Jehangir Ali 
Srinagar: Two candidates from Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh have been shortlisted for the posts of ‘cluster development executive’ and ‘textile designer’ by the directorate of handlooms and handicrafts in Jammu, triggering anger in the region which is a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) stronghold.
The selection of candidates from UP and MP for government jobs in J&K has become possible after the reading down of Article 370 and Article 35-A. This controversy has come at a time when the Union Territory is grappling with one of the highest unemployment rates in the country.
After a government notice revealing the background of the candidates circulated on social media, a number of Jammu-based social and political activists described the shortlisting of “outsiders” for jobs in Jammu as an assault on the livelihood of locals.
In the notice, released on Tuesday (October 15), the joint director of handlooms, Jammu, said that six candidates have been shortlisted for one post of ‘cluster development executive’ in Kathua’s Basohli Pashmina Cluster. The notice asked the shortlisted candidates to appear for interviews before the official selection committee.
The interviews are scheduled to be held at the directorate of handlooms and handicrafts in Jammu’s Panama Chowk at 11: 30 am on October 22, the notice said.
What triggered anger in Jammu region was that one of the six shortlisted candidates hails from Padana Sarangpur village in Rajgarh district of Madhya Pradesh while another is a resident of the village of Bambhura in Uttar Pradesh’s Bahraich district.
The remaining four candidates are from Kathua district of Jammu and Kashmir.
A second notice on the same date by the joint director also invited six candidates shortlisted for the post of ‘textile designer’ to appear for the interview before the selection committee on the same time and date.
Out of the six candidates shortlisted for the post of ‘textile designer’, the candidate from Uttar Pradesh who also appears in the shortlist for ‘cluster development executive’, has also made it to this second list, while the remaining five candidates hail from Samba and Kathua districts of Jammu region.
“The candidates are advised to bring their original documents with them for verification. No TA(travel allowances)/DA (dearness allowances) shall be paid to the interviewees,” the notice said.
The two lists triggered anger in Jammu, with the National Conference (NC) and People’s Democratic Party (PDP) as well as some social activists from the Hindu-majority region blaming the BJP-led Union government for misleading people on the issue of employment at a time when J&K is grappling with high unemployment.
Aditya Gupta, state vice-president of youth PDP, said that by reading down Article 370, the Union government has opened the gates of Jammu and Kashmir to outsiders to take away the jobs which were meant for locals.
“The BJP has been trying to mislead the public with empty promises of a Dogra chief minister. The protection of land rights and jobs was at the heart of Article 370, which safeguarded Jammu’s future. Now, we are left fighting for our own survival,” Gupta, a lawyer, said.
“Article 370 is important to protect jobs and land rights! Unemployment in Jammu and Kashmir is at its peak, phir naukriyaan UP, MP ke logon ko kyun di ja rahi hain? Yeh Bandh Hona chahiye! (Why are people from UP and MP getting jobs [in J&K]? This should stop),” Rohit Choudhary, a young NC leader from Jammu, posted on X.
Manu Khajuria, a writer who focuses on the issues of Dogras in Jammu, said that she was not sure about the credentials required for the two jobs which are linked to Jammu’s culture and heritage.
“When it is hard for most outside Jammu to even name its 10 districts, how are they expected to do justice to an art form intrinsic to the region. Let [the] stakeholders be local. It is the need for this region,” Khajuria, who is a proponent of statehood for Jammu, said.
The Hindu-majority Jammu largely supported the Union government’s move of reading down Article 370 which gave J&K’s residents exclusive rights to land and government jobs. Many Jammu residents have been yearning to see a Dogra chief minister ruling the Muslim majority region, as was propagated by saffron groups.
In the recently concluded assembly election too, voters in the Hindu belt of Kathua, Samba, Udhampur and Jammu voted predominantly for the saffron party which had also promised to put the economic trajectory of the Union Territory back on track if it was voted to power.
Taking a dig at the BJP supporters, Gulvinder Singh, a popular X account from Jammu, posted: “Dogra CM Baad Mei Lena, Pehle Dogra Jobs Bacha Lo! #Jammu (You will have a Dogra CM, but first protect the jobs of Dogras).”
Last month, the Congress also targeted the BJP government as well as lieutenant governor Manoj Sinha’s administration on the issue, claiming that more than 25 lakh youngsters were unemployed in Jammu and Kashmir.
Quoting official data, the All India Congress Committee’s national media coordinator, Dolly Sharma, said that the unemployment rate of 28.2% in Jammu and Kashmir was second highest in the country and the highest faced by J&K in 45 years.
“BJP is making false claims on employment, while the reality is that J&K has the highest unemployment in the last 45 years and and the second highest unemployment rate in the country under the BJP regime,” Sharma told reporters.
According to data from J&K’s Directorate of Employment, 3.52 lakh unemployed youth registered with the department in the first three months of this year with 1.09 lakh youth among them holding graduate and post-graduate degrees.
However, official data released by the government seeks to contradict the issue of unemployment in Jammu and Kashmir. According to the J&K economic survey 2023, unemployment in the Union Territory went down from 6.7% in 2019-20 to 5.2% in 2021-22.