The tunnel demand is an adjunct with much deeper connotations.The demise of 11persons including a beacon officer in the 1st leg of 2018 is an unfortunate incident and chronicles the pathetic history of karnah. It would be no wrong to call it“neo-ostracism” as inclusiveness is rudimentary in the given context and the population of nearly a hundred thousand is sidelined from the mainstream and is deprived of basic rights and amenities. This exclusion further intensifies the growing social polarization in the sensitive state and discourages pluralistic, inclusive and cross-cultural ethos, which are a way forward to the growing intolerance in the province.The slogans like “if you can’t afford the tunnel allow us to migrate other side” are the slogans of concern, especially when they are chanted by most tolerant residents who shouldered the dead yet maintained their calm. The harmony and peace in the region bear testimony to this despite the odds. The placards and the vociferous criticism of the established government’s actions send a message of growing regionalism in the L.O.C bound Tehsil, which in absolute terms is fundamental and tectonic for development, but if holistic vision is debilitated it often takes the aggressive form which limits “pan country” consensus.Sociologists maintain exclusion ante cedes regionalism, the picture in Karnah shows no deviance from the hypothesis, Karnahism is augmenting from a plethora of reasons with a common tail-“exclusion”, the political isolation due to negligible political representation,geographical isolation mainly by topography and social exclusion due to linguistic, cultural and ideological barriers.
Karnah is of immense strategic importance and is surrounded from three sides by Pakistan administered Kashmir and the last by Sadhna top (also called Nasta Chunn pass) Which is the chicken neck of connectivity with the rest of the world. Karnah once the cardinal market for Muzaffarabad in the reign of maharajah Hari Singh with easiest and shortest route (via Neelam valley, the abode of erstwhile shardapeth) Is now an excluded piece of land with some hapless souls incarcerated in the lap of mountains. Karnah is a nonagrarian society with trade being the only mode of subsistence which remains halted for months in the winter due to a dozen feet high snow barricade that often takes precious lives when commuters are forced to peregrinate despite the pestilent terrain. The arduous stretch of nearly 40km cut through deep gorges,ascending or descending steep precipices which have a legacy of taking several lives every year. Last year it claimed the lives of 5 indian army jawans, apart from this a Man (named Muhammad Abbas) Posted in Pathankot had to trek 50km for over 10hrs to carry his mother’s corpse on the shoulder with help from some locals.The year 2016 was no different when 73people were almost buried under an avalanche, but was rescued and in the December 2015, it claimed 7 lives. Since India is signatory to the Brasilia Declaration on road safety (now under Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) Target 3.6, which aims to reduce global road traffic deaths and injuries by 50% by 2020 and SDG target 11.2, which aims to provide access to safe, affordable, accessible and sustainable transport systems for all by 2030). It is imperative for centre to adhere itself to commitments to international conventions as India has always reflected a progressive image in the global community. Neither did the union budget for fiscal year 2017-18 that allocated whopping amount of Rs64,000 crores with an increase of 11.94% w.r.t FY2016-17 to the highways, nor did the PM’s economic package AMEIR (The Aggregative Macro Economic Infrastructure Rebuilding)Worth a corpus of Rs 80,000 crore for the state bring beatitude for the people of the subtown.Inclusion is imperative to karnah’s development which is a quiet youth in demography and is budding to prove its capabilities if brought into the mainstream will share its due part of the States growth.
(The author an engineering graduate writes on public issues regularly for “Kashmir Horizon”. Views are his own)
