Politics over a medical institute – People of Kashmir ought to be careful
We are forced to believe that the people of Jammu have decided to launch a campaign against the reported or rumoured shifting of what has been labelled as AIIMS from Jammu to Srinagar. The label – All India Institute of Medical Sciences – makes the whole proposition palatable. People are made to think that a premier institute providing excellent medical and healthcare services is to be set up, either in Jammu or in Srinagar. Behind this Jammu or Srinagar dilemma rests an unholy plot that says about dirty politics instead of politics that one of the coalition partners of the present government has been able to invoke. Let us pick some holes at the idea of AIIMS in Jammu or Srinagar.
Twice there has been a region-wide (Jammu wide) strike call or bandh on the reported shifting of the proposed institute. To understand the murky plot we must begin our inquiries and reasoning backwards.
Kashmir institutions
More than two decades ago, everything seemed alright in the state, particularly in Kashmir valley. A university, a medical college, an engineering college, couple of medical institutes (hospitals) and some schools looked enough to provide services, even produce a brilliant talent pool in the form of academicians, doctors, engineers and so on. There has been a significant increase in population since early 90s and the need to have more and better facilities cannot be ignored. Hospitals are overburdened and thousands of students don’t get to enter handful of colleges and universities as there are limited number of seats. However, we must us take example of few institutes and see how they contribute and then reflect upon the AIIMS idea. The erstwhile Regional Engineering College was changed to a national institute. People thought it would be great, but is it really? The seats in the college are now divided and we haven’t seen extraordinary engineers come out of the college after its status change. As a matter of fact it served better as a regional college with everyone associated with it deeply grounded, in Kashmir affairs and sentiment at least. It has produced and shaped great minds, today Kashmiri students appear to be lost in the “national” character.
Still recent are the examples of universities. With few token universities gifted to Kashmir and that to when government (union) feared that Kashmir was fast slipping and spinning out of control have not allayed the fears of the people of Kashmir. Though there has been minor improvement in the infrastructure in these token universities but they suffer immensely from all other problems. Why do people of Kashmir feel to join a university or pursue higher education: that is the question we must think about. If majority of the students join universities to increase their chances of getting a job or being employed, then the purpose is not met at all. In Kashmir the rate of unemployment is high. Universities do not change that status significantly or even contribute. The only difference more universities make in such a scenario is that instead of 6 lakh 12th pass unemployed youth we have 6 lakh graduate unemployed youth. Handful of jobs as faculty created in these universities is allotted as per loyalty, which makes it even worse. In addition, due to poor staff (by number and by selection) and meagre resources there is always a pool of graduates and post graduates who are not able to compete because of poor training and education standard. Given a choice, a student would always wish to study and be enrolled in the old established university of Kashmir.
Now the so called “AIIMS” institute. If the state of affairs remains as we have seen with educational institutes, it won’t serve the purpose in Kashmir as people might be expecting. Also, a national institute may also mean getting into Kashmir or Kashmir integration by other means.
Murky Politics
In order to understand what seems as a dirty political plot behind proposed AIIMS setup, we must also keep into consideration the communal politics and polarization of communities. In Indian political context, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came in power at the centre after two communal episodes. One was the Babri Masjid demolition and the other can be said as Gujarat riots. It is a fact, people who snub it can check the timeline as when BJP was formed and when it came to power and which major episodes involving communities occurred in the time frame.
BJP lost an election even after a regime favoured by many for sound political leadership of former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. The most obvious reason for BJP to reach the crest of power has been its anti-Muslim appeasement policy which may mean ‘Hindu appeasement policy’. Congress for decades has been bashed by the Hindu right-wing parties, like BJP, for pursuing a Muslim appeasement policy. Kashmir is not in this picture mostly, and it refers to the huge vote bank in northern India in states like UP and Bihar. The Hindu right-wing rhetoric – soft on Muslims – has been helped by Indian jingoistic media that have been sensationalizing events from border clashes to trifling matters, adding a national character to them. This build up is so acute that even a good cricket game between India and Pakistan (that homes Muslim majority) becomes like a national war on TV. The players from both sides hug and hangout in the rooms and venues, yet the fans filled up with years of despise by dirty politics and media generated hype would go on carrying assaults (attacks on Kashmiri students studying outside being an example).
In retrospect what can be concluded is that the right-wing parties that reached to power realized that good politics is not enough to remain in power, because people seem to have a different yardstick to measure them up. The solution may be continuous strike or persistent efforts, though in smaller magnitude, to keep up with the anti-Muslim appeasement policy. This is clear from tactics like ‘Ghar Wapsi’, beef consumption and ban, some controversial remark on Muslims that keep appearing from time to time, Article 370 abrogation, etc. By these tactics, the right-wing party BJP is persistently trying to keep intact its majority Hindu vote bank, otherwise it may once again have to do something big and bad.
AIIMS tactics
If Government of India wants and wishes AIIMS at Jammu it will be set up in Jammu and if it wishes it to be set up in Kashmir it will go ahead in that manner. Why the dilemma and the fight? It has been made into an issue so that the divide between Jammu and Kashmir is accentuated. Otherwise the union government can anytime declare its plan. Two strike calls and bandhs in Jammu believed to be supported by different bodies means that they are trying to unite all the people in the region and pitch them against the people of Kashmir for a fight no one should be interested in. This again is a communal tactic of retaining Jammu, nothing more.
Word of advice
People in Kashmir need not be invoked by such theatrics and maintain their calm. When the UPA government decided to rehabilitate Kashmiri pandits they devised a plan and did not go asking the people of Kashmir. When the BJP led government assured the pandits of all possible help they did not come asking majority of the people of Kashmir. If the same government want to gift Jammu with a “premier medical institute” let them do it. All we know is that BJP and some rabble-rousers in Jammu are more interested in taking issues like pandit settlement and setting a hospital than rehabilitation thousands of flood-affected whose lives have been turned upside down since September 2014.
Let the BJP-led government gift them institutes, bridges, flyovers, economic packages, jobs – and show everyone that they are their own. Such shows do not last long. We do not resist any hospital shifting or tokens given to Jammu. We just want our own hospitals and institutes on track, but something or somebody is not happy allowing us to do so.
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