Amarnath Land Deal

Bodhi · 08-14-2008, 12:30 PM

Bodhi · 08-14-2008, 12:33 PM

Bodhi · 08-14-2008, 12:37 PM

Bodhi · 08-14-2008, 12:38 PM

08-14-2008, 01:18 PM

G.Subramaniam · 08-14-2008, 05:43 PM

Sri Sri is a gullible guy

He often has dialogs with Zakir Naik
where he is humiliated in public

Why should he be the hindu representative when
he refuses to use the word hindu in Art of living and hides behind
the vedic tag

Bharatvarsh · 08-14-2008, 08:27 PM

QUOTEMan commits suicide, Amarnath issue blamed

Thursday, 14 August , 2008, 17:17Â

Jammu: A man in his 60s committed suicide near here on Thursday, the police said, with witnesses alleging he killed himself over the Amarnath land row.

Balwant Rai Khajuria, a retired official, allegedly consumed poison and ended his life at Hiranagar, 60 km southwest of Jammu.

The witnesses said he collapsed in front of members of the Shri Amarnath Sangharsh Samiti, which has been protesting the cancellation of the land allotment to a board managing the Amarnath yatra in the wake of protests in the Kashmir Valley.

He reportedly said before dying: "The government is not listening to us. I hereby end my life for the cause."

On July 23, Kuldip Kumar, a young man from Bishanah, a township about 20 km west of Jammu, came to Samiti leaders on a relay hunger strike and committed suicide in a similar manner.

Samiti convenor Leela Karan Sharma has said: "Don't kill yourself. It is time to struggle, not to commit suicide."

http://sify.com/news/fullstory.php?id=14740445

Bharatvarsh · 08-15-2008, 12:00 AM

More "expert analysis" from B. Raman blaming the victims as usual:
QUOTE8. The agitation launched by the Hindus of the Jammu Division of the State against the cancellation could have been justified if they had kept it confined to demonstrations and protests. Instead of doing so, they used the agitation for indulging in deplorable actsÂ such as trying to disrupt communications with the Muslim-majority KashmirÂ Valley and allegedly preventing the Muslim farmers of the Valley from sending their produce of fruits to the rest of India for sale.

http://www.southasiaanalysis.org/papers2...r2805.html
No wonder with such "experts" staffing RAW we are where we are.

QUOTEAnother protester shot in KashmirÂ

A row over a small piece of land has turned violent
One person has been killed and another wounded after police again opened fire on demonstrators in Srinagar, in Indian-administered Kashmir.

Protestors have hoisted Pakistani flags at several places in the valley on what is Pakistan's Independence Day.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7560020.stm

08-15-2008, 12:04 AM

B.Raman should retire and play with grand childrens snake and ladder.
According to B.Raman, if Hindu protest its wrong, Hindu should just follow impotent govt and tratiors and stays always ready to be blown by Indian muslims.

Shambhu · (This post was last modified: 08-15-2008, 04:51 AM by Shambhu.)

With their legendary brains, the commies have put their finger on the causes of the Amarnath issue:
The fascist BJP-RSS, "aided and abetted" by the islamic separatists, are destroying India communal harmony. Damn! Why don't the rest of us think of such to-the-point answers? Why?

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CPM takes UPA govt to task on Amarnath land rowFont Size - -A +A
Agencies
Posted online: Thursday , August 14, 2008 at 06:42:47
Updated: Thursday , August 14, 2008 at 06:42:47 Print Email To Editor Post CommentsRelated Articles

New Delhi, August 14: Accusing the UPA government of failing to check violence in Jammu and Kashmir over the Amarnath land issue, the CPI-M on Thursday said communal and separatist forces were feeding each other to disturb social harmony and harm the countryâs security and territorial sovereignty.
âThis UPA government, which has come into existence primarily on the claim to safeguard the secular foundations of India, has failed so far to douse these flames.

âIndia cannot afford to allow this situation, (All that is secondary, comrade. First we have to find out if China will benefit) which has serious implications for our territorial sovereignty as well as social harmony, to slide into disastrous anarchy,â Politburo member Sitaram Yechury said.

In an editorial in the forthcoming issue ofâPeopleâs Democracy, he said it was âclear that the communal forces and the separatist forces feed and strengthen each otherâ.

Maintaining that a solution to the land controversy can be arrived at only through dialogue, he said âa solution does not seem to be the objective of the RSS/BJP. They appear bent upon to intensify communal polarisation (all religions protesting together under the tricolour is defined as "communal polarization" in the Red Dictionary) and enlarge the confrontation to the national levelâ ("enlarging the confrontation at a national level" is what the common man in India hopes and prays for, but of course, he is not right, because comrade Yechury says so).

On the other hand, âthese communal forces are admirably aided and abetted by the separatist extremist forces in the Kashmir valley,â Yechury said.

While the separatists were projecting the âtemporary change in the land use pattern to provide facilities to the yatris only for the duration of the yatraâ as a permanent settlement, the RSS/BJP was seeing the issue as an opportunity to âconsolidate the Hindu vote bank at the expense of mayhem and bloodshedâ.

âIn the process, it is innocent life that is the casualty. So is the assiduously built, over the centuries, warmth of coexistence between Hindus and Muslims in the state,â Yechury said, adding Indiaâs secular fabric has once again come under âsevere strainâ (Note: We need to import more spandex from China).

Observing that the volatile situation in Jammu and Kashmir has ârudely shaken the conscienceâ of the country, he said it had driven home the âtenuous fragility of our secular foundations.â In the Independence Day Special issue of the party organ, the CPI-M leader said the RSS ideology of establishing âa rabidly intolerant fascistic Hindu Rashtraâ was the complete anti-thesis of a modern secular democratic republic (the anti-anti-thesis, of course, is to deny, degrade, and destroy anything Indic, and to worship murdering invaders, Stalin, Lenin, Mao...).

Calling for a âresolute and uncompromising struggleâ against communalism, separatism and all expressions of divisiveness, he said âIndia cannot win if these forces are not defeated." (Comrade Yechury continues to maintain that he is really sober and sincere about all this, and continues to turn down requests from my Talent Search Team to do stand-up comedy <!--emo& Sad

--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/sad.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='sad.gif' /> )

http://www.expressindia.com/latest-news/CP...and-row/348964/

Capt M Kumar · 08-15-2008, 05:21 AM

<img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/india.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='india.gif' /> India rebuffs OIC comments on Kashmir
The OIC, an international organisation that brings together 57 states, professes to speak for the interests of Muslims in the world.

New Delhi: India on Thursday rebuffed the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) for its comments on the violence in Jammu and Kashmir and asked it not to meddle in the country's internal affairs.

"We note with regret the statement made by the OIC Secretary- General on the situation in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir," External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Navtej Sarna told reporters here.

http://news.in.msn.com/national/article.as...umentid=1630710

G.Subramaniam · 08-15-2008, 08:45 AM

http://www.newkerala.com/topstory-fullnews-11954.html

Land should be given to Amarnath Shrine Board: Ramdev

New Delhi, Aug 14: Yoga Guru Ramdev Thursday called for an end to the row over transfer of land to the Amarnath Shrine Board that has claimed at least 40 lives, but maintained that the Jammu and Kashmir government should allot the land to the temple trust.

"The Amarnath Shrine Board must be allotted land to erect temporary structures for pilgrims. This is our country and the land belongs to us. Why should we be scared to acquire it from the Jammu and Kashmir government?" Ramdev told a packed a media conference here.

"It is a shame that the government cannot allot its own land to the temple and its own people," the spiritual leader and Vedic healer said on his return from the US, where he had been for the past one-and-half months. Ramdev has been campaigning for transfer of land to the shrine board.

He said the remarks by a section of people that India was trying to create an Israel-like situation in Kashmir and comparing the state to Palestine, were a threat to the country's communal mosaic.

The Amarnath Yatra is an important annual pilgrimage for Hindus across the world.

Land was allotted to the Amarnath Shrine Board, which manages the temple, to build temporary shelters for pilgrims. But the order had to be revoked following violent protests in the Muslim-dominated Kashmir valley, triggering a backlash in Jammu, which has a dominant Hindu population.

The guru also linked the issue of the "resettlement" of the Kashmiri Hindu oustees, who were forced to leave the state when insurgency in the state peaked during the 1990s, to his Amarnath crusade.

He said the displaced Kashmiri Hindu Pandit community should be re-settled in Kashmir.

"Along with the land for the Amarnath Shrine Board, land should also be earmarked for the displaced Hindu Kashmiri Pandits in the Valley so that they can have a homeland. Their security can be handed over to the Indian Army," Ramdev said.

Speaking about his mission in the US, Ramdev said his yoga foundation, the Patanjali Yog Peeth, was building a sprawling Vedic yoga and traditional Indian therapy centre on 94 acres of land in Houston, Texas.

"For the first time, the Patanjali Yog Peeth is also setting up limited liability companies attached to the facilities abroad to patent and trademark its ayurvedic products so that they are not hijacked by foreigners," the guru told IANS.

Bodhi · 08-15-2008, 09:01 AM

CRPF IG shifted, struck off medals' list

NEW DELHI: In an effort to go the extra mile to cool the tempers of agitationists in Srinagar, the Centre on Thursday not only shifted out a CRPF inspector-general from the J&K capital but also, at the last minute, removed the officer's name from the list of those selected for this year's President's police medal for distinguished service.

The changes came within hours of late night protests in Srinagar on Wednesday when people, responding to calls made over loudspeakers from mosques, came out on the streets in protest against the alleged entry of security personnel into some houses â the method adopted by terrorists' sympathisers there against Army personnel during peak days of militancy in the late 80s and early 90s.

Its effect seemed to be so immediate that governor N N Vohra had to announce the replacement of the IPS officer, S K Jain (IGP, Srinagar), without any verification of the allegation. The CRPF, which has over 77,000 of its personnel deployed in the terror-infested state, had no option but to recall Jain to its headquarters here.

In addition, the home ministry, which is the controlling authority of the paramilitary force, dropped Jain's name from the list of awardees, possibly to send a message to the agitationists in the Kashmir valley.

"But what is the kind of message the government wants to send to the security forces?" asked a senior CRPF officer. 

He said the paramilitary force has been doing its job without any major human rights violation ever since it took over the counter-insurgency operations in J&K.

Incidentally, the list of awardees available with the CRPF carried the name of Jain as one who would be awarded the President's police medal for distinguished service. But his name missing in the final list â released by the home ministry later â came as a shock to the force.

"It is not a question of award or reward. It concerns the morale of the force which has been working in a hostile atmosphere where there is a very thin line between terrorists and their sympathizers," said the officer.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/CRPF_IG...how/3363922.cms

Bodhi · (This post was last modified: 08-15-2008, 09:08 AM by Bodhi.)

Jammu: poetic history - Sandhya Jain

Bodhi · 08-15-2008, 09:23 AM

Young, leaderless revolt that defies control
SANKARSHAN THAKUR

Ganderbal (North Kashmir), Aug. 14: They were no more than two thousand of them at the core of the horde, but they had the muscle of their frenzy. It sent them up the high walls of the district headquarters and into the compound in no time. Then they clambered up the wooden awnings and balconies and leapt to the sloped roof and unfurled a green flag atop. âHum kya chahte, Aazaadi! Lad ke lenge Aazaadi! Chalo Muzaffarabad!â

The standard of rebellion had been raised, it was fluttering atop Ganderbalâs padlocked administrative hub. The throng rippled with the surcharge of facile victory. Police, and, behind them, the CRPF and the army, watched on.

The men, mostly youngsters with black kerchiefs pulled across the faces, scaled the wall again and collected back on the road. They unfurled more green flags and screamed their defiance before heading off towards the local mosque.

The shops were all shut but the men were all out on the streets and falling behind the processionists. By the time the column reached the bridge over the Sindh, it had become swollen and turbulent like the river itself.

This has become the standard operating procedure of a revolt that is spreading across the Valley unabated. Spontaneous eruptions of youngsters, often even children and the elderly, that nobody seems to be able to contain. There are no political parties in the lead, no known faces commanding or exhorting them, they are not the National Conference, not the PDP, not even the Hurriyat. These are just people crying freedom. âChalo Muzaffarabad!â When the current period of mourning ends on Saturday, that will be the pressure mounted again â breach the LoC, walk into Muzaffarabad!

âThatâs one of the problems dealing with them,â admitted a senior officer back in Srinagar yesterday, âThey have no clear leadership, we do not have established routes to them, we do not know who can control and calm them down. They are just people coming out everywhere to calls from mosques, or even without that. This is a leaderless disruption and that is a problem.â

Over the past couple of days, the N.N. Vohra administration has been able to prevail upon established parties and even the Hurriyat to issue public appeals for calm. Mirwaiz Umer Farooq and Syed Ali Shah Geelani have both asked people on local cable networks not to indulge in violence or in confrontation with the security forces. But like curfew orders, these appeals have been rampantly defied.

As a bewildered government gropes for control, the movement is slipping out of grasp. It hasnât helped that voices of solidarity from across the troubled frontier are getting bolder. âPakistan is surely becoming a greater and troubling factor,â the officer conceded, âThey are encouraging this with more than just statements of support. They have established links, the people can watch Pakistani television and listen to the radio. They are leading all this on, it is spreading.â

âDaily,â muttered the jawan following the phalanx in Ganderbal, tear gas cans buckled at his waist, âthis happens daily and every day there are more people. And the slogans become louder. This will end in terrible trouble.â

He looked a tad sheepish that the flag had been hoisted unchecked. He said he couldnât stand the slogans â anti-India and pro-Pakistan â anymore. But he also said the orders were to keep restraint: take the provocation, donât provide any. The jawans would have to wait for nightfall before they can take the flag off the district offices, and off the many lamp-posts across town; by day, the crowd wouldnât let them. That would amount to provocation, invitation to greater trouble.

But confrontation isnât a thing anyone in Kashmir is betting against at the moment. We drove a hundred miles into the Valleyâs northern heartland through the day witnessing elaborate arrangements of a stand-off.

Getting past Srinagarâs endemically explosive downtown itself accounted for half the time of journey. The security forces are nervously bunkered at the downtownâs narrow entry points. Once you get in, the barricades all belong to the residents. Garlands of burning tyres, logs thrown across the streets, diesel barrels and drainpipes rolled onto the road.

There is not a window in downtown Srinagar, not a shop, not a power pole, without a black flag aflutter. The cloth merchants of town must have a sudden run on their stocks of black material, bales and bales of it, torn and ripped into flags and strung everywhere you looked. Teenaged boys in Amirakadal had commandeered an electricity board repair van and were moving about hanging black flags on high street-lamps. A black flag was spiked atop the car we took; handier than a curfew pass and in downtown Srinagar, a necessity. We couldnât have moved through town without that.

At one crossing in Safakadal, where one was shot dead in firing this afternoon, they had knocked timber and cardboard to make a crude scarecrow of âIndian Democracyâ â with a mawkish stuffing of hay on top â âIndian Dogs go back!â was the graffiti scrawled across it. It will be torched tomorrow, Independence Day, traditionally a day of protest in the Valley. "Mera Bharat Mahan" will merely be a knocked up slogan on scurrying armoured carriers.

Shambhu · 08-15-2008, 09:46 AM

Let the rats go to muzzafarabad. But only after hearing on the loudspeakers from the Army that it is a one way road. Cross the LoC back into India, and you will be suspected of bringing in arms, and so we will have to do what we do to anyone who tries to sneak in.

This message has to be loud and clear, and reported across India on news channels.

Bodhi · 08-15-2008, 09:55 AM

QUOTE(Shambhu @ Aug 15 2008, 09:46 AM)This message ... reported across India on news channels.
[right][snapback]86478[/snapback][/right]


Shambhu Ji, You Expect Too Much From Across-India-News-Channels.

NDTV and CNN-IBN are reporting here that the 'Muzaffarabad Chalo' is an effort by poor Kashmiri 'fruit growers' to go into POK, and re-enter India through Wagah post to sell their fruits in the Markets of Chandigarh and Dilli -- all this because darn fundamentalist communal Hindus are not letting the fruits come via jammu. This is in total contrast to what Kashmiri Fruit Sellers themselves are announcing --that they want to take the fruits to Rawalpindi and Lahore markets.

Shambhu · 08-15-2008, 09:59 AM

QUOTE(Bodhi @ Aug 15 2008, 09:55 AM)<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Shambhu @ Aug 15 2008, 09:46 AM)This message ... reported across India on news channels.
[right][snapback]86478[/snapback][/right]


Shambhu Ji, You Expect Too Much From Across-India-News-Channels.

NDTV and CNN-IBN are reporting here that the 'Muzaffarabad Chalo' is an effort by poor Kashmiri 'fruit growers' to go into POK, and re-enter India through Wagah post to sell their fruits in the Markets of Chandigarh and Dilli -- all this because darn fundamentalist communal Hindus are not letting the fruits come via jammu. This is in total contrast to what Kashmiri Fruit Sellers themselves are announcing --that they want to take the fruits to Rawalpindi and Lahore markets.
[right][snapback]86481[/snapback][/right]
</div>

Goodness! Our channels are really worthless. <img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/Flush.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='Flush.gif' />

G.Subramaniam · 08-15-2008, 10:49 AM

Sandhya Jain on Sri Sri Ravishankar ( moron-swami )
---

Sadly, India at present lacks the kind of indomitable religious leaders who could stride the region preaching true dharma and attracting the millions back to the Hindu fold. For peace, harmony and prosperity in the region, we need to take Hindu dharma and religion back up to the Persian border. The likes of Sri Sri Ravi Shankar â who flew all the way to Seattle, USA, to endorse the disreputable Indo-US nuclear deal â and love to be seen embracing the likes of Yasin Malik, have no status with the Hindu community. They would be well-advised to desist from the constant quest for cheap publicity.

08-15-2008, 03:17 PM

Letter from Advani to PM.
QUOTEDear Prime Minister,

It is with a deep sense of disappointment that I am writing to you with regard to the issue relating to the transfer of land to Shri Amarnath Ji Shrine Board for the purposes of providing facilities to the pilgrims who visit the holy shrine each year. It appears that the government is completely out of its depth in dealing with this issue. We are also convinced that the government is not very serious about finding a solution to this problem.

The people of Jammu division have suffered from a gross discrimination in the matters relating to the governance of the State. The census is not fairly and regularly done. The delimitation is deferred; there is discrimination in the matter of public employment, disbursal of funds and development of the region. They are told on each occasion that the Kashmir valley has a 'psyche' and therefore the government is to submit to that 'psyche' and if fairness is shown to the people of Jammu, the 'psyche' of the valley will be hurt. Recent events have shown that the people in Jammu are now determined to assert in order to claim their fair share in the matter of both governance and development of the region.

Let it be clearly understood. The problem in J&K today is not Hindu versus Muslim; nor is it even Jammu region versus the Valley. It is essentially nationalists versus the separatists. The people of Jammu supported by the rest of the country, strongly feel that the revocation of the Cabinet order with regard to Amarnath was purely under separatist pressures. There is a huge sense of hurt and injury in Indian public opinion which has resulted in the nationalist opinion being alienated because the separatists have to be pleased.

The protest of the people of Jammu has been nationalist; they hold the national flag to their heart, even when they protest. They raise slogans in support of our motherland and also the Indian army [Images]. It is for this reason that both the army and security forces are finding it difficult even to enforce the curfew. Can this group of nationalists be equated with the separatists who foment trouble in our country. This precisely is the mistake that the government is committing.

A question is being raised as to how the current problem is to be resolved. If the government is really serious about resolving the problem it must just act straight. Follow the law and follow the judicial orders and you will reach the correct solution.

There is an Act of the Jammu & Kashmir legislature, called 'The Jammu and Kashmir [Images] Shri Amarnathji Shrine Act, 2000'. This Act which provides for the constitution of the Shrine Board, also defines the duties of the Board. Section 16 of the Act reads as under:

16. Duties of the Board

Subject to the provisions of this Act and of any bye-laws made thereunder, it shall be the duty of the Board :-

(a) to arrange for the proper performance of worship at the Holy Shrine;

(b) to provide facilities for the proper performance of worship by the pilgrims;

Â© To make arrangements for the safe custody of the funds, valuables and jewellery and for the preservation of the Board Fund;

(d) To undertake developmental activities concern the area of the Shrine and its surroundings;

(e) To make provision for the payment of suitable emoluments to the salaried staff;

(f) To make suitable arrangements for the imparting of religious instructions and general education to the pilgrims;

(g) To undertake, for the benefit of worshippers and pilgrims:

(i) the construction of buildings for their accommodation;

(ii) the construction of sanitary works;

(iii) the improvement of means of communication.

(h) To make provision of medical relief for worshippers and pilgrims;

(i) to do all such things as may be incidental and conducive to the efficient management, maintenance and administration of the Holy Shrine and the Board Funds and for the convenience of the pilgrims.

It is clear that it is the duty of the Shrine Board to provide facilities for performance of worship by pilgrims, development activities around the Shrine, to undertake construction of buildings for accommodation of the pilgrims to provide sanitation facilities to the pilgrims; to provide for communication, medical relief etc to the pilgrims. It is the duty of the State to enable the Shrine Board to become effective in order to discharge its duties in an effective manner.

This Act is in consonance with the secular polity of India. The government does not run religious institutions nor does it manage them. This function is best left to the institutions of every religious denomination. This mandate emanates from the provisions of Article 26 and 27 of the Constitution which are reproduced hereunder :-

Article 26
Freedom to manage religious affairs:

Subject to public order, morality and health, every religious denomination or any section thereof shall have the rightï¿½

(a) to establish and maintain institutions for religious and charitable purposes;

(b) to manage its own affairs in matters of religion;

Â© to own and acquire movable and immovable property; and

(d) to administer such property in accordance with law.

Article 27
Freedom as to payment of taxes for promotion of any particular religion.

No person shall be compelled to pay any taxes, the proceeds of which are specifically appropriated in payment of expenses for the promotion or maintenance of any particular religious denomination.

All faiths deserve equal respect. And the State should not discriminate between followers of different faiths. This is the meaning of Indian secularism. It enjoins on us to create proper amenities, with necessary infrastructure, at the pilgrimage centres of all communities. There can be no double standards in this matter.

The mandate of Article 26 is that it is for the religious denomination to establish and maintain its religious places and to manage the affairs of their religion. It is entitled to acquire movable and immovable properties and administer them in accordance with law. It is precisely on account of the mandate of Article 26 that the SGPC manages the affairs of Sikh religious institutions, the Wakf Board look after the affairs of Muslim religious institutions and Shrine Boards as also the various religious endowments are managing Hindu religious institutions under various statutory enactments.

The spirit of Article 27 makes it clear that a secular State does not spend the taxpayers' money on religious purposes. It is the contributions of that particular religious denomination which will be used for running the affairs of the religion's activities. It is precisely for this reason that the Jammu & Kashmir Shri Amarnath Ji Shrine Board set up under the Act requires to be strengthened so that the Shrine Board itself can discharge the functions of providing facilities to the pilgrims and managing the religious shrine. This duty is necessitated because of the climatic conditions at such heights where the Shrine is located. It is the duty of the State to allocate land to the Shrine Board so that the provision of facilities can be made by the Board.

Any decision of the government the effect of which is that the Shrine Board will not provide these amenities and that they would be provided by the Tourism Department of the government is both contrary to the letter and spirit of Article 26 and 27 of the Constitution as also 'The Jammu & Kashmir Shri Amarnath Ji Shrine Act, 2000'. Since the State of Jammu and Kashmir was not allocating any land to run the functions of the Shrine Board effectively, a writ petition was filed in the Jammu and Kashmir High Court in which the High Court passed a detailed judgement on 15-4-2005 wherein a Single Judge of the High Court issued certain directions to the government. With regard to the provision of amenities the High Court Single Judge held that:

"Since the Board intends to upgrade the infrastructure across the tracks and at different places, the State shall immediately permit the user of land by the Board if already not allowed to carry on developmental activities for the benefit of the Yatra. I am informed that the Forest department has already granted permission to the Board for this purpose. Let necessary steps in this regard be taken immediately before the Yatra commences this year. The effective steps are to be taken by the concerned State authorities for effective implementation of the decision of the Board and no interference is caused by any of the State agencies on implementation of the decision of the Board."

An appeal was filed by the State of Jammu & Kashmir against this order of the Single Judge. But this part of the judgment was not stayed by the Appeal Court. On 17/5/2005 the Division Bench of the High Court passed an interim order wherein it issued certain directions with regard to the Yatra. A fear was expressed that the Shrine Board would transfer land allotted to it for user of the third parties. The Division Bench clarified this and stated as under in its interim order :

"The land to be allotted by the Board would be only for the purposes of its user and would remain allotted for the duration of the yatra. The board shall also identify the sites to be allotted for the purposes of 'Langar', erection of detachable pre-fabricated huts and toilets etc. which would not be permanent in nature and which are liable to be removed after the yatra is over. The Board shall identify the person/agency to whom the site would be allotted so as to enable the State Government to screen the activities of such person/agencyï¿½ï¿½"

It is thus clear that to discharge its obligations under the Act, the State Government has to allocate land to the Shrine Board. The Shrine Board can allot it further to third parties only during the tenure of the yatra for the purposes of erecting temporary and pre-fabricated structures for providing amenities to the pilgrims.

The above is the present state of the legislation and the judicial orders. Can any body dispute that a law passed by the State Assembly should not be implemented ? Does the Govt.of India or the Governor of the State have an option not to implement the judicial orders?
A joint reading of the legislation and the court orders leads to a clear conclusion. The duty of providing amenities to the pilgrims is of the Shrine Board. The government has to give land to the Shrine Board for user. The Shrine Board may request others to put up temporary structures during the tenure of the yatra. The revoked Cabinet order precisely sought to implement the legislation and the judicial directions.

The decision of the Governor to return the land allotted to the Shrine Board back to the government is contrary to the provisions of 'The Jammu & Kashmir Shrine Board Act'. The Governor as the Chairman of the Board has no power to alienate the rights of the Board. He acted contrary to the law by not consulting the Board. Land given to the Board was pursuant to the direction of the High Court. The decision to cancel the land allotment to the Board is a violation of the High Court orders and amounts to contempt of the orders dated 15.4.2005 and 17.5.2005.

Is it the Govt.of India position that because of separatist pressures the legitimate court orders and the legislation cannot be implemented? Is it the Government's perception that the pilgrims going on Amarnath ji Yatra will not be or cannot be allowed amenities and that the State would manage the affairs of the religious place rather than a legally empowered Shrine Board. It appears that the Government of India has misread the nationalist mood of the people of Jammu which is also supported by strong public opinion in the country. This is the first time in history that the Government has succeeded in even alienating nationalist opinion. The court orders need to be complied with. The mandate of the legislation has to be obeyed. The constitutional right to religion of the pilgrims has to be made effective. The myopic attitude of the Government and its snail like speed in finding a solution has allowed the situation to escalate.

I feel greatly saddened by the loss of so many lives, be it in Jammu or in Kashmir Valley. The Government should, at least at this late hour, recognise the gravity of the situation and speedily take a just and fair decision, rather than adopt a do-nothing policy.

We urge the government to act immediately and to restore the original Cabinet order, which sought to enforce both the law and the judicial orders.

With regards,

Yours sincerely,

(L. K. ADVANI)

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