Political Diary

New Delhi, 9 August 2008

Jammu Violence

NATION PAYS HEAVY PRICE

By Poonam I Kaushish

This is a tragic tale of how a routine governmental land transfer issue acquires dangerous communal overtones and singes the national psyche. Yet another testimony to the wretched reality of present day India. Notwithstanding, that in three days from now the country will celebrate 60 years of Independence. A political establishment headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his counterparts in the States will unfurl the ‘Tiranga’ and bombard us with patriotic speeches of how everything is well with the nation. Words that we have heard ad nauseum for the last six decades which try to invigorate and lull us into a false sense of security and complacency. No matter that all fall flat on their faces.

See how the ongoing violence in Jammu, led by the Shri Amarnath Sangharsh Samiti (SASS) is now in free-fall deterioration with no end in sight. All thanks to a series of self-goals by our crass polity, which like the famous Roman Emperor Nero fiddled while Rome burnt. Think. It took 40-days for our Central Government to realise that what it thought was a localized land transfer issue of a 100 acres to the Amarnath Shrine Board had attainted Frankenstein proportions. By snowballing into a first class pan-Indian crisis which has torn asunder the secular character of our Bharat. What to speak of J&K, which continues to be paralyzed by terror and bloodshed. It even reduced the Army, a symbol of India’s strength, to being a mere bystander.  

Worse, the powers-that-be continue to be clueless about how to solve the issue. For that they have to first acknowledge and confess that they are the genesis of the problem.  According to top Home Ministry officials, the State PDP Minister who passed the land transfer order to the Amarnath Shrine Board reportedly did so knowing full well that it would lead to the separatists’ forces in the Valley upping the ante against the Government. As also give the Party leadership, already itching to break from the coalition Government, the perfect excuse to break ties with the Congress prior to Assembly elections slated for October.

Sadly, the Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad, a shrewd politician and a master strategist failed to see through the PDP ruse to bring down his Government. And an equally short-sighted Governor N.N. Vohra foolishly post-haste revoked the transfer order within three days of violence in the Valley. Failing to anticipate that his action could have disastrous reaction in Jammu, a pre-dominantly Hindu region.

More. Its short-sighted knee-jerk actions have resulted in the situation akin to cutting one’s nose to spite the face. Heaven’s would not have fallen if the State Government and the Governor Vohra would have dug in their heels over the land transfer issue. Given that the land is usable only for two months of the year when pilgrims go to Amarnath to perform puja at the ice Shiv ling.

See the political fool hardiness of our political masters. Cross border violence had decreased, militant intrusions had come down to a negligible level, never mind the firing at the LOC, and tourism was booming. Both the separatist forces led by Hurriyat’s Syed Ali Geelani and the hardliners and their Pakistani benefactors had been rendered without any business. All were gung ho that the State Assembly polls would see a large turnout. New Delhi was hopeful that Islamabad would see reason and agree for a settlement and the Kashmiri Muslims were slowly coming around to ‘thinking’ Indian. Till the land controversy gave them the perfect handle to incite communal feelings in the Valley.

Till date the Hindus in Jammu have never been swayed by the communal politics or pseudo-secularism played out by leaders in the State or in New Delhi. Even when the Kashmiri Pandits were ousted from the State. Or for that matter, the Muslims across the country too have remained immune to the rabid fundamentalism of the separatist forces and their political masters in Pakistan. Primarily because both have never considered religion per se as the bedrock of the ‘core’ issue of Kashmir.  Also, the turmoil within the State has never affected the nationalist Hindu and the Muslim psyche across the country.

Tragically, for the first time a perceptible streak of hatred on religious lines has not only divided the Hindus and Muslims in the State but also elsewhere. True, the Amarnath land may be the centerpiece of the sangharsh but the Hindus of Jammu have risen as one voice against all the atrocities they have suffered since Independence and for being doled out step-motherly treatment vis-à-vis the Valley. Importantly, it has struck a pan-Hindu chord. Leading to a Hindu in Chennai, empathizing with his breathern in Jammu. Ditto is the case with the Muslims of Hyderabad sympathising with the hardliners in Srinagar.

Not only that. So busy are the two national parties, Congress and BJP in hurling accusations against each other for instigating the peace-loving people of Jammu that both fail to acknowledge that their leaders too are divided on religious lines. If the BJP’s leader of Opposition Advani has called a three-day nation-wide bandh to capitalize on the controversy, the State Congress leaders led by Rajya Sabha member Karan Singh have demanded that the land be handed to the Amarnath Shrine Board.  

As for the Centre, less said the better. Its 38-all Party meet proved to be a non-starter. Notwithstanding the joint appeal to bridge the Hindu-Muslim divide and vacuous rhetoric of restoring peace and normalcy. (Sic) The 18-member all-Party delegation to defuse the crisis has failed to take-off. The SASS has refused to participate in the talks if the regional Congress, PDP and NCP leaders are part of the team, who they consider part of the problem.  

Clearly, the Centre finds itself mori bandh in how to wriggle its way out of the crisis. If it recalls the Governor it would lead to a loss of face. (Vohra was appointed only three months ago.)  If it revokes the land transfer order it would fuel tempers in the Valley and give Islamabad a perfect handle to whip up separatist sentiment. Either which way, it would fail to apply the much needed balm to the Hindus and the Muslims. One community is bound to loose out.

The Centre should guard against this. In sum, it urgently needs to take a larger national view. Jammu should be yet another lesson to our polity to desist from playing the communal card for vote bank gains. It needs to realize the time has come to delink religion from politics. Neither will Lord Ram nor Allah forgive the polity for playing havoc in its name. As Manmohan Singh leads his brood in self congratulatory praise from the ramparts of the Red Fort he should spare a thought for all those who have lost their lives in the meaningless violence. At the end of the day, when he and his Party do a cost-benefit analysis, he needs to answer: Is the piece of land worth the price the country is paying? –INFA

 (Copyright, India News and Feature Alliance)