By News Agency of Kashmir
Srinagar : Gujjars of Jammu and Kashmir today strongly opposed the demand of S.T Status by Pahari speaking people of the State and warned the government against any such move to dilute the Tribal status.
The state president, Gujjar Bakerwal Joint Forum, Haji Shamsher Ali Boken in a meeting held here today expressed his anguish over the vested interest people trying to weaken the Tribal character of various communities and ride upon the established procedures and set practices to grant tribal status.
The forum, faxed a memorandum to the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh and Union Home Minister, Mr Shivraj Patil submitting that some people are trying to get the tribal status on the name of Pahari language so that they may secure certain benefits which have been given to the tribal people only.
The 7-point memorandum has listed some of the issues and demands of the Gujjar and Bakerwal tribes which have been granted Scheduled Tribe status.
Regarding Pahari speaking people’s claim to ST status, the forum argued that the term; ” Pahari or for that matter, Pahari speaking people” has never been defined either by the J&K Government or the Union Government. Such class of people has neither been defined in any works of history, anthropology or census nor even mentioned in revenue records.
Paharis were neither defined as a weaker section and nor they approached before the Gajendragadkar Commission, the Sikri Commission, the Wazir Commission (1969), the Anand Commission (1976) and the Mandal Commission which covered the entire country. All these commissions, from time to time, identified the Other Backward Classes, Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Backward Areas and none of them recognized any group as Pahari or Pahari speaking people as weaker section of the society. Pahari being the affluent ruling class do not suffer from the social stigma which is the most important condition to declare a particular class of people as Scheduled Tribe, the memorandum said.
The demand of the Pahari speaking people is merely based on the premises of language while the dialect or the language is not any criteria to declare any class as Scheduled Tribe. Each of the languages have sister dialect and by that way Pahari is invariably spoken across the state by the people of all communities and origins. Even the Pahari language has no dialect. Paharis are neither tribal nor nomadic in character and they are not socially, economically and educationally backward, the memorandum.
The Minister for Tribal Affairs in the NDA Government had out rightly rejected such a demand on the floor of the House in the Rajya Sabha in 2002. To an question of National Conference MP Mirza Abdul Rashid during the autumn session of the Rajya Sabha in 2002 the Minister for Tribal Affairs had said that such a proposal is not under the consideration of the Government of India as the “Pahari speaking people” is not any identified group eligible for inclusion into Scheduled Tribes.
The leaders took strong exception to the State Government’s proposal to give Schedule Tribe status to Paharis. “What is the criteria of giving ST status to Paharis as there is no provision to enlist a community as Schedule Tribe on the basis of its location”, he said and added that Gujjars were nomadic so they were given Schedule Tribe status in 1991 by the then Prime Minister, Chander Shekhar.
He mentioned that Paharis are already enjoying reservation under three different categories i.e. RBA, ALC and OBC in different areas. Moreover, if still there are some more Pahari people who need reservation then they should be given the reservation on the basis of their economic status but not on ST status, adding that Paharis are not recognized class under SRO 394 of 1981 of State Government, it was pointed out. The demand of Pahari speaking people is merely based on the premises of language while the dialect or the language is not any criteria to declare any class as ST.
Those who attended the meeting included: Rafiq Chouhan, Sarwar Choudhary Goolvi, Abdul Karim Terwa, Slam Din, Kher Din, Ilam Din Banbasya.