Jammu has been burning for almost 5 weeks now but there has been no signs of government getting out of its deep slumber.The mass movement in Jammu spearheaded by Amaranth Sangharsh Samiti has catched the attention of domestic media ever since the whole episode started but now even the international media has started reporting the disturbance in the belittled part of Jammu and Kashmir with BBC covering and reporting the daily happenings.
This has been the classic example of government’s indolence with Prime minister Manmohan Singh calling an all party meet almost after a month with millions of rupees worth property has already been incinerated ,on 6 august to address and solve the issue.
The government at the centre was acting like Nero and the government in the state was resorting to preposterous decision one after the other and waiting for the word of wisdom from the bosses in Delhi after they get free from the job of winning the vote of (dis)trust.
This all began with government’s order of demanding the immediate revocation of the government order cancelling the transfer of 40 hectares of land to the Sri Amarnath Shrine Board. The land was meant for creating temporary facilities for pilgrims who trek to the Amarnath shrine every year, braving inclement weather and jihadi attacks.
The land transfer order was revoked after The All-Parties Hurriyat Conference spread three canards: First, the transfer amounted to alienation of 'Kashmiri land'; second, it would lead to intrusion of 'Hindu culture' in Muslim Kashmir; and, third, it would cause ecological damage.
The PDP, sensing an opportunity to revive its pro-separatist -- if not brazenly pro-kashmiri image in the run-up to the assembly election in Jammu & Kashmir, joined the protest and subsequently withdrew from the coalition government. To his credit, CM Azad stood firm and refused to budge from his government's decision, till N Vohra took as Governor, replacing Lieutenant General S K Sinha (retd).
Vohra, in his capacity as ex-officio chairman of the SASB, wrote a letter to Azad, confiscating the land and also offering to relinquish the board's task of organising the annual yatra, thus making the pilgrimage to the Amarnath shrine subordinate to the hapless government’s arrangements.
For all his efforts to appease a particular community in kashmir by ‘returning’ the land that had been allotted for Hindu pilgrims, proved to be a pig in the poke as Vohra was unable to save the Congress-PDP government. The PDP pulled out from the ruling alliance on June 28; on July 1, Azad, obviously under mounting pressure from his party bosses in Delhi, reversed the earlier decision.
The most stupefying part of the tragedy is that the people of Jammu has been let down by the government in the gravest manner possible. The land transfer order was revoked on July 1 after some relatively miniscule protests led by some leftist groups. But the majority of the population of the region,as it seems , has to do something more than lynching the cops or uprooting the rail tracks to make their voices heard or atleast make the government realize not to commit mistake of taking the people of Jammu,or belonging to a particular community, for that matter, for granted .
It is quite necessary to ask at this point of time that has the concept of secularism, in which India is proud of, has atlast failed? In reality the common man of India has always been secular. There has been no riots in J&K in so many decades despite being a muslim majority state. The Amarnath Yatris are looked after by muslim community in Baltal area of kashmir. It is just ths secessionist forces and shrewd political parties exploiting the sentiments of people and converting them into their so called vote banks. When someone talks about Hindu, he is called communal, an when someone talks about Muslim, he is called secular. Quite analogous is the case when someone from Congtress talks about Muslims, he is acclaimed as a secular, but when from BJP pleads for Hindus, he is stamped as a communal. But the fact is that the minorities has always been appeased in India by some political parties by providing all sorts of benefits like reservations in various government and non government organisations,in the guise of secularism, taking the majority for granted.
Years of neglect of Jammu by Kashmir has resulted in what we are seeing today. The people are frustrated and have at last found a platform to vent their pent up anger. The minority appeasement has always been the favorite trump card of congress party but with the people of Jammu almost impervious to their demand this time or perhaps for the first time, the minority appeasement could well prove to be a achilles heel to run up to the upcoming assembly elections.
The incidence has not only polarized the communities in the Jammu and Kashmir but has also given a chance to the right wing factions like VHP to strengthen their presence and ideology in the Jammu region, which alludes to an ominous premonition of the things about to happen in the near future.
Quite astonishingly the ongoing civil war has been not led by any political party, but just by a common cause as is evident from the fact that the mass movement has almost gone out of control of Amaranth Sangharsh Samiti’s hands with more and more people joining in like the doctors, nurses and medical staff of the governments’ hospitals.
Someone if not the government should be able to stop this bedlam before things deteriorate further with Kashmir being heaven and Jammu being inferno.
--Abhay Mittal--
abymittal@gmail.com
