PARDEEP SINGH BALI
What could be more
hurting for a community to be treated as second class citizens in their own
state, especially for a minority, which survives upon the patronage of the
state government?
Unfortunately, Sikhs- chief
minority community in Jammu and Kashmir are boring brunt of indifferent
attitude of the successive state governments, wherein they are being snubbed in
every front by the state government, spanning from education, job opportunities,
promotions, representation in Legislative Assembly and Council. And even
though, their recurring demand of introducing Punjabi language in Kashmir
University could not reach deaf ears of those at the helm of affairs, which
shows how concerned state is for minorities.
One can make it from
the apathetic approach of the state government towards Sikhs in Jammu and
Kashmir that not even a single representative from the Sikh community was
inducted into the government in the reshuffle held recently under the chairmanship
of Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, wherein representatives from Gurez, Banihal,
Doda, Kishtwar and Zanaskar got place. Unfortunately, Ghulam Ahmed Mir, a
Congress MLA from Dooru in South Kashmir, was brought back after he was reportedly
discharged of all the charges by a CBI court in connection with the 2006 sex
scandal.
After Micky Singh,
Majeet Singh and Harbans Singh, no efforts were made to include any Sikh
representative in the ministry by any political party. Ironically and
regrettably, owing to indifferent attitude of the various political parties in
the state towards minorities, Sikhs are not even participating in the state
politics at any level. But somewhere political parties chose their own candidate
to appease minorities at the time of elections. One can say political parties
chose their puppet, who instead of doing anything for the community, works for
the welfare of the party and gets flourished at personal level. There are few
names like Hardeep Singh, Channi Singh and Jagmohan Singh who are ambitious to
enter politics, but are being only used by the political parties to get their
work done.
Not only this, Sikhs are
feeling cold-shoulder over the similar treatment received from all sides, for
instance, recently Chief Justice of Jammu and Kashmir High Court, Justice
Mahesh Mittal Kumar in March administered oath to newly appointed judges in the
state, where out of five judges, not even a single Sikh judge was considered
capable to hold the position. I have seen huge number of Sikhs in the field of
law, but for what they are loitering around the courts, only for those little
remunerations. I cannot deny the fact that others are also living the same
condition, but here lies the difference; others have hope that they will rise
up if got talent because have acquaintances with higher-ups, but Sikhs have no
hope of as such, neither have any connections at higher level, they are
striving and will struggle around sadar and session courts, like some hapless
LLB pass-outs from majority community.
Moreover, rising
competition and dearth of appropriate number of seats in the higher education at
University level created confusion for the students and to add on, reservations
for blue eyed candidates, besides genuine reservations of SC ST OBC and RBA make
things difficult for the Sikh students to get admission at University. Under
compulsions, Sikh students have to move out of the state to further their
studies. Therefore, the condition of the student fraternity is going bad to
worse, mere 20-30 percent of Sikh students are pursuing higher education in
Jammu and Kashmir, whereas huge chunk of students are studying out of state.
Punjabi Language, which
is taught in over 5-6 colleges across the Valley, with over 200-250 students is
still not introduced in Kashmir University. These students are helpless to move
out to further it.
Returning back to the
state after completion of degree, the qualified Sikh youths are craving for
pity jobs, which are also distributed among various reserved categories. The state-of-affairs
of the Sikhs in Jammu and Kashmir is as such that they are forced to do
unskilled work or get into private jobs on far low profile than their
qualification. While as, most of these young students prefer to work outside,
because of lack of opportunities in the state, thus adding to the already
declining rate of the Sikhs in Jammu and Kashmir.
Time and again, various
Sikh organizations have put forth their demands and had also submitted
memorandum carrying their demands to the respective/successive governments of
the state, but every time demands are kept in cold-store.
I feel that despite
part of Jammu and Kashmir, Sikhs are kept unknown to their rights and if they
raise any demand, it remains unheard. Recently some issues pertaining to
minorities were discussed with Chief Minister, in which, amendment in National
Commission of Minorities (NCM) Act 1992 was sought, to make it applicable in
Jammu and Kashmir, which is otherwise applicable across the India.
Likewise, Anand Karaj
Marriage Act 1909, which was recently nodded by both houses of the parliament
is still not amended in Jammu and Kashmir and thus deprives Sikhs to register
their marriage according to their law.
Besides these two
immediate amendments, the state government needs to chew over various other issues
concerning minorities in the state in order to make them realize that they are
part of the Jammu and Kashmir and are not second class citizens. There are very
few demands concerning Sikhs in Jammu and Kashmir, I may opine few like Formation
of Minority commission by amending NCM Act, 1992 to mitigate Sikh problems, which
will provide avenues to deserving youth and will help them to compete in
various state level exams, sufficient representation to Sikhs in legislative
assembly, legislative council, public service commission, SSRB, Judiciary and
other statutory bodies and moreover special scholarship to the poor students of
the community.
This is the high time
for the state government to moot over the demands of the Sikhs, otherwise if
the tendency of moving out of Sikh youth remained same, it would be too late
for J&K government to bring them back. It is seen that successive
governments are taking Sikhs for granted and are not taking their demands
seriously. The plight of the Sikhs is that they are reclusive in Jammu and
Kashmir and unfortunately for this reason they are deprived of their rights.
