While traders are aghast, political parties too are voicing dissent. “For sometime in the early 90s, there was the concern of situation but after that the situation improved and now there is no reason why the central government offices shouldn’t be based in Kashmir,” says Nayeem Akhter, chief spokesman of Peoples Democratic Party. “Business has grown in Jammu over the years and Kashmir should also get all the civilian offices as things have come back to normal now,” he said. “This is part of the whole dialogue process and Kashmir must get its share of benefits from all the central government offices.”
CPIM secretary MY Tarigami says now there’s no excuse and reason for central government offices to be permanently based in Jammu. “There’s improvement in the situation and the central government should seriously consider relocation of central offices back to valley,” he said. “Kashmiri Pandits are now also getting placed in some parts of the valley. I don’t see any substantial reason for not returning to Srinagar and working from here.”
As central government organizations started winding up their offices from valley in 1989, the ‘90s like situation’ and ‘security issues’ were given as reasons over the years for not relocating the central government offices from Jammu to Kashmir. However, political analysts say situation in the valley after 90s became just a pretext for central government to alienate Kashmiris.
Dr Gul Muhammad Wani of political science department KU maintains that 2002 onwards, there was absolutely no justification to keep the central government offices in Jammu. He says the graph of violence has come down since the peace talks began between India and Pakistan in 2002 and the composite dialogue process was started in 2004.
“Government can say that since war like situation prevailed in the valley during 90s, they had to shift the offices to Jammu for security reasons,” he says. “But after 1996, it became possible to hold elections in Kashmir and in 2002 too elections were held; in between there were parliamentary elections too. And all these elections were held in the name of return of normalcy. So there was no justification for central government offices not to be relocated back and function from Srinagar.”
Political analysts link the absence of central government offices in Srinagar and the resultant lack of interface with the discriminatory attitude adopted towards the Kashmir region over the years. “It speaks of discrimination towards Kashmir. Otherwise why would the Income tax department stay on after 90s while other departments would shift to Jammu in the name of security,” says Prof Noor Muhammad Baba, Head Political Science Department of Kashmir University. “If security was the issue of their shifting base from Kashmir, it was the same for all the departments,” he says.
Dr Wani says that for the past three years, the question of interregional imbalance has shifted to Kashmir. “Jammu got more than its share in the coalition government and it was able to take maximum benefit out of the abnormal situation in the valley,” he says.
Senior KAS officers say the central government has bifurcated its operations in J&K by sending soldiers to Kashmir and civilian offices to Jammu. A senior KAS officer said the employees of central government offices that are based in Jammu since 1989 are enjoying a certain comfort level by operating from Jammu. He said that a central government agency like Archeological Survey of India was shifted to Jammu at a time when the monuments of Kashmir valley were in a bad state. “Whatever restoration is needed, they are not able to do it as the J&K office of ASI is based in Jammu,” he said. “And only ASI can preserve and protect these sites as no one else is allowed the care take of the ancient monuments and heritage sites”.
Dr Wani says the absence of central government offices in Srinagar is adding fuel to the fire as the valley is already pushed to the wall. “These issues have been coming in public domain more frequently and Kashmiris are feeling discriminated. The valley feels marginalized not only from Jammu but even from Ladakh region,” he says. “Leh is enjoying the benefits of self-rule as they have an autonomous hill council that has its own developmental funds. Even the flights to Leh operate directly from Delhi to Leh, bypassing the valley.”
Dr Wani says when it comes to trade benefits, Jammu trade is picking up as the trade from Poonch route is more than that from Salamabad-Uri point. “Valley is isolated not only in times of war, but even in times of peace as well,” he concludes.
