‘We wanted a Hindu CM, but Mufti our best bet’

TNN

Jammu, 02 Mar 2015: Raghunath market situated around the Raghunath temple in the old quarter of Jammu is the city’s oldest market. With densely packed rows of textile, dry fruit, and electronics stores, eateries and even wine shops, the market is bustling, teeming with crowds and now, after the swearing in of the BJP-PDP government, abuzz with political opinions. It’s cold and raining in Jammu but Raghunath market is still packed.

 

"We had wanted a Hindu CM who would look after Jammu’s interests since we are the majority," says Gulshan Kumar, a resident and owner of a textile store.

 

Shopowners, shoppers, students, housewives and residents say Jammu has been severely-neglected by successive governments. A direct train to Katra means that pilgrims to Vaishno Devi no longer stop in Jammu. Several development projects remain stalled. No new taxi stands have been allowed since 1972. There is a massive shortage of parking space and taxis and buses are not allowed to come to Raghunath temple thus hampering tourism. A cable car project, an artificial lake project—Tawi Lake—as well as a project to restore the Mubarak mandi monument are stalled.

 

"Abolishing Article 370 is the best way to get business going in J&K," says Baldev Khuller, pradhan of the Raghunath market, "As businesses would be secure that they could buy property and invest in the state. But now it doesn’t look like it will happen. We have always been discriminated against and the PDP in my opinion is not a rashtravadi party like NC."

 

Debate rages on this in a local restaurant between students and shopowners. Madan Aggarwal, another Jammu resident and a department store owner in Raghunath market, disagrees strongly: "Mufti is the only Kashmiri politician who is sensitive to Jammu. When I met him, he asked me, show me one instance where in my 3 years as chief minister, I have been hostile to Jammu."

 

Aggarwal says the NC was plagued by corruption and Jammu’s slide is a result of the NC. "The hotel and tourism industry is destroyed in Jammu. The place has become a vriddh ashram—an old age home because all our children have to leave to get jobs and we old parents are left behind."

 

Vishal, a student, says that most Jammu residents are not comfortable with the PDP. "They are close to the separatists. But now PDP will have to protect those Kashmiri Muslims like Hina Bhatt who joined the BJP, because they will be in danger from the separatist elements."

 

Residents though agree that without a Hindu CM, Mufti is their best bet because he is personally clean and is a seasoned politician who has been the home minister of India.

 

Kamal K Gupta, who describes himself as a politics buff, says the success of the PDP-BJP government will depend on how local leaders are able to gel together. "Delhi is irrelevant here, how will the locals work together and how the cadres will clash is the question. We Jammu residents have voted for BJP because we wanted them to work for us, but if even the BJP is unable to look after our interests and keeps appeasing PDP, then we will have to ask what was the point of our vote?"

 

Disenchantment with the BJP paradoxically runs high. Residents say the BJP won on a Modi wave but so far has not been able to field a single face, while the PDP is the party with educated professionals and seasoned, shrewd and sophisticated leaders. "The BJP and PDP are unevenly matched. Look at how educated the PDP leaders are. The BJP faces are so raw, even Nirmal Singh the deputy CM is just a professor, the PDP will swallow them up," Gulshan Kumar said.

 

"Jammu is a trading centre and Kashmir is a production centre," says Gupta. "Each has to be developed accordingly. You can’t try and make one into the other. Yet they keep on trying to make Kashmir also a trading hub. You need a complete change in industrial policy. People from outside cannot benefit at the cost of Jammu businessman." Bhuller admits that the state is deeply divided. "Kashmiri Muslims are completely different from Muslims in the rest of India. The Dogra and Gujjars are much more integrated with us. The Kashmiri Muslims keep looking to Pakistan."

 

"Mehbooba is not acceptable to us at all," says Gupta. "She is a kattar panthi and comes across as anti-Hindu." Mufti Sayeed’s statement that Pakistan and separatists will be pleased at his appointment has also not gone down well here. "How can this government last its full-term when Mufti makes such disputed statements?" Gupta says.

 

Aggarwal says talented people like Haseeb Drabu can make a difference by changing the economy of J&K.