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Jammu burns : Major parties care two hoots for national interest |
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B.I. Saini
Thankfully, the all-party delegation deputed by the Prime Minister to hold talks with people on both sides of the political divide in Jammu and Kashmir has been able to meet representatives of the Sri Amarnath Sangharsh Samiti during its two-day visit to the state. But regrettably, the samiti agreed to meet the delegation led by Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil only after National Conference patron Farooq Abdullah and People’s Democratic Party Chief Mehbooba Mufti opted out. The samiti had earlier made it clear that it would not talk to the delegation with Farooq Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti as members because it holds their parties responsible for the present crisis in the state.
Though the Sangharsh Samiti has agreed to continue the dialogue with the all-party delegation from the Centre, it remains adamant on continuing its agitation till the restoration of about forty hectares of land to the Sri Amarnath Shrine Board. The samiti is also demanding recall of Governor N.N. Vohra and handing back the Amarnath pilgrimage arrangements to the board.
On the other side of the divide in the state, people in the Kashmir valley are agitating against the disruption of transport and supplies because of the trouble in the Jammu region. They say the valley is almost being starved as essential supplies are not reaching from the plains because of the agitation in Jammu. Also, the apples and other fruits the valley produces, a perishable commodity, are rotting because they cannot be transported to the consuming centres in the country such as Delhi and other major cities.
Right from the beginning, the issue has been mishandled by those in authority in the state. The Centre has also not covered itself with glory in its response to the situation. The Centre’s action of sending an all-party team to Jammu and Kashmir has come 42 days after protests started over the land allocation issue. Ten people died and about 500 injured in the protests which turned violent on many occasions.
In the first instance, the state government, which was then run by a coalition of the Congress and the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) should not have allocated the land to the shrine board, without taking into account local reactions to the move. It should have been aware that separatist elements in the state would not let go of any opportunity to arouse emotions over the issue. Not so unexpectedly, the separatists spread the propaganda that valley land is being used for settling migrants and non-state subjects, even though there was no truth in their allegations. When the separatists jumped into the fray, the PDP lost no time to dissociate itself from the allocation of land to the shrine board, forgetting that its own Ministers had pushed for the land allocation.
At the central level, the BJP is decidedly adopting an ambiguous approach towards the efforts to sort out the crisis. While, thankfully a member of the BJP agreed to be part of the all-party delegation, the party is keeping the heat on, threatening to launch a countrywide agitation on the issue from today, August 11. Significantly, the move comes despite the virtual isolation of the BJP at the all party meeting held in New Delhi on August 6, where leader after leader appealed to the party’s “good sense” not to allow things to get out of hand because the nation might have to pay a huge price. Even the leader of an NDA constituent party reportedly said at the meeting: “the country should not be punished because any problem in Jammu and Kashmir has national and international ramifications.”
Both Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh have approached senior BJP leaders including party president Rajnath Singh and its prime-ministerial nominee Lal Krishan Advani, with the request not to stoke the Amarnath agitation which has kept Jammu on the boil for over a month. Advani’s latest statement in New Delhi on August 9 in which he said that the party would take the fight to the end shows that the BJP, short of issues before next year’s Lok Sabha elections, has succumbed to the temptation to make it part of its electoral plank.
The Congress on its part should have approached the BJP on the issue when the trouble started and not waited till the beginning of this month when the divisions on the land allocation issue had come to the fore. The party also needs to put its house in order. It is incomprehensible how an experienced and seasoned leader like Ghulam Nabi Azad, who was state chief minister at the time, could have allowed the land allocation issue to erupt in this manner. He and his party need to do some soul-searching in the matter.
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