violence and hatred!