A tribal family fumes over its fief being made 'for STs only'

KANGAN (GANDERBAL): A tribal family was winning an assembly segment for seven decades before it was abruptly reserved for STs this year. Now, the family vehemently protests the decision as "injustice" to general voters, even as it fights to keep its post-Independence grip on the constituency going.
If the instance boggles the mind, welcome to Kangan, nestling in the limitless beauty of pristine hills on one side and gurgling waters of "nallah Sind" on the other, with picturesque Sonmarg tantalizingly up the road.
Mehar Ali, looking to replace his Lok Sabha MP father Mian Altaf Ahmad as local National Conference legislator, says, "Reservation will hurt us. Kangan has larger general population than STs. The people here have been cheated."
He said NC members and the 2014 PDP candidate had met the Delimitation Commission during its visit and urged them that Kangan should not be reserved. "Every person feels bad about it," he added.
Interestingly, PDP's Bashir Mir who ran Ahmad close in 2014 is angry over seat's reservation and is now contesting from neighbouring Ganderbal.
At the core of the debate is that after Independence, the Mian family, as the spiritual head of the Gujjar-Bakarwal communities headquartered in Babanagri village, has held sway over the vast populace spread from the border areas of Jammu to inside of Kashmir. In Kangan, tribals voted for the contesting Mian family member over decades, while their personal and party appeal cut across the ST-general divide.
Ahmad said the redrawing of seats in Ganderbal-Kangan was patently flawed. "There was no need to convert it into an ST seat. We never sought political reservation. I am a five-term MLA and now MP, I never asked," he said.
As Kangan and Ahmad family revealed, there comes a point in the complicated political game of selfish motivations that larger considerations trump the normal logic of identity politics.
When asked why should a tribal not welcome his seat being tagged as ST reserved, the parliamentarian shot back, "My grandfather became an MLA in 1951 till 1967. Then my father was MLA till 1987. I was there till the assembly was dissolved in 2018. I trust the people. Why should I want it to become an ST reserved seat? The general masses back me and my family." He conceded that general population in Kangan may be 4% more than STs.
Asserting that he has seen many delimitations over the years, Ahmad alleged the one carried out in J&K was done to suit BJP, with an increase in six seats in Jammu and one in Kashmir. He said the delimitation attached parts of Rajouri (Jammu) with Anantnag (Kashmir) in Lok Sabha, but people voted against BJP, and he won by over 2.5 lakh votes. "But just imagine that people of Rajouri have to come to their MP in Anantnag on a routine basis taking the Mughal road," he remarked.
Claimed he, "It was done on BJP's advice, but BJP has got trapped in it now." He also blamed PDP for the "mess of delimitation" because it tied up with BJP in 2014.
"The ground is hostile to BJP because of delimitation. The people see NC as the alternative, even though they have no love for us," he said.