JAMMU: Jammu and Kashmir People’s Conference (JKPC) chief and MLA Sajad Lone on Thursday said that the current reservation policy in the Union Territory is being used as a tool to marginalise the Kashmiri-speaking population and reorder the region’s social structure.
Speaking in the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly, Lone, who represents the Handwara constituency, alleged that the reservation policy was engineered to diminish the presence of Kashmiri-speaking people in the region’s administrative and political framework.
“Attempts are being made to change the social supremacy by disempowerment. It looks like reordering through the current reservation policy. After 20 years, very few Kashmiri-speaking people will be seen in the Secretariat of Jammu and Kashmir,” Lone said.
Referring to the Kashmiri-speaking population, which includes both Muslims and Hindus, as a “distinct ethnic group”, Lone cited figures to show a decline in their representation in competitive examinations such as the Jammu and Kashmir Administrative Services (JKAS) over the past few years.
“Each passing day, Kashmiri-speaking candidates figure less in the results of competitive examinations. This is not because they are incompetent but because the space is being squeezed. They are being crowded out from the competitive space by virtue of the reservation system, which is totally rigged against them by the current 60 per cent reservation policy,” Lone said.
Figures indicate that the proportion of Kashmiri-speaking individuals qualifying for the JKAS examination stood at 19 per cent in 2023, 25 per cent in 2022, and 21 per cent in 2021. Lone called for an internal survey to assess the impact of the reservation policy on the Kashmiri-speaking population in the region.
The reservation policy in Jammu and Kashmir has been significantly reworked over the past five years by the Centre. It currently allocates 20 per cent reservation to Scheduled Tribes (ST), 8 per cent to Scheduled Castes (SC), 10 per cent to Reserved Backward Areas, 8 per cent to Other Backward Classes, 4 per cent to Local Area Candidates/Integrated Borders, 10 per cent to Economically Weaker Sections, and 10 per cent to children of defence personnel, sportspersons, Central Armed Police Forces, persons with disabilities, among others. The open merit category, which includes general competition, has been reduced to around 40 per cent for admissions and government jobs.
Lone urged the government to rationalise the existing policy, arguing that the Kashmir region has no Scheduled Caste population and that the distribution of Scheduled Tribe communities is uneven between Jammu and Kashmir divisions. “In the Kashmir region, the Scheduled Tribe population constitutes 40 per cent, while in the Jammu region, it is 60 per cent. The Scheduled Tribes living in the Jammu region are comparatively more marginalised and scattered, unlike in the Kashmir region, where entire constituencies belong to Scheduled Tribe communities. ST communities should be allowed to compete more within the Jammu region,” Lone said.
Highlighting the impact of decades of turmoil in Kashmir, he said that instead of implementing special measures to support the region, the government was taking steps that could have adverse long-term consequences. “For 30 years, the discourse from Delhi was ‘teach them a lesson’ and ‘show them their place’. This is a post-dated cheque for disaster. The last 30 years have seen turmoil and violence in the Kashmir region. The overall mental makeup of people has undergone a lot. That script was written by enemies, and this script is being written by us,” the JKPC leader said.
Lone warned that bureaucrats drafting policies would eventually leave, while the people of Jammu and Kashmir would be left to deal with the fallout. “If you are going to push merit to the wall and deny deserving students admission in colleges, it will cause disorder that our children will have to face. It is something generational,” he cautioned.
Lone’s remarks have reignited the debate over the fairness of the reservation policy and its long-term impact on the region’s socio-political landscape. The government has yet to respond to his concerns, but the issue is expected to remain a key point of discussion in the coming days. -(KL)
