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| His Excellency, situations needs urgent attention | | | Gareeb Dass
Jammu | July 29
The demand from various political and social organisations suggesting to the Governor, N.N.Vohra, to convene an All Party meeting on resolving the turmoil over the land revocation issue is like asking a guilty person to sit in judgement. Since the row over the revocation of the land order has become as vexed as the Kashmir issue it calls for a multidimensional dialogue. And for this the Governor alone can set the stage when the centre has preferred to remain a passive spectator. Possibly the centre would have intervened but the events that shaped in Ahmedabad and Bangalore seem to have kept the Government of India on its toes leaving no time for it to think of a solution to the land row issue.
But the issue needs to be settled though both the Governor, N.N.Vohra, and the former Chief Minister, Ghulam Nabi Azad have, by their words and deeds, left hardly any scope for the dialogue. How? The Governor, even after he was misled by the PDP leader Muzaffar Hussain Baig, wrote to the then Chief Minister, Ghulam Nabi Azad, that the Board did not require land for establishing prefabricated tents which facilitated Azad to revoke the land diversion order. He had not stopped there. He announced that the Board will hence forth be engaged in making arrangements for pooja and other religious practices which were to be performed by the pilgrims.But this does not mean that the process of dialogue should be sealed. There used to be a time when people in the subcontinent would feel that there was no possibility for India and Pakistan to open the channels of dialogue. The two have carried out sustained talks on the resolution of bilateral problems and on the confidence building measures. The pace of the dialogue has been slow but some positive results have materialised. Similarly if those heading the agitation in Jammu and the Governor decide to sit they may be able to find a solution.
Yes, the issue is vexed because those in Kashmir do not want any land to be transferred or diverted to the Amarnath Shrine Board and those in Jammu favour revocation of the land order. In this context the Governor could clear the decks for talks by taking some steps.Step one: The Governor, as head of the Shrine Board, should reconstitute the Board. He should appoint members who belong to Jammu and Kashmir. This time majority of members are from outside the state. Let there be four to five members each from Kashmir and from Jammu region. Step two: the Governor should allow the Board to set up prefabricated tents and toilets on the mountain routes leading to the holy cave without any land being transferred or diverted to it.It means a sort of going back to the period between 2000 and 2007 when the Board used to set up tents on the forest land which neither had been transferred or diverted to it.
Before an All Party meeting was convened the Governor should have a session with prominent political,religious and social leaders belonging to the Kashmir valley from whom he could secure an assurance that there would be now no row in the valley if the reconstituted Board was allowed to set up tents on the mountain routes for two months without any land being transferred or diverted to it.The Governor has already taken two positive steps.He has ordered judicial probe into the cremation of Kuldeep Dogra's body. Secondly, he has shifted SSP Jammu and SP Bishnah against whom the agitators had expressed deep anger. Though their help may not be available still the Governor should try to rope in the leadership of the National Conference, the PDP, the Congress, the CPIM and other prominent social leaders from the Kashmir valley for helping him in implementing a less controversial decision of empowering the Board to resume its task which had been suspended after the revocation of the land order. Another step the Governor could do should be in the direction of undoing what people in Jammu call regional discrimination. |
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