Ugly Jammu versus Kashmir battle

A few points about the manufactured 'communal " flare-up over Amarnath
It was triggered off by the flip-flop of the state government (Kashmir) on the diversion of 800 kanals of land to SASB. An area not much larger than the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Delhi, one journalist ponted out.

The SASB is entrusted with the responsibility of conducting the annual Amarnath yatra.
Broadly, its mandate is to provide facilities to the pilgrims who visit the holy cave of Shri Amarnath in south Kashmir.
It creates and regulates facilities for the pilgrims.
The cave is located in a snowfall area far beyond the tree line on higher reaches and can be accessed only for about three months in a year.
For the rest of the year it remains under heavy snow and, thus, is difficult to reach.

The facilities created for the pilgrims are temporary in nature and comprise mainly pre-fabricated huts, mostly toilets, since it does not make sense to try to create any permanent or even semi-permanent structures on glaciers.
So the land was diverted, temporarily, for the duration of the pilgrimage, to the SASB by the state government.
Incidentally, the allotment was made by the government on the recommendations of the forest ministry headed by Qazi Mohammed Afzal, Tariq Hamid Qarra and Deputy Chief Minister Muzaffar Hussein Beigh. All the three gentlemen belong to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), a coalition partner in Azad-led government.
The three PDP ministers headed the forest, law and the tourism ministry, respectively. Besides, Mr Beigh was the number two in the state cabinet.

Part of the diverted land falls under Ganderbal, the electoral constituency and virtual fief of the Abdullahs for decades till Qazi Afzal trounced Omar in the 2002 assembly elections.

Farooq threw the proverbial first stone by questioning the wisdom of the land allotment to SASB though initially there had been no reaction in the valley against the move.
Farooq Abdullah's reaction to the land allotment was not strident or tough. Yet it made news.
And then all hell broke loose after the then chief executive officer of the Shri Amarnath Shrine Board Arun Kumar made a statement which communalised the whole situation.
In his defence, Kumar says that he stepped in only when rumours about Hindu colonisation of Kashmir valley by the SASB became rather vicious.
He also pointed out that it was his duty as CEO of the SASB to try to set the records straight.


At that time, rumours were floating in Kashmir that the SASB was hatching a sinister conspiracy to change the essentially Muslim demography of the Kashmir valley.

Several local newspapers had either insinuated that large numbers of Hindus would be brought in from outside and settled on the land diverted to the SASB.
Never mind the fact that it is not possible for anyone to settle on such heights where not a blade of grass grows.
The newspapers also conveniently glossed over the fact that under Article 370, no outsider can become a permanent resident of Jammu & Kashmir.
Separatists fanned these rumours and mobilised large crowds for protest.
This led to death of five persons across the valley.

The two mainstream political opponents fighting for the Kashmiri Muslim votes
the NC led by father-son duo of Farooq and Omar Abdullah,
and the PDP led by father-daughter combine of Mufti Mohammed Sayeed and
Mehbooba Mufti, are largely to blame for what happened.
They made no effort whatsoever to counter the bogey of Hinduisation of Kashmir.
Of the two, the PDP will have to take a large share of the blame as it was a part of the ruling coalition when it all started.

When contacted by a journalist for their comments, most of the NC leaders explained why they kept quiet and looked the other way:
As opposition party, it was not their responsibility to help the government.
Going a step further, they also accused the government of failing to solicit its support for normalising the situation.
Tthe Congress party, which was leading the government, also failed to scotch rumours of Hindu colonisation of Muslim Kashmir
Nothing but a shameful political drama-- the real antinationals are our Indian politicians!