What was at the core of the problem in J&K?

Apart from Article 370 and Article 35A, the erstwhile J&K state had 111 seats — 46 in Kashmir, 37 in Jammu, and 4 in Ladakh — plus 24 seats reserved for Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK). Since Kashmir had much more number of seats than Jammu, Kashmir dominated the politics in J&K. Since Kashmir was always in unrest, the effects of that used to spill over to Jammu and Ladakh and they suffered due to no fault of theirs.

Muslims are majority in Kashmir where as Hindus + Sikhs are in absolute majority in Jammu. Though Jammu is economically advanced, Kashmir used to dominate Jammu politically. 

What did Jammu and Kashmir Reorganization Act, 2019 and Delimitation Commission do?

  1. It increased the assembly seats of Jammu from 37 to 43.
  2. Where as the assembly seats in Kashmir were increased from 46 to 47.
  3. At least two Kashmiri Pandits MLAs will be represented in the Legislative Assembly.
  4. Seats will reserved for SC & STs in accordance with the Constitution in the state assembly. Before 370 abrogation, there were no reservations for SC/STs.

What will be the overall impact?

  1. With the Jammu getting more representation in assembly, the number of MLAs of the separatist political parties will reduce where as the influence of nationalist parties will rise in the assembly.
  2. Earlier, there were no reservation for SC/STs. Even the Valmiki community did not have right to vote. With seats being reserved for SC/STs and SCs getting right to vote, they would surely support integration of J&K with India irrespective of which party they get elected. And it is obvious that the SC/STs would not vote for separatist parties.
  3. With reservations being given to Kashmiri Pandits, the representation of nationalist parties would grow in J&K assembly.

In nutshell,

  1. The above steps will vastly increase the representation of nationalist parties in J&K assembly and will reduce the representation of separatist parties.
  2. With increased representation of Jammu, Jammu will dominate J&K politically.

Earlier Jammu dominated J&K economically, but not politically. With Jammu dominating J&K both politically and economically AND minority communities (like SC, ST and Pandits) getting representation in assembly, all terrorism, unrest and anti-national activities will be crushed with an iron fist and J&K will become peaceful for ever.

DISCLAIMER: The author is solely responsible for the views expressed in this article. The author carries the responsibility for citing and/or licensing of images utilized within the text.