People’s Conference President and MLA Handwara Sajad Loan on Wednesday expressed deep concern over the boycott of Urdu as a worthy requirement for the post of Naib Tehsildar in Jammu and Kashmir, called it part of the “systematic marginalized” of the Kashmiri-stubborn majority and a dangerous steps in the direction of Urdu’s “gendericide”.
Reacting rapidly to development, Lone said, “So Urdu no longer needs to qualify for the post of Naib Tehsildar. The majority Kashmiri speaking population is almost rebuilt for a footnote in recruitment lists. Their presence in recruiting lists is proportional to their numbers.
He said that Urdu had historically given a proper lead in such positions to Kashmiri candidates due to the relevance of language in administrative matters. He said, “He may benefit little in NT exams and is appropriately all revenue records in Urdu. Now it has been withdrawn,” he said, it is a calculated trick to erase regional linguistic roots.
Targeting at the National Conference, Lone questioned the intentions of the ruling regime, “The right to give a good legal representation is on the elected government. Hopefully it is not yet another fixed match in a series of fixed matches that we are watching recently.”
But beyond the rule, the loan’s statement hit a emotional rage, underlining deep cultural loss at stake. “It is also about getting out of Urdu gradually,” he said. “I have not studied Urdu. And it is regretting my whole life. Urdu is a literary happiness and some of the world’s greatest poets have expressed themselves in this great language. And to think about enabling the linguistic of this great language.”
He warned that emotional and historical links between Urdu and Kashmiris cannot be separated so easily. Lone said, “This language has an emotional and a historical relationship with Kashmiris and it will never go away.”
This step, he vested, is not just a policy change, but an identity change, which he has described as risks separate people from their linguistic and cultural heritage.