The Hindu : Front Page : Kashmir and Jammu regions enjoy parity

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Monday, Aug 18, 2008
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Kashmir and Jammu regions enjoy parity

Praveen Swami

Census data refute BJP claims

NEW DELHI: Census data do not bear out Bharatiya Janata Party claims that residents of the Hindu-majority Jammu region are underrepresented in the State’s Legislative Assembly.

In fact, the 2001 Census Survey of India demonstrates that there is near-perfect representational parity between the communally volatile regions. According to the census, which is available online at http://www.censusindia.gov.in/, Muslim-majority Kashmir has a population of 5,476,970 while Jammu is home to 4,429,887 people.

Simple arithmetic shows that there is an elected legislator for every 119,726 Jammu division residents, who are represented by 37 MLAs. Kashmir residents, who elect 46 MLAs, receive legislative representation for every 119,064 people.

Islamist claims also false

Interestingly, the 2001 Census data also blow apart Islamist claims that India has initiated a covert effort to alter Jammu and Kashmir’s demographic character.

Jammu and Kashmir’s Muslim-majority character is robust, the data make clear. Most Kashmir residents were concentrated in Srinagar and Anantnag, which had populations of over a million people each.

Most populous district

Hindu-majority Jammu, with a population of over 1.5 million, was found to be the State’s most populous district. Udhampur and Kathua, also Hindu-majority districts, had a population of over 1.2 million, while Muslim-majority Doda, Poonch, and Rajouri had a combined population of about 1.5 million.

Overrepresented

Ladakh, made up of the districts of Leh and Kargil, had a population of just 2,36,539. Kargil and Leh are significantly overrepresented in both Parliament and the State Assembly — a decision which has the support of all political parties, who see this as a means to address developmental concerns in the sprawling, remote mountain regions.

BJP claims

Last week, BJP leader M. Venkaiah Naidu stated that the Kashmir division, represented by 46 legislators, had an electorate of 2.5 million. He compared this with Jammu which had 2.9 million registered voters but only 37 representatives in the Assembly.

However, the census data suggest that this lower number of registered voters in Kashmir is the result of violent conditions in the region, which have led to poor voter identification and registration. The number of Assembly seats in Kashmir clearly reflects the higher population base.

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