In a cryptic reference, George Bernard Shaw had defined patriotism as the conviction that your country is superior to all other countries because you were born in it. But what Shaw failed to elucidate was that love for one’s country for one’s place of birth a pre-requisite for love for one’s country of birth.
Strange it therefore sounds when there is an attempt in certain quarters to paint the pride of being a native of Jammu as a narrow regional or a divisive communal sentiment.

Ironically, quite often, such an opinion conies from those very champions of nationalism, human rights or Kashmiriyat who do not raise an eyebrow when certain sections of population in other parts of the country and even in neighboring Kashmir openly come out in support of secessionist militants, burn the Indian tricolor and raise anti-India slogans.

Kashmir-centric political parties primarily based in the Valley and their Jammu based puppet leaders as well as Kashmir-centric intellectuals primarily based in the Valley and their Jammu based puppet intellectuals try to invent apparently philosophical though confusing postulations in an effort to dismiss Jammu’s struggle for assertion of its identity as a threat to economy harmony. But these very protagonists have always lacked the courage to utter award of condemnation against those of the elements in Kashmir Valley who even refuse to call themselves Indians and who have waged an unrelenting war against the sovereignty of the republic of India.

It is, however, for the first time that a determined people’s movement in Jammu triggered by Amarnath land row has given these Kashmir-centric activists a taste of their own chicanery. At the same time, it is also for the first time perhaps that the vehement rage and fury of Jammu people over the Amarnath land has managed to silence the Jammu based spokesmen of Kashmir-based masters.

Edward Stuart writes that those who are afraid of facing the music should not aspire to lead the band. Those who practice double standards about the interpretation of nationalism should refrain from the nationalist credentials of well-meaning innocent citizens of Jammu who take as much pride in being the sons of Jammu as being the sons of India.

The people of Jammu are already driven to the wall and any further overt to covert attempt to play with their psyche could meet disastrorous retaliation. Pathetic plight of displaced Kashmiri Pandit community which was constrained to seek shelter in refugee camps after being hounded out of their homes and hearths in the Valley. All these odds and ills already plagued Jammu when the peo-ple of Jammu found themselves being denied a meager land facility during Amarnath Yatra even as several present and past chief ministers hailing from Kashmir Valley had half palatial bungalows on allegedly encroached land in the outskirts of Jammu. And, this acted like a match stick that finally sparked the dormant fire of years and Jammu, united as never before, rose like a fiery crescendo to assert its unrecognized identity. Diffuse this volcano before it engulfs all. Redeem the common man before he is pushed on the course of violence.