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| Kousarnag debate proves Omar has long relinquished powers to separatists | | | Early Times Report
JAMMU, Aug 2: It is not always that Kashmiri separatist leaders and the NC leaders are on the same page. But, when elections draw close, it has become a tradition for the NC leadership to sing songs of separatism. The forthcoming state assembly elections are no exception to this general rule.
In times of elections the statements of the separatist leaders and the NC leadership sound as if these are written by ideologically akin parties. One recent example of this is the opposition, on similar lines, to AFSPA and the more recent example is of Kausarnag Yatra.
Kashmiri Pandits have been undertaking religious journeys to Himalayan glacial Lakes in the Valley including the Gangabal Lake in Ganderbal district since long. The religious and historical records of Pandits in the Valley bear clear and ample witness to this fact. Kausarnag is the largest glacial lake in Kashmir. Pandits have been visiting the Lake for religious reasons while tourists and trekkers have been going there for adventure and mountaineering.
There is evidence of Kausarnag Yatra in the Nilamata Purana. The fact is that the arduous religious journey to Kausarnag has never been a large-scale affair as the Shri Amarnathji Shrine Yatra or the annual festival at Mata Kheer Bhawani Temple.
Smaller groups of Pandits especially from the south Kashmir districts have been visiting Kausarnag to invoke divine blessing for themselves and their families.
The hue and cry raised over the decision by around 50 Kashmiri Pandits to visit Kausarnag gives one to believe as if thousands of people are lined up to visit the place. Separatists have also said this in a step towards the religious polarization of Kashmir. The point is can anyone for that matter be restrained from undertaking a religious journey on the basis of objection raised by any single person or a group of persons?
Besides the alleged polarization on religious lines, the separatists have also said the permission to 50 odd Pandits to visit Kausarnag would destroy the ecology of the Himalayan region!
How can 50 odd people visiting a place for barely two days destroy the ecology of the Himalayan region? What haven't the separatists and timber smugglers done to fragile ecology of Kashmir's lakes and mountains that this handful of persons can do?
These are questions whose answers are well known to the world and more so the separatists and the state Government. What shocks reason and logic is that the State Government should buckle under the separatist pressure and say no permission was ever granted to Pandits to visit Kausarnag.
For the kind information of the State Government no Indian citizen ever needs permission for a peaceful visit to any religious place of his or her faith. The other disturbing fact for the State Government is that there is a letter on record with the Kashmir Pandit group that intended to visit Kausarnag from Deputy Commissioner Kulgam which says adequate security would be provided to the Yatris during their Kausarnag visit.
Till the other day one thought Omar Abdullah is still the Chief Minister of J&K. One is now forced to believe he has abdicated the powers of the Chief Minister to the separatists so that he is able to generate some sympathy wave among those who support Kashmir's secession from the rest of the country. |
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