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| Revocation of land order cements regional divide | | | Gareeb Dass
Jammu | July 3
It was jubilation in Kashmir.It was time for people to fire crackers in Srinagar."It is the peoples' victory" was the cry from the separatists. Against this it was complete shutdown in Jammu. Massive protests, anger and violence which was followed by imposition of curfew in the winter capital of the state. People in Kashmir had a cause to celebrate. After all their eight-day shutdown and violence had forced the state Government to succumb to the pressure. People in Jammu had a cause for giving vent to their anger because their cries for restoration of 800 kanals of land to the Shrine Board had not been heard by the Government. And if the Jammuites have been clamoring over the way the successive state Governments have been biased against them their accusations have been vindicated.
If you ask even liberal people in Kashmir who has been responsible for the violence and political flux the state has been in they blame the former Governor,S.K.Sinha.They do it without applying their mind to the sequence of events in the state during the last over two months. As head of the Shrine Board Sinha had sought from the state Government 800 Kanals of land to be diverted to the Board at Baltal and Domel for setting up prefabricated tents for Amarnath pilgrims. The case was referred to various departments,including the Forest,Environment,Law and finance. All these departments were headed by ministers belonging to the PDP.They cleared the case and after their okay the cabinet approved it. When the cabinet met for discussing the land diversion case not a single PDP minister raised any objection. And if the Government had any reservation it could have easily refused to divert the land to the Shrine Board. It did not do it. After about two months Mufti Mohd.Sayeed and his colleagues in PDP raised a ruckus and demanded that the order be revoked. The PDP leaders raised imaginary fears. One said permanent structures were being set up. Another said it was a threat to ecology and demographic character to the valley. Others described pilgrims as beggars. This was an enough hint for the separatists who blew the land issue out of its proportion by shouting that the Board was setting up Amarnath Nagar at Baltal.
The Government kept silent for several weeks. It was after the PDP pulled out of the Government that the Chief Minister and the Governor put their heads together. The first step the two took was in the shape of Governor's communication saying that the Board no longer needed the land. The tension and violence did not end in Srinagar.It was again after six days that the cabinet revoked the order as suggested by Kashmiri centric political parties and the separatists. The Government took cognisance of the protests in Kashmir but kept its eyes shut on the turmoil in Jammu. Another case of regional discrimination. If the PDP leadership gave a slogan to the separatists to unite the Congress led Government cemented the PDP'dream by revoking the controversial order which not only brought the separatists on one platform but further fomented regional discrimiation and divide.The Government has bungled more than the Governor. If the PDP,the Congress and the National Conference tried to seek electoral gains from the issuance of the order and then revoking it all the three parties are losers.But the BJP is not in a position in Jammu to cash on it because of lack of effective leadership and strong party cadre.
If you ask any man in Jammu about what went wrong.They will not hesitate saying that Kashmir and Kashmiris are more imporatnt for the state and the central Government than the Jammu region and its people.No surprise over the surfacing of the demand for separate statehood for the Jammu region.Whatver events tookplace in the state during the last nine days will definitely have its impact on the ensuing pre-poll campaign.While in Kashir both PDP and the National conference will claim credit for the scrapping of the land diversion order the Jammu based parties may not hesitate making the order the main poll issue. |
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