ஜம்மு இந்துக்களின் எழுச்சி: காஷ்மீரம் இழந்த இந்தியத் தன்மையைத் திரும்பக் கொண்டுவரும் போராட்டம்

டைம்ஸ் ஆஃப் இந்தியா இதழில் தருண் விஜய் அவர்களின் அருமையான கட்டுரை

Courtesy: The Times of India

THE RIGHT VIEW

Reclaiming India
- Tarun Vijay

None should say Omar is not allowed in Jammu. Let him come, listen and
speak. Like any other Indian should feel free to visit Kashmir or any
other part of the nation. He is welcome to visit my home even if he
denies me a piece of land in Kashmir. Why should a few words uttered
by him make me change my Indian-ness? If he spoke in Parliament as a
Muslim, asserting his Islamic identity, let denial of land to Hindus
be his Islam and my Hinduness must keep my nation as a free democracy
where difference of opinion is a natural phenomenon unlike Islamic
countries.

I had listened to Omar Abdullah when he was in Vajpayee's cabinet and
felt he had great potential to be an influential Indian leader. He
spoke for India and brilliantly too. Now, if he has chosen to be just
a regional one, it's his choice.

But he must stop to think why he can own a bungalow in Delhi or
Bangalore and at the same time deny that privilege to a fellow Indian
in Kashmir?

Kashmiri Muslim leaders would like to enjoy the fruits and liberties
of a Hindu majority democracy but vehemently deny that to Hindus in
their area of influence. Why?

When they are in a minority they crave and get special privileges. But
once a majority, every single right to be at par is refused to other
minorities.

It's the same phenomenon all over the globe. A direct consequence of
turning Wahabi. Wahabi intolerance and separatism is poisoning Muslim
brotherhood too. A brilliant report in TOI elaborating how Wahabi
elements are gaining ground in the small towns of Gujarat and the
softer, humane version of Islam, the Bareilevi school, which is
resisting their aggressive expansionism makes an interesting reading
and gives a frightening picture of the inter-communal strife within
Muslim society.

Kashmir is predominantly Sunni and Wahabi. Hence the intolerance that
denies even the basic features of Kashmiriyat.

And see what the de-Indianised intellectuals wrote on the front pages
in Delhi's newspapers: "All over a piece of land!" Really?

Then why are the Indian soldiers defending a barren piece of dead snow
in Siachen? Or what's that piece of cloth known as the Tricolor? Is it
worth dying for?

Jammu is witnessing a mass patriotic uprising, unprecedented till now.
It's a Second Ayodhya enveloped in the Tricolour outshining the 1952
Praja Parishad movement, which demanded one flag, one constitution and
one head of the state. Dr Syama Prasad Mookerjee was martyred for this
cause in the jail of Sheikh Abdullah, grandfather of Omar. The
situation hasn't changed in the last 56 years. It has in fact
worsened.

Such a mass movement goes beyond the controls of any party or
organisation. For the last 20 days, the roads are empty and markets
closed. The sudden eruption of protests has seen grandfathers and
grandsons and mothers and grandmothers ringing bells against Muslim
separatism and shouting at the top of their voice: "Har har Mahadev".
Such a protest by every single member of families who had never come
out for a public demonstration can't be engineered. It's an uprising,
a spontaneous expression of anger accumulated in the last five decades
of misrule by people of suspect loyalties. The Doctor’s Association,
Bar Association and Govt. Employees Association, Sikhs, Gujjar-
Bakkarwal Muslims and Congress MLAs defying their party, the Hotel
Association and every single sect of Hindu society have joined and
supported the movement.
One young man, Kuldeep Kumar Dogra, took his life in utter disgust
after reciting a patriotic poem before the hunger strikers in Jammu.
Policemen in plainclothes forcibly took his body away and tried to
burn it in his village in the dead of night without even informing his
family. A monk saw them burning the pyre with country-made liquor and
used car tyres and managed to alert the villagers. The policemen ran
away seeing the protesters swelling in number. And none of the human
rightists raised a voice of dissent. Did the policemen belong to India
or an enemy country?

In fact the whole movement is a revolt of Tricolour people against
unpatriotic politics on Kashmir. It's an effort to reclaim India in a
region where the central leaders and regional parties have abandoned
the idea of pan-Indian nationalism and geographical integration. India
has been reducing every day in the valley and the seculars keep on
counting their votes and encouraging separatists at the cost of an
Indian identity.

After all, the Amarnath Shrine Board was created on the recommendation
of the Nitish Sengupta Committee formed by the state government in
1996 when more than 250 Amarnath pilgrims died in a snowstorm. That
made the state government realize that facilities are inadequate and
hence a committee was formed under the chairmanship of retired senior
IAS officer Sengupta. The government accepted the recommendations of
the committee a year later and decided to create a separate board on
the pattern of the Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board through an act
passed by the Farooq Abdullah goverment in 2000. The Secretary,
Tourism Depaetment, was appointed CEO of the board.

Initially, toilets and other facilities were added but they proved
inadequate as neither the office of the shrine board was set up nor
any staff worth its name was appointed. It was only when Gen. SK Sinha
took over as Governor in 2003 and hence became Chairman of the Shrine
Board that the office was established with Arun Kumar, IAS, as its
full-time CEO. Kumar changed the entire gamut and pilgrims were
provided with livable camping facilities.

Earlier, mahants and local interest groups were taking home all the
offerings of the shrine. Now the shrine board regulated the income,
spending it on providing more facilities to pilgrims and regularizing
the fare structure regarding pony hiring, collies, camping sites,
toilets and emergency medical help. The chief mahant was given huge
compensation and other Muslim helpers were employed in the board.
Kumar also introduced bacterial toilets using the latest Japanese
technology which was environment-friendly and turned night soil into
usable fertilizer for local farmers. Prior to this, concrete toilets
had proved a colossal waste as they would get choked and the entire
structure needed to be demolished. But this had proved profitable for
the local contractors; hence, when the new green technology was
introduced the contractors’ lobby protested and the then Chief
Minister, Mufti Mohammad Sayed, halted the work in 2005. As a result
of it, the Shrine Board approached the High Court which gave a stay
order and the work continued.

It's noteworthy that during the while that the Secretary, Tourism was
acting as the CEO of the Shrine Board, all the toilets and camping
facilities were constructed on government land and nobody objected. It
was only when the bribe channels were stopped for the politicians’
protégés that they objected to government land being used for
pilgrims. Hence, after the stay was obtained from the High Court, the
Shrine Board asked the state government in 2005 to regularise use of
government land by formally transferring a few plots of land to the
board en route to the Amarnath shrine. It took three years to take a
decision and finally on May 26 this year, the state cabinet passed a
proposal diverting (not selling or leasing) 38 hectares of land near
Baltal to the Shrine Board on a temporary basis at a cost of Rs 2.5
crore. The Minister of Forest, under whose jurisdiction the land was
diverted for the Shrine Board's use, was a member of the PDP headed by
Mufti.

After the order was signed, word spread that a huge amount of land had
been given to Hindus and now they would come and outnumber Muslims.
It's a plot against Kashmiri Muslims, it was argued. An anarchical
agitation began with Mufti, the Hurriyat and Omar Abdullah uniting to
deprive Hindu pilgrims a camping facility.

They needed to support their false presumptions and Arun Kumar's press
briefing was used for this purpose by communalising his innocuous
statement regarding environment and Hindu-Muslim solidarity. Kumar’s
entire press briefing is audio recorded and though he has been
suspended and an inquiry instituted, nothing can be proved against
him. In fact he is being punished for providing pilgrims better
facilities.

This is the genesis of the whole issue.

The same government has given hundreds of acres of land to Baba Gulam
Shah Badshah University in Rajouri and to the Islamic University in
Pampore. None objected. The all-encompassing nature of Hindus is taken
for granted as is their timidity.

You can tell the facts to those who would like to consider them and
not to those who play petty communal politics. Governor Vohra acted on
the advice of North Block and not only took back the letter for land
allotment on behalf of the Shrine Board without taking board members
into confidence, but also gave the charge of providing facilities to
the pilgrims back to the state tourism department, which means the
same murky business flowering again. With the Shrine Board having no
CEO at present, since Kumar's suspension hasn't been revoked, yatra
arrangements are in limbo. The Governor's secretary, who has a hundred
other tasks, has been asked to take care of the yatra.

Hindus have never been treated so contemptuously as is being done
under the UPA dispensation. Kashmir is the land of Shiva, the greatest
place of the Shaivite school of Hindu dharma. At every mile there was
a Shiva temple, but most Hindu temples have been razed in the valley
during the Islamic Jihad. More than 70 lakh pilgrims visit Vaishno
Devi and Amarnath every year and contribute enormously to the economy
of the state. Yet, Hindus have always been looked down upon and driven
out of their homes and hearth. This is the Kashmiriyat of the valley's
politicians and patriotism of their protectors in Delhi. The Kashmiri
leaders, so possessive about a hundred acres, never raise their voice
to take back 78,114 sq km of Jammu and Kashmir under the illegal
possession of Pakistan. Thousands of square km of land to Pakistan can
be tolerated, but "not an inch" to Hindus.

It was the political expediency of the communally "secular" leaders
that created the land row, but now the agitation has gone beyond the
land issue becoming a symbol of the struggle to ensure India's return
to the valley. The un-Indian elements have to be defeated so that the
honour of the Triclour can be protected in our land. The only fear is
that the politicians of Delhi may compromise, betraying the cause of
the people anytime.

This is the time when a complete abolition of all those acts which
segregate the valley from rest of the country are being demanded,
including the obnoxious Article 370, and a grand plan to have patriots
shifted from various parts of the country to Kashmir valley is
implemented, with priority given to soldiers who have served in the
area.

Jammu's agitation to reclaim India in J&K has to be supported by every
patriotic Indian. It's a pain of Indian nationhood and not just of the
Jammu region. Failing this movement will fail India.

The author is the Director, Dr Syamaprasad Mookerjee Research
Foundation.