BULLETS SLAY the flesh. Thoughts can erase a race. Sure, there were bullets as the 1990s began with the separatist Kashmir movement. But there were even more of the normal things, stuff that is not often associated with menace. There were whispers, posters, slogans and loudspeakers. “Hum kya chahte? Azaadi, azaadi (What do we want? Freedom, freedom).” “Sarhad paar jaayenge, Kalashnikov laayenge (We’ll cross the border, get the Kalashnikov).” And the appalling “Batao roas te Batanev san, iss banao Pakistan (Without the Pandit, with his wife; we’ll make Pakistan).”
A few threats scribbled in Urdu on the walls of three housing societies in Kondhwa took the Pune city police and intelligence agencies by surprise on Thursday. The Kondhwa police and top intelligence officials undertook investigations even as a team of 50 policemen were pressed into bandobast duty.
The threats referred to the Kashmir issue and jehadi movement in India and were directed against some Kashmiri Pandit families residing at Kondhwa. The Kondhwa police suspects that the miscreants may be affiliated to Student Islamic Movement of India (Simi) and the act was done to create panic among the local residents. Senior police officials said that the messages, aimed at creating panic, were scribbled in the verandah and staircase of a few buildings on NIBM Road.
The miscreants appear to be locals and had scribbled jehadi words on the walls. No one knows who came to these buildings and when this mischief was done, an officer said. Assistant commissioner of police Ramesh Biwal told DNA that the police have started investigations but no case has been filed.
We have provided security to these families and are checking the registers of these buildings to check who made an entry or exit on Thursday, he said.
On September 26th, 2008 scores of Kashmiri Hindus demonstarted outside the United Nations Office in New York [USA].
Some of the demands of Kashmiri Pandits to the UN were :
Declare Kashmiri Hindu community as Internally Displaced People (IDP). The Human Rights Working Group on Minorities in Geneva has since recognized Kashmiri Hindus, formally, as a Reverse Minority. The use of the insulting term ‘Migrants’ for this forcibly exiled community may be removed from all records and communications relating to us hence forth.
Direct the Government of India to set up a ‘Commission of Enquiry’ to establish the causes that led to the selective and targeted killings of Kashmiri Hindus and their subsequent forced exile, and appropriate the responsibility and punish the guilty. (Read full item here ...)
It’s about the Pan-Islamism...
It’s about religious fascism...
It’s about Jihad...
It’s about imposing Nizam-e-Mustafa everywhere...
It’s about converting the rest of world under so-called Infidels (Dar-ul-Harb) into Dar-ul-Islam...
Chairman of Hurriyat faction, Syed Ali Shah Geelani has been very open and frank about this... the communal aspiration of having a pan-Islamic rule, the oneness with the Islamic brotherhood of Pakistan...
“it was because of Islam that the people of Kashmir were ‘Pakistanis’ and introduced a new slogan to his audiences. For ten times he chanted and aroused his rally ‘Ham Pakistani Hain, Pakistan Hamara Hai’ (We are Pakistanis and Pakistan belongs to us). He asked the new leadership in Pakistan to strictly run that country on the tenets of Islam and asserted that secularism, nationalism and America’s world order were all unacceptable to the people of Pakistan.” (Read here...)
Kashmiri's are fighting for Nizam-e-Mustafa, where tolerance for any other religion is impossible... unlike the secular tenets of India. As Geelani says -
"Socialism, Secularism and Nationalism won’t work in Pakistan. We
are Pakistanis and Pakistan is ours because we are tied with the
country through Islam,” he roared, as the crowd cheered him and
chanted, “Hum Pakistani hain, Pakistan hamara hai” (We are Pakistanis,
Pakistan is ours)." (Read here...)
“K” says –
“The year 1947 saw such turn of events, that Kashmir, instead of seeing a breather after an excruciating survival under the Dogras saw it being occupied by a country it did not know. A country it never had any ‘unconditional’ economic, social, political, cultural or religious ties with, any that it might have had were forced. The country was India and 61 years have passed without the slightest ebb in the hatred for the state of India in the hearts of Kashmiris.”
What he is conveniently forgetting is that Kashmir has no social, political, cultural or economic ties with the Punjabi/Sindhi/Pathan or the Afghani’s living in Pakistan either. Yes, the only possible tie is religious… that of Pakistan being an ‘Islamic state’.
Kashmiri’s don’t want democracy, don’t want secularism, don’t want socialism… they want only Islamic law…and elimination of other religions and other people from the land…
“First is to impose an Islamic nizam (jurisprudence) in Kashmir. Islam should govern our lives, be it in our political thought, socio-economic plans, culture or the ongoing movement. The creed of socialism and secularism should not touch our lives and we must be totally governed by the Koran and the Sunnat (precedents from Prophet Mohammad's life).”(Read here…)
And indeed, that’s what the whole agitation against just a few hectares of land was really about… just because its was about a Hindu shrine – the last vestige of Hindu’s in the valley.
Well... Anyone can only laugh if you see crorepati's like Shabana,Javed Akhtar playing the victim... Victim hood because of her religion. Shabana, a Member of Parliament and a super celebrity, is playing victim after having enjoyed prosperity, luxury and celebrity-hood all her life in India - which she calls communal and discriminatory today...
This drama of victimhood is not new... Azharuddin played the minority card when he was charged with match-fixing. No one else in that scam - Ajay Jadeja, Prabhakar or even Kapil thought they had a religion... But Azhar promptly thought he was caught because he was Muslim. Wonder why he never felt that he was favored to the post of captaincy because he was a Muslim...? Why is it that they didnt think that the Indian majority was a biased communal rouge so far - when they were minting their millions living in the hearts of these very masses...
One shouldn't be surprised if some day Salman Khan accuses the masses of India of communal bias because he is charged with murder of pavement dwellers because of his drunken driving. Of course, none of the Khans felt that the Hindu majority of India was communally appeasing them - when the Shahrukh/Aamir/Salmans of bollywood rule the BO.
Why is this becoming a routine...? On August15, Jamaat-e-Islami leader and Hurriyat hardliner Syed Ali Shah Geelani this time peppered his Islamist hardtalk with advice to his followers to use their "victimhood" and "work intelligently". "Apni mazloomiat barkarar rakho," he told a crowd on the evening of I-Day. Shabana seems to have taken some advice from there...
To all these filthy rich victims... learn a few words about being a real victim of minority ethnic cleansing... a community living as refugees for last 18 years in India, when they are probably supposed to be the rouge majority...
Exiles in ghettos keep fire blazing
Muthi (Jammu), Aug. 24: They live eight, often ten or twelve, to a room. To call them rooms is a stretch; hovels is more appropriate — barely six by eight, the asbestos ceilings knocked low over them, a vast and suffocating narrow-laned warren. They do with temporary power pulled on illicit lines, they have little access to water, they share unsanitary community bathrooms. They live marooned in the putrid discharge oozing from them, amid foraging pigs and pie-dogs.
The latest agitation in Jammu and Kashmir was sparked over the allotment of some forest land for Amarnath pilgrims. The separatists immediately denounced this as an attempt to change the demography of the state. They should know, having successfully cleansed the Valley of Pandits earlier.
The government’s knee jerk decision to revoke the allotment of land sparked off protests in Jammu, and there were reports of a blockade of the Kashmir Valley by the Hindus of Jammu. “It’s now Jammu vs Kashmir!” screamed our headlines.
Mehbooba Mufti, the president of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), then declared her support for a march --sponsored by the fruit-growers association of Kashmir and the Hurriyat Conference -- towards Muzaffarabad, in Pakistan occupied Kashmir -- to sell their produce
...... ..... ......
But then, should I expect better from a government which actually wanted the ban on the Students Islamic Movement of India, clearly linked to the recent terrorist attacks, to be lifted?
So, give in to the demands of people like Yasin Malik, the gent who is not sure whether he wants to be a Gandhi or a terrorist swine. The man who a few days ago was ready to go on a "fast-to-death" like the Mahatma, all for peace, and then let it be known that he was ‘co-ordinating’ his activities with Hafiz Sayed, the maniac who heads the Lashkar-e-Taiba. (External link) . Let the terrorists win.
Over last several weeks, Kashmiri leaders of all hues - Sajjad Lone, Yasin Malik, Mehbooba Mufti, Omar and Shabbir Shah or Umar Farooq, have been daily lying to the people on every channels - CNN-IBN, NDTV, Times Now... so brazenly claiming that not a single Yatri has been touched. They want us to believe that the Kashmiri agitation is secular and they have no objection to the yatra.
But unfortunately, the Barka's and Rajdeep's don't ever intend to talk the facts either. After all you don't get to claim your TRPs - asking uncomfortable questions to separatists or Muslim leaders...
What is most frustrating however is the blind trust these media gurus place in the word of any terrorists or separatist leader from the valley. On one such show on CNN-IBN this week, when Dr Jitendra Singh of SAYSS (Jammu) tried to mention these about these attacks on yatris - Rajdeep turned to another panelist - Muzaffar Baig to validate the facts "Baig Saab - Is this true?" - who obviously used his expertize in doublespeak to deny any such incident...
Of course, Rajdeep couldn't trust a common citizen of Jammu - because afterall he is a Hindu. A separatist leader from valley however can not be speaking a lie... Wah... this is the strong fourth pillar of Indian democracy...
But for the ordinary reader,... if you want to know the truth, here are just some snippets...
At least 35 persons including four paramilitary central reserve police force (CRPF) troopers and two cops, were wounded in a powerful hand-grenade explosion in the main bus stand at Banihal town situated on the Jammu Srinagar highway...marnathCave Shrine-bound pilgrims use the same highway to reach the base camps at Pahalgam and at Baltel.
One tourist was killed and five other persons wounded in a grenade explosion in the north Kashmir's Gulmarg mountain resort on Sunday afternoon.
And in previous years...
21 July 2007
Fifteeen Amarnath piligrims were injured in a grenade explosion at Pahalgam, the base camp of the Amarnath Yatra, on Saturday afternoon, officials said.
A police official said that unknown persons hurled a grenade when a group of Amarnath cave shrine pilgrims, mostly sadhus, were in the compound of a Gurdwara near police
Nine people died and 37 were injured after a camp of Hindu pilgrims at Nunwan, near the resort town of Pahalgam, was attacked by suspected Islamic militants. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/2175168.stm
30 July, 2002
..............two people have been killed and another three wounded in a suspected militant attack on Hindu pilgrims.The incident happened when a grenade was thrown at a taxi south of Srinagar on its way to the Amarnath cave shrine.
Twenty five persons, a number of them yatris, were killed and over 30 injured when militants attacked a ``langar'' in a Pahalgam health resort en route to the Amarnath cave this evening. Two militants were also killed when security forces ambushed them. Curfew has been imposed in Pahalgam.
There have been several much bigger attacks in past... A simple google search - which is free to use - would have helped Rajdeep or Barkha's to learn about many other such attacks in the past.
Unfortunately, the internet didn't have a better presence in the earlier 1990's...
And those... who still dont believe this face of the so-called Kashmi..Well there's more...Mosque's are being rapidly constructed at the sites otherwise meant to be used for use by Yatris... read more...
Weren't you the one who was shouting "I am an Indian and a Muslim and I don't see a difference" few weeks ago. Where is that rhetoric of Indianess today - when you are so blatantly taking a cause to shield those burning tricolour and hoisting Pakistani flags in the valley? Why does it only hurt you if someone is prevented from hoisting a Pakistani flag?
Why didn't you threaten to resign so far when the agitating crowds carrying the Indian tri-colour were being beaten up and shot at in Jammu?
Hurriyat chief Syed Ali Shah Geelani gives a call for all non-Kashmiri's to leave the valley...and a terrorist group Hizbul Mujahideen supports it openly... (read more). Yet, this terrorist is invited to television debates on channels like NDTV (Aug 16th, Big Fight) and has the audacity to call Kashmiri' Muslims secular and makes dramatically scripted rhetoric about how they welcome non-Kashmiri's for yatra.
Addressing a public meeting at Langate in Kupwara district on Tuesday, Geelani said majority of non-state subjects was professional criminals and they should be driven out of Kashmir in a civilised and dignified manner. (read more...)
Shameful Double-speak... and yet none of the media personal have bothered to do their homework on what the same Geelani speaks in his vitrolic Friday speeches in the mosques in the valley. Or maybe they just dont have the balls to counter him with the truth, or its just uncomfortable for the pseudo-intellectual image the India media has liked to live with...
The same Geelani makes speeches to thousands of Muslims in valley - reminding them that the Jihad in valley is for Nizam-e-Mustafa and the rule of Islam and that the war is about 'Freedom for Islam' (Azadi bara-e-Islam)... and then comes on NDTV to makes double-speak statements about secularism and blames the tri-colour carrying agitators of Jammu as communal. And the dud's like Vikram Chandra and other media luminaries out there keep parroting "Geelani sahib"...
Daily droves of non-Kashmiri's are leaving the valley... this round 2 of ethnic cleansing in the valley...
And the Kashmiri leaders will still go on NDTV/CNN-IBN and claim that the valley is secular by nature... and Barkha's and Rajdeep's will not dare question them...
About 2000 labourers from different States of the country particularly Bihar and Jharkhand today left Jammu and Kashmir in different trains after they were threatened of dire consequences by the fundamentalists in Kashmir valley."
In different parts of Kashmir valley, non-State subject labourers irrespective of religion are being threatened to leave the Valley and warned of dire consequences if they choose to stay put there. The contractors, who engaged us in different works personally came to us and made it clear that we have to leave the Valley to save our lives"Read more...
You made the following statement in Big Fight on NDTV on August 9th 2008...when justifying your arguements in support of terrorists and separatists of Kashmir and making a statement on behalf of Hurriyat - that ...
"I have an objection to the reference of ethnic cleansing of Kashmiri Pandits at drop of hat..."
A statement like this - coming from a so-called human rights activist - making a comment about half-million populace who are refugees in their own country, makes me sick. Sick and sad - because
because you have no objection to the royal treatment being given to Bitta Karatte in the valley today - after he killed scores of Kashmiri Pandits mercilessly in cold blood.
because you have nothing to say your lords in Hurriyat about the ethnic cleansing of 5 lakh Kashmiri Pandits and the continuous erasing of their symbols - 600+ temples from the valley.
because you have no excuses to give on behalf of the terrorists and separtists you parrot on behalf of....
because you have no qualms sitting besides a Yasin Malik - knowing very well the blood that is on his hands from the days he was the leader of the very same JKLF - of which Batta killer (Pandit killer) Bitta Karate was a shooter of. Yasin Malik killed in cold blood dozens of people including Kashmiri Pandits - before he decided to turn a saint - while those he killed and tortured still live in exile.
“Aes gacche’ Pakistan, Batav ros’ te’ batnev saan” (we want Kashmir – without Pandit men, but with their womenfolk) “Yahan kya chalega – Nizam E Mustafa” (What will rule Kashmir – Rule of Allah) "Kashmir mein agar rehna hai, Allah-o-Akbar kehna hai" (Only those who believe in Allah -(only Muslims) can live in Kashmir) “La ilah Illalah – Pakistan banega Insalaah” (Praise to God! Kashmir will be Pakistan) “Indian dogs – get out” “Battav ya raliv, chaliv nate’ galiv” (O Pandits – either join us, flee or die)
Mr Navlakha - you may have an objection to the mention of Kashmiri Pandits. But, I have an objection to the very existance of people like you - who have made a career out of abusing the Hindu's.
Over last many days, Sajjad Lone has been parroting some urban legands on all TV channels.... Some of these are also repeatedly and accepted blindly by many people across different media channels as well.
One of the weirdest lie leaders from Kashmir are repeatedly parroting over media is that the Amarnath cave was discovered by a Kashmiri muslim 130-140 years ago and that the yatra has existed only for last 130-140 years ago.
Now what do you call this - ignorance or political propaganda? This is an urban legend being repeated so often that people have started believing this as the truth. Yes, Buta Malik's family having been part of caretakers and having had rights to the proceed from donations/collections at the shrine is a fact. But the genesis of that is not that Buta Malik discovered the cave.
The historic references to the existance of the holy cave and the traditional yatra go back many centuries. (Source: Wikipedia)
While the earliest reference to Amarnath can be seen in the Nilamata Purana (v.1324), a 6th century Sanskrit text which depicts the religious and cultural life of early Kashmiris and gives Kashmir’s own creation myth, the pilgrimage to the holy cave has been described with full topographical details in the Bhringish Samhita and the Amarnatha Mahatmya, both ancient texts said to have been composed even earlier. References to Amarnath, known have also been made in historical chronicles like the Rajatarangini and its sequels and several Western travellers’ accounts. The original name of the tirtha, as given in the ancient textsis Amareshwara,Amarnath being a name given later to it
Giving the legend of the Naga Sushruvas, who in his fury burnt to ashes the kingdom of King Nara when he tried to abduct his daughter already married to a Brahmin youth, and after the carnage took his abode in the lake now known as Sheshnag (Kashmiri Sushramnag), Kalahana writes:
“The lake of dazzling whiteness [resembling] a sea of milk (Sheshnag), which he created [for himself as residence] on a far off mountain, is to the present day seen by the people on the pilgrimage to Amareshwara.”(Rajatarangini, Book I v. 267.Translation: M. A. Stein).
At another place in the Rajatarangini (Book II v. 138), Kalhana says that King Samdhimat Aryaraja (34 BCE-17CE) used to spend “the most delightful Kashmir summer” in worshiping a linga formed of snow “in the regions above the forests”. This too appears to be a reference to the ice linga at Amarnath. There is yet another reference to Amareshwara or Amarnath in the Rajatarangini (Book VII v.183). According to Kalhana, Queen Suryamati, the wife of King Ananta (1028-1063), “granted under her husband’s name agraharas at Amareshwara, and arranged for the consecration of trishulas, banalingas and other [sacred emblems]”.
In his Chronicle of Kashmir, a sequel to Kalhana’s Rajatarangini, Jonaraja relates that that Sultan Zainu’l-abidin (1420-1470) paid a visit to the sacred tirtha of Amarnath while constructing a canal on the left bank of the river Lidder (vv.1232-1234). The canal is now known as Shah Kol.
In the Fourth Chronicle named Rajavalipataka, which was begun by Prjayabhatta and completed by Shuka, there is a clear and detailed reference to the pilgrimage to the sacred site (v.841,vv. 847-849). According to it, in a reply to Akbar’s query about Kashmir Yusuf Khan, the Mughal governor of Kashmir at that time, described among other things the Amarnath Yatra in full detail.
Amareshwar (Amarnath) was a famous pilgrimage place in the time of the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan also. In his eulogy of Shah Jahan’s father-in-law Asif Khan, titled “Asaf Vilas”, the famous Sanskrit scholar and aesthete Panditraj Jagannath makes clear mention of Amareshwara (Amarnath) while describing the Mughal garden Nishat laid out by Asif Khan. The King of gods Indra himself, he says, comes here to pay obeisance to Lord Shiva”.
Francois Bernier, a French physician, accompanied Emperor Aurangzeb during his visit to Kashmir in 1663. In his book “Travels in the Mughal Empire”, he writes an account of the places he visited in Kashmir that he was “pursuing journey to a grotto full of wonderful congelations, two days journey from Sangsafed” when he “received intelligence that my Nawab felt very impatient and uneasy on account of my long absence”. The editor of the second edition of the English translation of the book, Vincient A. Smith, writes in his introduction: “The grotto full of wonderful congelations is the Amarnath cave, where blocks of ice, stalagmites formed by dripping water from the roof are worshipped by many Hindus who resort here as images of Shiva…..”
Another traveler, Vigne, in his book “Travels in Kashmir, Ladakh and Iskardu” writes about the pilgrimage to the sacred spot in detail, mentioning that “the ceremony at the cave of Amarnath takes place on the 15th of the Hindoo month of Sawan” and that “not only Hindoos of every rank and caste can be seen collecting together and traveling up the valley of Liddar towards the celebrated cave……” Vigne visited Kashmir after his return from Ladakh in 1840-41 and published his book in 1842. His book claims that the Amarnath Yatra drew pilgrims from the whole of India in his time and was undertaken with great enthusiasm.
Guru Arjan Dev is said to have granted land in Amritsar for the ceremonial departure of Chari, the holy mace of Lord Shiva which marks the beginning of the Yatra to the Holy Cave. In 1819, the year in which the Afghan rule came to an end in Kashmir, Pandit Hardas Tiku “founded the Chhawni Anmarnath at Ram Bagh in Srinagar where the Sadhus from the plains assembled and where he gave them free rations for the journey, both ways from his own private resources”, as the noted Kashmiri naturalist Pandit Samsar Chand Kaul has pointed out in his booklet titled “The Mysterious cave of Amarnath”.
Amarnath is deeply enshrined in Kashmiri folklore, such as the story of Soda Wony.
The temple is reported to be about 5,000 years old and was mentioned in ancient Hindu texts. The exact manner of discovery of the cave is not known.
The Amarnath Yatra, according to Hindu belief, begins on Ashadha PurnimaFull Moon in the Hindu Month of Ashadha) and ends on Shravana Purnima (day of the full moon in the Hindu month of Shravana).
Today – finally after a month of curfews and pain in Jammu, the central govt is warming up for talks.
Why now? Where was the govt and the national media sleeping all these weeks…?
Why Now? Because the endless agitation in Jammu started hurting the valley… And any discomfort to the valley Muslims is unacceptable to the central govt. Doesn’t matter that the Jammu region burnt endlessly for a month so far – without any attention from the govt or the media. Let them, they deserve it – for having being Indian at heart so far. They deserve to be shot at, subjected to curfews and thrashing – for holding tri-colour in their marches and chanting pro-India slogans.
But when a terrorist like Yasin Malik complains that the valley is getting some discomfort – there is a sense of urgency to find some resolution.
This itself is a sample of the reasons that Jammu is disgruntled with.
Why is only the Kashmiri Muslim psyche important for India? How much appeasement will India tolerate? If APHC objects, the governments of the day bowed down and accepted their demands of withdrawal of land transfer orders.
For 60 years, Kashmiri Muslim polity has subjugated and marginalized the communities in Jammu – which are relatively Hindu dominated compared to the Muslim valley. Even though the Jammu region is bigger in area and population, the successive governments always denied the Wazir commission allocations to the Jammu region – which would have ensured them their due political rights. Even today, the political representation of the Jammu region is just negligible compared to the valley. Not a single CM from the region allowed – not even when the coalition between Congress and PDP was in rule recently. The DyCM in the first part of the rule was a Jammuite’ from Congress – but when the time for a changeover came – Congress was forced to import a Muslim CM – who otherwise had no political basis in the state.
The agitation in Jammu is not just about the land issue – it’s a manifestation of 60 years of frustration and disgruntlement of the population of Jammu. Unlike the media would want you to believe, the BJP and the other Hindu organizations are just at sidelines of this agitation and have no control/role on the mass movement of Jammu…
"Being the first chief minister of J&K from the Jammu region, why did you fail to read the anger brewing there before ordering cancellation of the land transfer?
I agree we did not anticipate such a reaction from Jammu. I believe the people of Jammu saw a gang-up in Kashmir against their religious sentiments. They would not have minded the Hurriyat opposing the land transfer but when parties like the NC and the PDP joined in the protests, the people were shocked, and hence the reaction..."
Why was there such a assumption? That's the root cause of this agitation...
For last 38 days, the region of Jammu has been burning. Well, you have already read enough about it… and probably already formed your own firm opinion about it. And if you have been following it in the national media – well most probably you are already a victim of the pseudo-secular campaign…
But then if anyone reading this post believes they have a clear idea on what the problem is – please enlighten me.
Enlighten me – because the explanations and stories perpetrated by the leadership from Kashmir valley – Mehbooba, Mirwaiz Umar, Yasin Malik or Omar Abdullah’s – has a lot of politically suave rhetoric and well crafted statements – but no logic nor any real answers. Unfortunately, the national media – both electronic (NDTV, IBN-CNN, etc) and the press are too over-awed by the separatists and blinded by their word – that the real reasons don’t hit their ear drums. The NDTV, TIMES NOW and CNN-IBN’s are busy branding the agitating masses of Jammu as communal.
Irony of modern India – people holding aloft Indian tri-colour and demanding justice are shot at with contempt.
Yesterday, I asked the very same question – what is the problem – to Omar Abdullah on his post about the issue. This morning – I realize he has decided to step out of the blogosphere – to avoid any such uncomfortable questions. I challenge Omar to republish those comments and questions in his blog again – if he has the honesty to prove that there was a single word of personal abuse in those questions.Maybe Omar realized that its easy to sermonize on TV and in Parliament – where no one cross questions you and no one calls your bluff. The TV anchors are more concerned about their image and the next TV awards – and thus there is a urge for competitive pseudo-secularist journalism. After all, Barkha Dutt and Rajdeep wouldn’t be getting stars and brownies from pseudo-intellectuals if they were to cross question the terrorists of the valley – Yasin Malik and Umar Farooq’s – on their self-certification of secularism. Only in India – can a Shabir Shah or a Yasin Malik come on national TV and claim that the Kashmiri Muslim is secular by nature – after having silently eliminated all of Kashmiri Pandit population from the valley 20 years ago.
The beginning
We all know how we got to the current situation. So I am not going to waste more bytes going through the chronology of events.
The PDP-Congress govt issued the order for temporary allocation of land to Shri Amarnath Shrine Board for use of creating facilities on a temporary basis for the yatris.
The fundamentalists in the valley felt infuriated by any attention being paid to a Hindu cause – something the Talibani element of the valley has already been working against right from the days of ethnic cleansing of the valley – when they purged all the Kashmiri Pandits from the valley in 1990. They have so meticulously been working on destruction of all temples and Hindu religious establishments in the valley in last two decades, completing the Talibanization of the valley. (Read more about that…)
The objections of the jihadi elements were taken up by Hurriyat – who promptly went onto the streets in the valley protesting against a mere 40 hectares of land being allocated for the yatra.
Why? What was the argument they were protesting against – None!
Well – they tried many illogical reasons and arguments – as Lalit has dissected and proven how absurb each of them are in his write up here
With Hurriyat taking a lead on this issue, PDP was forced to eat its own words and do a volte-face on something they were responsible for. Typical of PDP anyways, isn’t it. Mufti has always been hand in glove with the terrorists – right from the days of his Home Minister-ship – when the much doubted drama of his daughters adduction was enacted to facilitate the release of terrorists. Mufti could not be seen doing something terrorists don’t approve of. So on went Mehbooba and other PDP leaders – sharing space with other terrorists and separatist leaders – Geelani, Mirwaiz and Yasin Malik etc…
Well, with PDP grabbing the vote bank so fast in the valley – Omar Abdullah and his National Conference was too forced to compete for the communal agenda. Didn’t matter that it was NC government and act led by his father – who instituted the SASB…
Well… when it comes to competitive appeasement of Muslims – how can Congress governments be seen lagging behind - and so Ghulam Nabi Azad withdrew the order – and succumbed to the communal terrorists and separatists without a fight.
Talibanisation 1 – Secularism 0
And the valley celebrated – the whole of India saw the celebrations on the withdrawal of the orders. It was hailed as the victory of Kashmiri Nationalism.
What? Yes, you read it right…
No one dared question and ask – what victory and for what issue? Least expected from the Indian media anyways…
So – again – if you think you know what the problem with the land transfer is – please enlighten me. Because even Omar Abdullah doesn’t seem to know.
So as a last resort came out the diatribe of Kashmiri nationalism - as Omar and many other politicians from the valley have parroted –
‘It’s a matter of our land. We won’t give land for the yatra’
And this was the crux of their Kashmiriyat and Kashmiri Nationalism. Omar said this in the parliament and Mehbooba and others several times in the media. “We wont give our land”. But who is this ‘we’. The land of Jammu and Kashmir doesn’t belong to Kashmiri Muslims alone. So how did the government of the day unilaterally assume that the objection to the transfer by muslims of the valley was the objection of the whole state. The Kashmiri Muslim leaders – mainstream and terrorists alike – didn’t give a damn about the sentiments of the Kashmiri Pandit’s – already bruised and hurt by their ethnic cleansing – or that of other Hindu population of the state.
Who is this ‘we’ when they talk of this land ownership? Its only a segment of the Kashmiri Muslims – no one else and the objection is purely religious bias. Then how is it that they are not branded communal? The problem was communalized by the valley from day one… Yet no one will dare call spade a spade.
What is this objection of letting Shri Amarnath Shrine Board use the land -for even just two months of the yatra duration at a cost? Its not about environment, its not about settlements – its purely about letting life to a last Hindu vestige in the valley.
The Talibani elements so prevalent within the valley – in form of Hurriyat and others – have almost completed the Nizam-e-Mustafa agenda. Allowing revival of any Hindu symbols is totally unacceptable. They have been already pushing for curtailing of the yatra – which Mufti has been on record for demanding. Mufti has for years been pushing for cutting down the yatra to 15 days – in garb of Nitesh Sengupta recommendation. Yet, he and rest of them have a problem allowing land under the same commission’s recommendation.
I asked Omar the very same questions yesterday – what is the problem with the use of land. Answers he had none.
‘The yatra is already going on and uses 32 km route along the way. Then what is the need for 40 hectares of land. Let the state govt provide the facilities – why do you need the Shrine board?’
But what Omar argued instead was – what’s the need for 800 kanals to be set aside for creating facilities, when the yatra has been going on for so many years – and using 4000 kanals.
True – the yatra has been going on – and been using the entire route from Lakhinpur in Jammu to the sacred cave…not the 32 km route from Pahalgam to the shrine or the 14km route from Baltal, along the route. And something the Kashmiri Muslims readily take credit for allowing even today… Should the Indians be grateful for them for having allowed the yatra so far? Maybe, that’s what they imply…
The 40 hectares of land were meant to provide temporary pre-fabricated shelters to the yatris’ – along the treacherous route which is prone to hostile weather every year. Facilities which don’t exist today – or have been abysmally insufficient. If the state govt were capable and interested in providing these – they would have done so already. But that has not happened. And that was not the case either in 1996, when 256 people died in hailstorms and snow during the yatra – due to lack of proper shelters and medical facilities. We all know how pathetic JKTDC is in its existing role – and entrusting them with taking care of yatra would be absolutely ridiculous.
Forget 1996, even last month – three people died on the yatra route due to weather calamities – forcing the suspension of yatra for some days. Had those ‘facilities’ already been existing as claimed by these leaders – these lives wouldn’t have been lost.
The 40 hectares or 800 kanals are meant for improvement and better facilities – but seems the leaders of the valley can not digest anything better for this purpose. Either they want repeats of the 1996 tragedy to happen often or are too scared to see something new done in name of a Hindu religious sentiment.
Even if one were to concede that these facilities can be provided by JKTDC instead of SASB – is the JKTDC going to build the shelters in thin air? They would still need to use the land – unless the promise of JKTDC is a mere eye-wash and a time-wasting argument. Then what is the problem letting SASB use the same land on temporary basis – for 2 months. SASB is formed of officials of the state government machinery and most of the members of last board were state-subjects as well. The land was not be transferred permanently nor was any board member being endowed land for personal use – nor were they going to pocket the land and smuggle the land out of the valley.
Then what is the problem with the land transfer?
For a moment – lets assume the transfer is needless – and that the cabinet ministers of PDP were stupid in approving the transfer admitting the need after spending 3 years investigating the need, and that the same facilities do exist or can be provided by JKTDC…In short – the demand is needless.
Fine – if it’s needless, so be it. But what is the problem?
And there is a fine and serious difference I want you to identify. There are scores of needless things governments do in India or in whole of Indian-subcontinent for that matter. Scrores of needless committees, boards, organizations and cabinet posts exist… and that’s true of J&K too. But have you ever heard of people protesting so zealously about something needless – as did the muslims in valley in June. So the argument that’s its needless isn’t what incensed that crowd either.
The leaders of Kashmir have been for years pretending that they yearn for the return of Kashmiri Pandits. Mufti enacted a lot of drama around it in his tenure as well. How do they expect a Kashmiri Pandit to trust them – when they can not digest a temporary use of land for a reason so emotionally close to every pandit’s heart.
Can I trust Mufti or Omar to support me in the valley when I return to my roots – when they are aiming their guns at me for demanding a mere 40 hectares of land?
Media role
Each channel today – is busy analyzing how communal the people of Jammu are… No wonder they have to be communal – after all they are asking for land for a Hindu shrine. Anything Hindu = communal. Does not matter that the Sikhs, Muslims, Gujjars and bakrwals of the Jammu region are agitating alongside with the Hindus in Jammu.
But not one of these media honcho’s dared call – a Geelani or a Yasin Malik or a Umar Farooq or a Mehbooba Mufti communal – when they blatantly and brazenly turned down land use for a Hindu shrine. But Pranoy’s and Barkha’s IQ is lower than that of a Panchvi-pass – so its tough to expect them to understand this.The valley protested against the land allotment on religious basis in June – they objected to the land transfer for Amarnath Shrine board – something they never did for any earlier land transfers done to other agencies earlier for building railways, power projects or telecom towers in the state. But if a Muslim protests – its not communal. Its Kashmiri Nationalism and that’s all kosher…
Whether its CNN-IBN or Times Now or NDTV, they have been gulping the dramatically scripted sound bytes of the separatist leaders – without even caring to do an iota of homework…
Not one of these journo’s have so far asked any of Omar/Mufti/ Mehbooba/Mirwaiz/ Yasin Malik or Shabir Shah’s – all of whom are their revered guests all the time…
What the problem is?
How can they claim that the Kashmiri Muslim demand is secular and Jammu is communal – when they started objecting along communal lines first?
How can they claim self-certification of Kashmir as being secular by nature – when they forced the half a million Pandit out of the valley 18 years ago?
How are the claims of “we welcome the yatris” justified when there is an open fatwa in the valley – against which none of them has raised a voice – demanding all non-Kashmiri’s leave the valley. How is it that none of these leaders have so far said a word of condemnation against the fatwa issued on exiled Pandits by Ahsan Dar?
How are the claims of “not a single yatri has been touched?” even after attacks on yatris at Banihall, Kangan, Phalagam and Gulmarg amongst other places in the valley?
10,000 forest trees are chopped down to build Mughal road in Kashmir; no one makes a noise.
Acres of land in the Kashmir valley are given to Reliance telecom to install mobile phone towers; no one screams.
Acres and acres of land in the Kashmir valley are allotted to works departments to lay sewage and drinking water pipes; no one objects.
But when 40 hectares of uninhabitable land is handed over to Shri Amarnath Shrine Board (SASB) for providing better facilities to Holy Amarnath pilgrims, all hell breaks loose.
Why? Because Shri Amarnath Shrine Board caters to Hindu pilgrims who want to visit the Holy shrine of Amarnath in the valley of Kashmir. It is as simple as that.
Politically-correct politicians, policy-makers, and administrators might try to tell you that it is not about religion, but the fact of the matter is that it is all about religion. It is a sinister design by communal forces within the valley to completely Islamisize the valley by removing every symbol of Hinduism and other faiths from the valley. Today, these communal forces are preventing the setting up of facilities for the yatra, tomorrow they will even go to the extent of banning the yatra altogether. And the government of the day at that time will not lose a second to legitimize that ban. None of this is new. In past yatras, many pilgrims have been killed by the Islamic terrorist forces and the objective has always been the same - complete ethnic cleansing of the faiths other than Islam, in the valley.
The land transfer fiasco has already consumed the Azad-led Congress government and is on its way to now adversely damage the state’s economy. The fear psychosis created by the terrorist forces has already resulted in a sharp decline of tourists to the valley. The counter-strikes and bandhs announced by the pro-land-transfer parties within the Jammu province have paralyzed the life in that part of the state as well. So far it has been a win-lose situation in favor of terrorist and communal forces in the valley.
Let us first take a hard look at the frivolous arguments presented by the local valley Muslims, who have opposed the transfer of land:
First argument is that the allotment would have adversely affected the environment around the area. One wonders where these tree-hugging environmentalists were when the same government allowed the felling of 10,000 forest trees to build the 89 Kms long Mughal road. 40 Hectares of land that was going to be used to provide temporary shelters and night-time facilities to pilgrims was in fact going to help in proper maintenance of the current-day waste that actually pollutes the environment. But who can argue with the senseless politicians, who instigate the common folks to come out on the streets?
Second argument is that the allotment is the government’s ploy to settle Hindus from outside of the state to change the demographics of the valley. Look who is talking! One has to only go back 18 years in the history and check who changed the demographics of the valley. It was the Islamic terrorists who changed the demographics of the valley by ethnically cleansing the Kashmiri Hindus from the valley. I wonder where these we-do-not-want-to-change-demographics-folks were when Kashmiri Hindus were getting slaughtered by Islamic terrorists and valley’s demographics were being altered. Or should I assume that it was OK as long as Kashmiri Hindus were getting killed which in turn would make the valley 100% Muslim? Isn’t that what Sheikh Abdullah’s concept of ‘Naya Kashmir’ was? Isn’t that what Islamists in the valley wanted when they were screaming “Nizam-e-Mustafa” from the rooftops of the mosques? One would like to ask few simple questions: (a) Is 40 hectares of land enough to settle so many Hindus that it would change the demographics of the valley? (b) By putting this argument of demographic change, are valley’s Muslims implying that Hindus are not welcome in the valley anymore? And I do not mean the Hindus from outside of Kashmir. I mean the Hindus from the state of Jammu & Kashmir itself. What if the Hindus, who hold the state subject certificate of J&K state and are legally, allowed to purchase land in any part of the state, want to purchase land in the area around the Holy Amarnath? Are these valley Muslims saying that those Hindus cannot buy the land there and cannot settle there? Is that what they are implying? Are they trying to protect the environment by preventing the Hindus from settling in the valley?
Another argument Kashmiri Muslims present is that the land cannot be allotted to Shrine Board because Article 370 does not allow anyone outside of J&K state to own the land. Their argument is that since J&K Governor is the Chairman of the board and he is an outsider, this transfer of land is illegal. How dumb one has to be to understand that the land is transferred to the Shrine Board which is an institution based in the state of J&K and created by the J&K government. The land is not transferred to the Chairman or the CEO of the board per se. Only a dumb person would make that argument and only a dumber person would even buy that argument.
Having touched upon the outlandish arguments of those who oppose the allotment of land, now let us take a look at some facts and the real story behind the story:
It was during the first three years of the Mufti-Azad PDP-Congress coalition government that the original proposal of land transfer was initiated and cleared. It was under Mufti Sayeed’s leadership that his forest minister Qazi Mohd. Afzal and law minister Muzzafar Hussain Baig originally cleared the proposal. It just so happened that due to the red-tape the proposal was finally approved by the cabinet when Azad had taken over as the Chief Minister during the second three-year part of the six-year term. The same PDP led by same Mufti Sayeed was originally OK with this whole proposal. But as soon as PDP (a) smelt that the terrorist outfits like Hizb-ul-Mujahideen were not in favor of allotment of land and (b) realized that it could become a polarizing issue to whip up the sentiments and thus garner votes in the upcoming elections, it backtracked, joined hands with terrorist outfits and other separatists (Hurriyat factions) to communalize the issue and brought common Kashmiri Muslims on the road to protest against the government’s (government that PDP was part of) order of allotment of land to SASB. Since it is an election year, National Conference and other smaller political parties would not let PDP and Mufti cash this opportunity alone and thus jumped into the fray as well and whipped up the communal sentiments by fooling the local Kashmiri Muslims. And that leaves Congress. How could Congress not try to cash in on this polarizing issue in an election year? So CM Azad did not waste any time and revoked his own cabinet decision to appease the local Kashmiri Muslim vote bank. He did not just stop there. In addition to revoking his own order, he also effectively disbanded the Shri Amarnath Shrine Board. Now that is some level of appeasement! That is the real story behind the story. It is an issue created by Mufti Sayeed to polarize the vote banks during an election year. It is his dangerous design of playing politics with religious sentiments of lakhs of Hindus from all over the country. It is the continuation of his ethnic cleansing tactics that he initiated and promoted way back on Feruary 21, 1986 when 100s of Kashmiri Hindu houses were torched and about 40 Hindu temples were desecrated in the town of Anantnag. It is the same Mufti Sayeed who while being the Home Minister in the V.P. Singh’s union government allegedly engineered the abduction of his daughter Rubiya Sayeed and eventually freed dreaded terrorists in exchange for his daughter’s release. Such is the political game in the state of Jammu & Kashmir.
Now that we know the real story behind the story, how about the Hindu pilgrims who want to visit the Holy Shrine and what about their fundamental rights to practice their religion with complete security, dignity and honor? Isn’t it a shame that Hindus living in India, where 80% of population is Hindu, cannot freely visit the Holy shrine of Amarnath and expect better facilities? It is only in India that the majority community has to make all the sacrifices in favor of minorities because our politicians believe in appeasing minority Muslims at the cost of majority Hindus. Indian politicians have always taken Hindus for granted and thus created an environment wherein the minority Muslims have become so emboldened that they now have the audacity to dictate terms to majority population. What happened to the concept of equality and fairness for one and all?
National Conference leader Omar Abdullah in a TV debate on this issue asked why is there a need for land and new facilities when the pilgrimage has been going on for many years. Does Omar Abdullah mean to say that there is no need to improve the facilities provided during the treacherous pilgrimage? Is he implying that if yatris were OK for last so many hundred years, then why change and improve the facilities? I have never heard him say such things with regards to Haj pilgrimage. Every year Muslims from Kashmir as well as rest of the country want better and better facilities and subsidies for Haj pilgrims. But when it comes to providing better facilities to Shri Amarnath pilgrims, it becomes a sore point for Kashmiri Muslims and their leaders. Heavy rains, snowstorms, landslides and hostile environment took away 256 lives during the yatra in 1996. And Omar Abdullah has the audacity to promote status quo!
Some of you might argue that it was not the valley Muslims but the political parties and terrorists who opposed the land transfer order and forced the valley folks to come out on the streets. I can buy that argument but that does not absolve the valley’s common folks from their responsibility. They cannot always support these fundamentalist forces and then at the same time claim innocence. They did the same back in 1989 and early 90s when they either stood as mute spectators or as vocal supporters while Kashmiri Hindus were getting ethnically cleansed. As a good citizen, it is incumbent upon them to raise their voice against these dreaded forces and stop this madness. If they sincerely believe in peace, then they need to stand up and reject these terrorist outfits and their masters. Conversely, if they don’t then they are as much party to the madness as the principals and thus need to be held accountable. They cannot have it both ways.
This ugly episode in the history of Jammu & Kashmir has clearly exposed the nexus between all the terrorist outfits, separatists’ outfits and three major parties operating in the valley namely National Conference (NC), People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and Congress. One has to simply pause and think what really bound them all together. Since their political ideology is apparently different, it was only the religion that brought them together. It was the Nizam-e-Mustafa that brought them under one umbrella and motivated them to threaten the government. And the saddest part is that the government caved in. It not only caved in to appease Muslim vote bank but set a dangerous precedent in which now onwards every policy decision within the state will have to be ratified by Islamic terrorists, separatists and anti-India forces. What could be worse than that for a sovereign country?
When Indians carrying Indian Tiranga protest against the revocation of the land transfer order, they get beaten up and arrested by the Indian police. But when the valley Muslims carrying Pakistani flags come on the roads shouting anti-India, pro-Pakistan slogans, they get police protection. This is all the result of appeasement policies adopted by all the successive governments in India. Appeasement policies are never good for a nation, particularly for a nation like India that is so diverse in ethnicity and culture. Whether it is the appeasement of amending the constitution during Shah Bano case, or appeasement of releasing dreaded terrorists during Rubiya Sayeed kidnapping case, or appeasement of letting go of three key Islamic terrorists during IC-814 airline hijacking, or appeasement of allowing separate Muslim Personal law, or appeasement of continuing the temporary constitutional provision of Article 370, all such appeasement policies are one day going to result in nation’s doom. It is incumbent upon the leaders of the nation as well as the citizenry to be on guard and not allow such appeasement policies to take effect in a nation that is based on the concept of secularism, democracy and fairness to one and all.
The writer is the President of Indo-American Kashmir Forum (www.iakf.org), a US based advocacy group.
One of the weirdest lie leaders from Kashmir are repeatedly parroting over media is that the Amarnath cave was discovered by a Kashmiri muslim 130-140 years ago and that the yatra has existed only for last 130-140 years ago.
