New contours as J&K map redrawn: Paharis press for ST status, NC loses key leader

In a setback to the National Conference in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pir Panjal region comprising Poonch and Rajouri, former miner Syed Mushtaq Ahmed Bukhari on Tuesday resigned from the party saying he was being told to stop his fight for Scheduled Tribe status to Pahari-speaking people in the twin border dricts.
The resignation came two days after Bukhari shared dais with BJP J&K president Ravinder Raina at a conference of Pahari leaders from Rajouri and Poonch on Sunday, where the demand for ST status was made.
Paharis have been seeking ST status now for 30 years, since the grant of the same to Gujjars and Bakarwals in J&K in 1991, leading to reservation in jobs and seats in educational institutions for them. After the Delimitation Commission recently recommended political reservation for them as well, Pahari leaders have come together to make a fresh push for the same.
Sources said that during the conference held on Sunday, Raina said the BJP was committed to granting ST status to Paharis. And that Bukhari announced from the dais that if this was done, he would break his near three-decade association with the NC and join the BJP.

Describing himself as an NC loyal who had stood the party through thick and thin, Bukhari, in a brief resignation letter to NC president Farooq Abdullah, said: “Your constant insence on me foregoing the Pahari cause has made this relationship untenable for me.”
The main NC face in Poonch drict’s Surankote area, Bukhari has been elected twice as MLA from here, and served as a miner as well as vice-chairman of the Pahari Board. He was considered close to the Abdullahs.
It is essentially the non-Gujjars in Rajouri and Poonch who have been seeking ST status saying they face the same hardships of the hilly dricts as the Gujjars and Bakarwals. However, the latter are opposed to this as it would mean sharing of the advantages of the reservation available to them.
As per the 2011 Census, the Gujjar and Bakarwal population in Poonch drict is 43% and Rajouri 41%. The remaining population in both the dricts, including Hindus and Muslims, call themselves Paharis.
Bukhari told The Indian Express that he had met Farooq Abdullah several times over the past few days, and it was indicated to him that the NC didn’t take kindly to his sharing a platform with the BJP. Then, on Tuesday, he claimed that Abdullah had accused him of having joined the BJP.
NC Jammu province president Rattan Lal Gupta denied Bukhari’s claims, saying the party was yet to receive any resignation letter from him and that it had always supported ST status for Paharis. Gupta pointed out that when he was the Chief Miner, Abdullah had written a letter to the Central government on the issue, as well as passed a resolution in the Legislative Assembly asking the Centre to grant ST status to Paharis.
Gupta said that even in the recent past the NC had met Prime Miner Narendra Modi and Home Miner Amit Shah to press for the same.
Bukhari has now become the fourth prominent NC leader in the Jammu province to quit since its then Jammu president Devender Singh Rana joined the BJP along with Surjit Singh Slathia in October. Another former miner, Prem Sagar Aziz, later quit the NC.

BJP chief spokesperson Sunil Sethi said Bukhari’s resignation was a fallout of the Pahari community’s growing disillusionment with the NC, PDP and Congress. He added: “With the reconfiguration of the Anantnag-Rajouri parliamentary constituency and the Assembly seats in Poonch and Rajouri dricts (as proposed the Delimitation Commission), the Pahari community sees a political opportunity and the possibility for representation even in the Lok Sabha.”
Sethi said that in the coming days, more Pahari leaders might quit the NC, as well as the Congress and PDP, and form their own political front. “It is good for democracy.”