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| Kettle calling the pot black | | PDP running with the hare and hunting with the hound, settling personal scores with outgoing Governor | | Early Times Special Correspondent
Jammu | June 20
News Analysis
It is like kettle calling the pot black or its Hindi version, "Chor Machai Shor". After stirring the hornet's nest and unleashing communal divide and hatred, over Amarnath yatra and transfer of 800 kanals of forest land by the government to SASB, for creating facilities for the Amarnath pilgrims, the PDP has now come out to blame Shri Amarnath Shrine Board for provoking Muslim communal backlash in Kashmir, which has brought the secessionists and Islamic fundamentalists of all hue and colour on one platform, to oppose the government action in transferring the land to SASB as well as other steps taken by the shrine board to promote the Hindu yatra in Kashmir.
To justify their out and out communal agenda, the PDP has been taking divergent and contradictory stands. The Deputy Chief Minister and PDP leader, Muzaffar Hussain Baig, who had first opened Pandora's box by stating that the PDP ministers in Azad cabinet were blackmailed by some Congress ministers in giving their consent to the transfer of the forest land to SASB, holding the construction of Mughal road at ransom, by threatening that if PDP ministers did not agree to the transfer of land to SASB, the government will drop the construction of Mughal road, connecting Muslim majority areas of Jammu with Muslim majority Kashmir, has now shifted their position by stating that there has been no transfer of land as such to the SASB and that it is only that the SASB has been allowed to use the land in Baltal for setting up of temporary shelter sheds and lavatories for two months and that the ownership of the land will continue to vest with the forest department. Baig as well as the Forest Minister, Qazi Mohammad Afzal who too belongs to the PDP have also stated that the use of land for two months to the SASB has been allowed under some conditions and in case any of the condition is violated by the SASB, the agreement will be scraped. If this were the case then where is the question of Congress having blackmailed the PDP ministers to give their consent to the transfer of the land to SASB, as was stated by Mr. Baig earlier. It appears that after playing the fox pass, creating fresh dissentions between the two major coalition partners, the PDP tried to make a damage control by taking the stand they have taken later.
In fact PDP has been adopting the policy of "Running with the hare and hunting with the hound". Reports appearing in a section of the print media in Kashmir four days ago that the Deputy Chief Minister Muzaffar Hussain Baig had, in a meeting with the Union Defense Minister, A K Antony in Srinagar, had stated that their opposition to the transfer of land to the SASB has been only for public consumption in Kashmir and is aimed at taking wind out of the sails of the secessionists by hijacking their movement over the issue and the same was an election tactic for the party. Baig is also reported to have suggested A K Antony that there is need for launching a counter campaign in India against the movement launched by the secessionists against the steps taken by the government and the SASB in promoting Hindu yatra in Kashmir. The report to this effect appearing four days ago has not been contradicted till date.
In the meanwhile the high voltage campaign launched by the PDP against the outgoing Governor Gen. S K Sinha, holding him responsible for the present communal backlash by the Muslims in Kashmir as well as charging him of adopting dictatorial attitude in pursuing his Hindu communalist agenda, during his five year tenure as constitutional head of the state, over stepping his jurisdiction by interfering into day to day governance and undermining the authority of the state legislature, are attempts at settling personal scores with Gen. Sinha. The PDP has been entertaining a grudge against S K Sinha for the Mufti led government in the state made by him to eat the humble pie both in 2003 and 2004, with SASB accomplishing its plan to extend the period of yatra to two months, despite all the objections raised by the then Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed. The PDP did pocket the humiliation brought to them by the Governor and the SASB Chairman S K Sinha, but they were nurturing the grouse. Now they have found the opportunity to strike back and settle old scores with him. The other provocation for the PDP to put the outgoing Governor in dock by calling his names and projecting him as a villain, has been Gen. Sinha's ridicule of PDP's demand for demilitarization and self rule. However, the latest blow inflicted by the outgoing Governor on the PDP has been the permission granted by him to the State Vigilance Organization to prosecute Maulvi Iftkhar Hussain Ansari, a latest convert from NC to PDP, for his alleged involvement in the Sidhra land scam, during the period Ansari was Minister for Housing and Urban Development in NC government. |
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