Author: KN Pandit
Publication: The Pioneer
Date: August 6, 2008
His words and deeds have set Jammu ablaze
The relentless protest in Jammu is reminiscent
of the historic Praja Parishad agitation, the first mass movement against
discrimination by rulers in Srinagar. The protest began after the Congress-led
Government in Jammu & Kashmir succumbed to communal pressure and cancelled
the allocation of land to the Sri Amarnath Shrine Board. But the roots of
the disquiet sweeping through Jammu go deeper than just the Amarnath shrine
land dispute.
The political situation in the State took
a perilous turn when the three-year term of the PDP-led coalition Government
came to an end and the Congress took over from its partner. Reluctant to play
second fiddle and with their own agenda, PDP patron Mufti Mohammed Sayeed
and chairperson Mehbooba Mufti began indulging in diatribes that brazenly
served communal and separatist interests.
During his three years as Chief Minister,
the Mufti flirted with many dubious 'solutions' to the Jammu & Kashmir
issue, all to the taste of the separatists and their trans-border lobbies.
Nursing the idea of division of Jammu region along communal lines, he, at
the same time, subtly advocated an exclusivist Muslim majority identity of
the Valley. This was a marked deviation from the demand of the National Conference
for greater autonomy.
Curiously, the Mufti, at whose behest Prime
Minister Manmohan Singh had constituted Working Committees on Jammu &
Kashmir, used a controversial conduit to put forth his self-determination
theory. It was Mr Wajahat Habibullah, a senior bureaucrat who is now Chief
Information Commissioner. Earlier, during a stint with a US think tank, he
had proposed a 'solution' to the Jammu & Kashmir issue along communal
lines. In essence, his formula was based on the propositions of Owen Dixon
and the Kathwari Plan -- later, this was also the core of Gen Pervez Musharraf's
plan. The crux of the plan is division of Jammu region along communal lines
and the creation of 'Greater Muslim Kashmir'.
Mr Harsh Dev Singh, MLA and former Minister
from Panthers Party, objected to the presence of Mr Habibullah in a formal
session of a working committee, saying that he was not a member and thus had
no right to be there. Interestingly, Mr NN Vohra, the present Governor, had
supported Mr Habibullah's plan.
Mr Vohra, as the Congress-led UPA Government's
interlocutor, has had no qualms about visiting fundamentalist-separatist Kashmiri
leader Ali Shah Geelani's residence in Srinagar. This is a peculiar culture
of some Indian politicians and administrators: They curry favour with Kashmiri
separatists and then sell it to Kashmir policy makers in New Delhi in order
to fortify their own position.
The present crisis in Jammu has to be attributed
to the shenanigans of the Congress, the NC and the PDP, plus Mr Vohra. The
Congress-led coalition made a hurried and half-hearted decision of allocating
Baltal forestland to the Sri Amarnath Shrine Board to cater to the party's
Hindu constituency in Jammu. The PDP and the NC found an opportunity to exploit
religious and parochial sentiments of the majority population in the Valley
in order to endear themselves to the separatists at large.
Ignoring then Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad's
proposal, Mr Vohra went by the persuasions of the Pradesh Congress chief Mr
Saifuddin Soz, NC chief Omar Abdullah and former Deputy Chief Minister Muzaffar
Baig. He had the land allocation order rescinded and stripped the SASB of
its authority of arranging the annual yatra to the shrine.
But the saddest and most sordid part of the
entire episode is the brutality and repression unleashed by the police on
the protesting masses in Jammu. At least five persons have been shot dead;
the victims of police firing on Monday were shot in the head.
This is an unprecedented story of administration
under Governor's rule functioning in a totalitarian fashion. The failure of
the administration is clearly attributable to the fact that those at the helm
of affairs, like the Divisional Commission and the Inspector-General of Police,
both being outsiders, are not familiar with local conditions. Adding fuel
to the fire, Mr Vohra continues to cater to the agenda of the separatists
than of the nationalists.
The Sangharsh Samiti, spearheading the protest
movement, has declined the Governor's offer for a 'dialogue', contending that
he has nothing to offer. The Sangharsh Samiti has put forth three demands
for withdrawing the agitation: Mr Vohra should be recalled immediately; the
Sri Amarnath Shrine Board's ecclesiastical jurisdiction and authority should
be restored; and, the land order should be rescinded.
If the Union Government wants to defuse the
situation and prevent further erosion of the people's faith in the State administration,
it must immediately recall the Governor and appoint someone of high calibre
and moral stature who will not compromise the interests of Jammu to appease
Kashmir's Muslims.
- The writer is former Director of the Centre
of Central Asian Studies, Kashmir University.