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| Mr Azad should explain who is polarizing society | | KOUSARNAG YATRA | | Rustam
JAMMU, Aug 3: "Some forces in the Kashmir valley and some political groups in the Jammu region, including a national party (in this case BJP), are trying to create a situation similar to 2008 ahead of the Assembly elections to reap political benefits," former Union Minister and leader of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad said on Saturday while talking to reporters at Udhampur. "It is high time to expose those groups which want to polarize the situation for petty political gains," he also said.
He should have named what he termed as "some forces" in the Kashmir valley and some political groups in Jammu province to set the record straight and also referred to the issue which some forces had been using to polarize the state, but he didn't do that. Nor did he explain his and the Congress party's stand on the issue. Not that he didn't know what had been going in Jammu and the Valley since July 30. He knew everything. He also knew that the issue was the annual Kousarnag Yatra in the Kashmir's Kulgam district from which his ancestors originally hail. But he chose to remain vague. He also knew that the Kulgam district administration had given permission to the Kashmiri Hindus to undertake Kousarnag Yatra from July 31 to August 3, which was withdrawn on the day the Yatra was to commence. He also knew that it was none other than the extremists like Geelani and the so-called Kashmiri civil society had opposed the Yatra from the traditional route and the state government banned the Yatra from that route under pressure from extremists, who had created much hue and cry over the issue and threatened an agitation and shutdown. Parts of Kashmir Valley did observe shutdown and militant-sponsored protests with the authorities watching these anti-national and anti-minority activities as mute spectators.
Azad also knew that the extremists had not opposed the Yatra for the reason that it would pollute the Kashmir's environment or destroy its ecology and that they opposed it because it was a Hindu affair. Azad also knew that a senior Congress leader and his close associate Tourism Minister GA Mir and a senior government official had on Friday contested the claim of the outraged Kashmiri Hindus that they had a copy of permission with them and declared that the state government didn't give any permission to undertake the Yatra from the traditional route. "When the government has not granted permission, the question of withdrawal doesn't arise," Mir had told PTI. Significantly, he didn't say that the Yatra should have been allowed through the traditional route in Kashmir. One can understand his compulsions.
Had Azad spoken the truth, the Congress party would have been condemned by the regressive and anti-Hindu forces in Kashmir. Infact, by speaking the truth, he would have exposed what the critics termed as "coalition of the NC, Congress and Kashmiri separatists". After all, the NC, Congress and separatists like Geelanii, Malik and Mirwaiz virtually worked in tandem to scuttle the Kousarnag Yatra through the tradition route in Kashmir. Azad's intervention has not increased the confidence of the minority communities in him. In fact, the minorities have turned more hostile towards the Congress. It's no wonder that the national party that Azad referred to, which joined hands with the enraged Kashmiri Hindu community, has condemned the NC-Congress coalition government for "jumping on to the separatists' bandwagon" and banning the age-old Kousarnag yatra for appeasing the fanatics and anti-India forces and demanded that "Congress Ministers, who yet again failed the minorities, "must put in their papers, as they have no moral and political right to remain in office". The Congress will surely pay a very heavy price for what it did to scuttle the ancient Yatra in the coming elections. Something is fundamentally wrong with the Congress and that's the reason it was rejected by the people across the country in May 2014 and that's the reason even senior Congress leaders have started denouncing the leadership of Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi, saying they ate just incapable of leading the party. |
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