06-25-2008, 09:47 PM
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Enough is enough </b>
The Pioneer Edit Desk
<b>Kashmir is not waqf property</b>
<b>The political controversy that has engulfed Jammu & Kashmir following the temporary transfer of 100 acres of forestland to Sri Amarnath Shrine Board is disquieting</b>. It speaks volumes for the so-called change of heart in the Valley. Having agreed to the transfer on purely logistical grounds -- thousands of devotees from all over India visit Amarnath for the annual, summertime yatra and surely they do need temporary shelter and facilities -- the PDP-Congress Government is split down the middle. Taking its cue from the extremists -- in the 2002 election Mufti Mohammed Sayeed's party had the tacit support of the militants -- the PDP has accused the Congress Ministers of acting behind its back. The PDP has ignored that its Ministers were party to the decision to transfer the land. <b>The protests are not in the nature of environmental concerns and fears of degradation, but out of, to quote the incendiary leadership of the All-Party Hurriyat Conference, a desire to protect the so-called "Muslim identity of Kashmir".</b> <b>Scare-mongering is being resorted to and wild allegations are being made about how "outsiders" and "Hindus" will be resettled on the forestland to change the demography of the Kashmir Valley.</b> Such Government-induced mass migration has indeed been used as policy by the Chinese in Xinjiang and Tibet, and even by the Pakistanis in the part of Jammu & Kashmir they occupy as well as the Northern Areas. Stalin and his successors tried it in Soviet Central Asia. Yet, despite insurgencies in regions as far apart as Jammu & Kashmir and Mizoram, India - for all the failures and shortcomings of its governing system - has never adopted such measures. To accuse it of even harbouring such ideas, when all that is being sought is some resting space for innocent pilgrims, is criminal and reflects a depraved mind. <b>The Amarnath shrine was a place of worship for countless Hindus well before Islam arrived in Jammu & Kashmir or, indeed, was even accepted as a faith among the sand-dune dwellers of Arabia</b>. It is worth asking what the Hurriyat, the PDP and their gun-wielding friends have done to the original religio-cultural traditions of Jammu & Kashmir.
The entire episode has an immediate political context, of course. Assembly election is due this year and the PDP, despite having been part of the ruling coalition and contributed<b> a Chief Minister for three years, still sees itself as little more than the vanguard of the hordes who cross over annually from the other side of the Line of Control. This is not regionalism, not even Kashmiri sub-nationalism; it is extreme religious prejudice.</b> As for the Hurriyat, the alliance is virtually a second cousin of Al Qaeda and entirely shares that latter grouping's strategic interests. Mufti Mohammed Sayeed's political legacy is particularly disappointing. Here is a senior politician who has been Union Minister for Home, whose party was expected to be moderated by power - gifted to it, though it was nowhere close to a majority, after a remarkably conciliatory and free Assembly election in 2002. Yet, all the PDP can do after six years is abuse Hindus and ask them to stay away from the Amarnath shrine. What if the rest of the country warms up the idea? There is, for example, a Haj House on the Delhi-Meerut highway, a permanent structure built on a verdant patch. Shouldn't the Hurriyat and the PDP want it removed?
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Stop Govt subsidy to Kashmiri Muslim for Haj and no money from Hindu tax payer.
The Pioneer Edit Desk
<b>Kashmir is not waqf property</b>
<b>The political controversy that has engulfed Jammu & Kashmir following the temporary transfer of 100 acres of forestland to Sri Amarnath Shrine Board is disquieting</b>. It speaks volumes for the so-called change of heart in the Valley. Having agreed to the transfer on purely logistical grounds -- thousands of devotees from all over India visit Amarnath for the annual, summertime yatra and surely they do need temporary shelter and facilities -- the PDP-Congress Government is split down the middle. Taking its cue from the extremists -- in the 2002 election Mufti Mohammed Sayeed's party had the tacit support of the militants -- the PDP has accused the Congress Ministers of acting behind its back. The PDP has ignored that its Ministers were party to the decision to transfer the land. <b>The protests are not in the nature of environmental concerns and fears of degradation, but out of, to quote the incendiary leadership of the All-Party Hurriyat Conference, a desire to protect the so-called "Muslim identity of Kashmir".</b> <b>Scare-mongering is being resorted to and wild allegations are being made about how "outsiders" and "Hindus" will be resettled on the forestland to change the demography of the Kashmir Valley.</b> Such Government-induced mass migration has indeed been used as policy by the Chinese in Xinjiang and Tibet, and even by the Pakistanis in the part of Jammu & Kashmir they occupy as well as the Northern Areas. Stalin and his successors tried it in Soviet Central Asia. Yet, despite insurgencies in regions as far apart as Jammu & Kashmir and Mizoram, India - for all the failures and shortcomings of its governing system - has never adopted such measures. To accuse it of even harbouring such ideas, when all that is being sought is some resting space for innocent pilgrims, is criminal and reflects a depraved mind. <b>The Amarnath shrine was a place of worship for countless Hindus well before Islam arrived in Jammu & Kashmir or, indeed, was even accepted as a faith among the sand-dune dwellers of Arabia</b>. It is worth asking what the Hurriyat, the PDP and their gun-wielding friends have done to the original religio-cultural traditions of Jammu & Kashmir.
The entire episode has an immediate political context, of course. Assembly election is due this year and the PDP, despite having been part of the ruling coalition and contributed<b> a Chief Minister for three years, still sees itself as little more than the vanguard of the hordes who cross over annually from the other side of the Line of Control. This is not regionalism, not even Kashmiri sub-nationalism; it is extreme religious prejudice.</b> As for the Hurriyat, the alliance is virtually a second cousin of Al Qaeda and entirely shares that latter grouping's strategic interests. Mufti Mohammed Sayeed's political legacy is particularly disappointing. Here is a senior politician who has been Union Minister for Home, whose party was expected to be moderated by power - gifted to it, though it was nowhere close to a majority, after a remarkably conciliatory and free Assembly election in 2002. Yet, all the PDP can do after six years is abuse Hindus and ask them to stay away from the Amarnath shrine. What if the rest of the country warms up the idea? There is, for example, a Haj House on the Delhi-Meerut highway, a permanent structure built on a verdant patch. Shouldn't the Hurriyat and the PDP want it removed?
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Stop Govt subsidy to Kashmiri Muslim for Haj and no money from Hindu tax payer.