Appeasing Paharis in Jammu & Kashmir

Move to give ST status to Paharis has single objective of drawing the community, mostly Muslims but with a sprinkling of Hindus and even Sikhs towards BJP

Union Home Minister Amit Shah announced scheduled tribe (ST) status for Pahari speakers in Jammu and Kashmir, claiming that the removal of the provisions of Article 370 of the Indian Constitution by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) allowed him to undo "injustice" done to the community up to now.

This is the first time the Centre has recognised a linguistic community as a tribal ethnic group. Critics of the move – mainly Gujjars and Bakerwals -- claim that Paharis have suffered no "injustice". In fact, they already enjoy a plethora of reservations in government jobs – four per cent under the provisions for reservations for Actual Line of Control habitats, 10 per cent under Reservation for Backward Area (RBA), four per cent under Other Social castes, 10 per cent under Economically Weaker Sections, and four per cent under Pahari speaking minority. Now, the promised ST status will give them an all-India reservation of 10 per cent, which the Gujjars and Bakerwals think will impact them adversely.

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Article 370 also did not prevent the designation of a community as a Scheduled Tribe. Several communities of the erstwhile state (including Ladakh at that time) were given ST status. In 1989, the J&K government of Dr Farooq Abdullah recommended after a unanimous cabinet decision that Paharis, Gujjars, Bakerwals, Gaddis, Bazigors and Sansis should also be notified as STs. Eventually, in 1991, Gujjars and Bakerwals were given ST status through a Presidential Ordinance when Article 370 was still in force. The Paharis feel that they were excluded from that round of redesignation because they did not have support in Delhi, unlike the Gujjars who had a powerful advocate in Rajesh Pilot, himself a Gujar from Uttar Pradesh but MP from Dausa in Rajasthan. Nevertheless, it was not the provisions of Article 370 that stopped their inclusion.

The present government's move to give ST status to the Paharis has the single objective of drawing the Pahari community (mostly Muslims but with a sprinkling of Hindus and even Sikhs) towards the BJP. The Paharis are in the majority in Poonch (63 per cent in the 2011 Census), and Rajouri (64 per cent) districts of Jammu and are also found in sizable numbers in Uri, Boniyar, Keran and Karnah Tehsils in the Valley. They are also found in scattered settlements in uphill areas of Baramulla, Kupwara, Anantnag, Budgam and Shopian.

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The Paharis claim that despite constituting 70 to 74 per cent of the population in 13 constituencies, they have no political representation. Of the eight assembly seats which broadly cover the area of their inhabitation, five are reserved for STs. Without an ST status, a Gujjar candidate would inevitably take five out of eight assembly seats Paharis voted in. Now that the situation has changed, the BJP hopes the Paharis will vote for it, showing gratitude for facilitating their political representation and giving them job reservations across the country.

The move will create a distance between them and the Muslims of the Kashmir Valley. Already, stray Pahari leaders of the Peoples' Democratic Party (PDP) and the National Conference (NC) have promised to join the BJP when ST status is granted to their community. Many vocal Paharis feel that up to now, their leadership went by default to the Muslims of the Kashmir Valley.

The move, therefore, can be seen as part of a larger set of strategies that the BJP has employed in the run-up to the assembly elections in J&K. It has tried to forge links with Sajjad Lone's Peoples' Conference to make an entry into the Kashmir Valley. The formation of Ghulam Nabi Azad's Democratic Azad Party will help to cut the Congress vote in the Chenab Valley, helping the BJP. Other arrows in its quiver include opening the electoral rolls to people "ordinarily resident" in J&K. Some fear this will lead to the inclusion in the voter list of security personnel posted there as well as central government and public sector employees who reside in the state. Nearly 25 lakh new voters are estimated to enter the rolls though this would also include first-time voters.

The impact of these strategies on voter behaviour on the ground is, however, still unclear. It is true that neither the Gujjar nor the Pahari Muslims sympathise with the Muslims of the Kashmir Valley. However, it is difficult to say that they do not identify with Muslims in the rest of India who are not doing well under the oversight of the BJP governments at the Centre and in the states. Will they be concerned with lynchings over beef, banning of community prayers in public places and the discrimination institutionalised in the Citizenship Amendment Act?

The most recent example of the exclusion of Muslims even from cultural activities comes from Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh. In both states, the ban on Muslims from Garba dance venues during Navratri is being imposed by the BJP's fraternal organisations, the Bajrang Dal and the Vishva Hindu Parishad. Videos of public flogging of Muslim youngsters near Garba venues are viral on social media. In Madhya Pradesh, the state's home minister Narottam Mishra and culture minister Usha Thakur imposed ID checks to prevent Muslims from entering dance venues, while BJP MP Pragya Thakur demanded that all Muslim shops near Garba pandals be forcibly shut down. The homes of three Muslims were bulldozed over allegations of throwing stones at a Garba dance venue. However much the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief, Mohan Bhagwat, tries to project a new tolerant image, the foot-soldiers of Hindutva are carrying on with the hard Hindutva project on the ground. The Muslims of J&K, whether Pahari, Gujjar, Bakerwal or from the Valley, must be witnessing these developments.

Will voter behaviour then turn only on the promise of reservation in jobs or be influenced by larger social developments around them? Only the legislative elections will tell us whether the BJP's plans will be effective.

(Bharat Bhushan is a journalist based in Delhi.)

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are the author's own. They do not necessarily reflect the views of DH.