People in the Kashmir Valley have been provided for the last 65 years, hundreds of thousands of crores in subsidised cheap food (perhaps cheapest in the world), subsidised firewood, subsidised salts, subsidised pesticides for orchards, subsidised agricultural pursuits, cheaper feeds for animals, liberal loans for training in professional colleges outside the state (never returned), huge subsidies for establishment of industrial units, liberal loans for housing and so on.
There is hardly any sphere of life where people of Kashmir do not get preferential treatment. The population of the state is just 0.4% of the country yet it received 2.7% of the national development outlay. Five Year Plans are being totally financed by the Centre, as also assistance for staff salaries. While in other parts of the country various states are getting central assistance as 30 percent grants and 70 percent loans, Jammu and Kashmir is among the most favoured parts where Central assistance is being given as 90 percent grants and 10 percent as loan.
In the country as a whole, over 15 percent people are house-less but in the Kashmir Valley every family has got a proper house of its own. Such huge sums of money have been pumped into the Kashmir Valley to the neglect of other two regions during all these years that they have resulted in regional imbalances and regional tension within the state.
Insurgency and terrorism have not affected the prosperity of the Muslims of the Kashmir Valley. In fact, their prosperity has increased due to their having taken away immovable assets and agricultural property as also business establishments of the Hindus worth thousands of crores of rupees. Massive loans taken from financial institutions have not been returned. No taxes or Government dues are paid in the Valley. Electricity charges, water bills, telephone bills, sales tax bills, sales tax, excise duty nothing is paid to the Central Government.
Now, if some misguided Kasmiris and birdbrains like SAS Gilani and Co of the Hurriyat want independence, you dont need to be a rocket scientist to figure out the devastating financial effect on Kashmir and Kashmiris and their quality of life. For the 2% of Kashmiris who want to merge with Pakistan, they should ask themselves whether Pakistan can afford to give all these freebies to the Kashmiris that amount to thousands of crores a year as subsidies.
The Kashmiris who insist on independence or a merger with Pakistan must ask themselves whether they are better off in India? There would be no more freebies and subsidies. The crutches that they have been dependent upon for decades will be gone resulting in the further disintegration of the state due to civil unrest and discontent. Pakistan would be hard put to control the chaos that would ensue. In other words, another nightmare for Pakistan seeing that Waziristan and Balochistan are on the boil.
Religion can feed the soul, but it cannot put more food on the table.
