Author: PTI
Publication: Daily Excelsior
Date: August 10, 2008
URL: http://www.dailyexcelsior.com/web1/08aug10/news.htm
Former J&K Governor Lt Gen (Retd) S K
Sinha today took on the PDP for its so-called anti-national role while blaming
the media for "misleading and misinforming" the public on the sensitive
Amarnath land row.
Alleging that Mufti Mohammed Sayeed was opposed
to the length of the annual pilgrimage to the cave shrine, Sinha said the
former Chief Minister and PDP patron placed prefabricated structures along
the Baltal route and continuously resisted his work as chairman of Shri Amarnath
Shrine Board.
In his 90-minute keynote address at a seminar
on "Shri Amarnath Land Transfer -- Implications of Revocation" organised
here by the Forum on Integrated National Security, Sinha blamed the media,
too, for its irresponsible coverage of the issue.
"I can understand the Valley press being
prejudiced and engaging in yellow journalism but the national media has been
misleading public opinion on this issue which is a matter of great concern,"
he said.
Sinha said vested interests are trying to
portray the decision
of land transfer to SASB as one made by him
"whereas the truth is that the state cabinet in May this year had unanimously
approved of land being given to the Board."
Separatists are whipping up the sentiments
of Kashmiri citizens against the transfer, he said, by projecting it as a
step to facilitate permanent settlement of Hindus and one that could potentially
change the demography of the Valley.
Sinha also blamed the Centre for going into
an "overdrive" with its "appeasement policy and hurried revoking
of the order." "All I had been trying to do as Governor went up
in smoke during the last ten days of my tenure," the former Governor
of Jammu and Kashmir said.
He added that Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad
had fallen victim to the politics of compulsion.
"The PDP stabbed the government in the
back. Azad was a very able Chief Minister, totally secular and national in
outlook... He fell victim to his coalition partner's move patronised by Delhi,
who sacrificed their own CM to appease the PDP," Sinha said.
Sinha spoke at length about Kashmiriyat or
the Valley ethos of which both Muslims and Hindus were an inseparable part
and how fundamentalist forces were trying to destroy that.
"The Mufti's role in the Baglihar project
and his stand on dual currency and dual control indicate his party's anti-national
and communal leanings," he said.
"He (Sayeed) gave no replies to my letters
to the state government to conduct the Amarnath yatra for two months as he
was dead against this step. Though his government went to the Court against
this, the Shrine Board's stand was upheld and the yatra was allowed for two
months," Sinha said.
