Commenting on the recent trends of describing some of the areas in Jammu through which Chenab river flows as “Chenab Valley”, the State BJP has made it clear that there is no region in Jammu province which can be geographically and justifiably described so.
In a statement, BJP State Spokesperson Balbir Ram Rattan said that the districts through which Chenab river flows have different languages, dissimilar social customs and ways of life. No district’s physical features resemble that to the other districts. In fact, the dissimilarities of language, colour, social castes, etc. far exceed the differences found in rest of the state.
“Valley is an area which is flat and walled by mountains, while as the region through which Chenab flows is totally mountainous and does not possess any flat land and giving it a nomenclature of “Chenab Valley” is totally misleading and mis-descriptive”, said Balbir.
On the contrary, Kashmir valley has homogeneous geographical, social and cultural characteristics with single language and constitutes small percentage of the total area of the state and cannot include other adjacent areas due to geographical and physical features. Similar is the case with Ladakh region, where only two local languages are used and Jammu province has also only one language in use. The use of the term “Chenab Valley” other than fostering a sense of separateness from the rest of the Jammu province, serves no other purpose, the Spokesperson elaborated adding that it only creates void and distance between the people. Also, there is no legal, constitutional or historical basis for coining this divisive nomenclature of a region, where language and way of life differ and vary even from one village to another adjacent village.
Balbir Ram Rattan said it appears that some political parties and personalities are unmindful of the paramount requirement of avoiding use of such terms which, instead of strengthening the cohesion between the people of different languages and social mores, foster a sense of exclusivity and differentness. He appealed all the right thinking, secular people and political entities to refrain from using such mis-descriptive nomenclature.
