It is not easy to blame a single person for the mess that has been created in Jammu and Kashmir, after years of relative calm and progress, but the secular and pro-India forces must bear collective responsibility for reviving separatist forces and setting the State ablaze. The Hindutva forces, which were badly beaten in the last Assembly elections even on home turf, were too eager to seize the opportunity to rouse passions and try to consolidate the Hindu vote in their favour for a good showing from Jammu region in the ensuing Assembly elections. The net result, though people will not admit: communalism has been revived in a blatant form, the divide between the Valley and Jammu region further deepened and voices of sanity and reason drowned in the cacophony of religious cries. While the separatists have been playing Pakistan's game all through to keep the Kashmir pot boiling, unfortunately, pro-India forces are, unwittingly perhaps, playing into the hands of forces inimical to national interests.

The opportunism of competing extremist forces in the Valley and Jammu has crossed all limits and enemy agents have seized the turmoil to spread their wings wider and strengthen their network of sabotage and terrorism. No doubt, Mr. Ghulam Nabi Azad and ex-Governor S. K. Sinha must bear the primary responsibility of failing to see beyond their noses and, due to a misreading of the ground realities, done something which has led to a major explosion. All claims by Mr. Azad about developing the State as none before him had done and given it a corruption-free administration have been washed away by a single unimaginative and avoidable act. That a seasoned politician like him should have been tricked into doing something, for which he has had to offer his resignation, baffles one's imagination.

Former Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed of the People's Democratic Party has been trying to preserve his identy while pitted against major formations, such as, the National Conference and Congress in the Valley. He drew closer to the separatists in the hope of getting tacit support from them in the elections so that the PDP could again occupy centre stage in the Valley's politics and come to power. Playing politics without principles is not his monopoly. Recall the role National Conference's Farooq Abdullah played in 1987-88 which helped Pakistan overwhelm the Valley through its jihadis and which, in 1989 led to the exodus of the hapless Kashmir Pandit minority. Let us not talk about the role of the BJP and its forerunner Praja Parishad in Jammu province which helped the separatis's cause.

A suave politician like Azad was tricked by Mufti Sayeed by allowing the DPD Deputy Chief Minister Muzaffar Hussain Beig to side with the Cabinet decision on land allotment to the Shri Amarnath Board. But, soon afterwards, Baig was made to stage a volte face and the PDP spearheaded the agitation against allotment. Not to be outsmarted by Mufti, the separatists, who had been out of business for all practical purposes for a couple of years, snatched the platform form Mufti to launch protests throughout the Valley against an attempt to "colonize" the State by outsiders. The events that followed betrayed loss of nerve by Azad, removal of the Governor and his replacement by N. N. Vohra and reversal of the decision, which set tempers ablaze in Jammu. The BJP was quick to make use of the issue to whip up an all-India agitation against revocation of the order, in order to consolidate the Hindu vote in the run up to the upcoming Parliamentary elections. Whether the effort will succeed is a matter of conjecture, but the bungling by the Azad-Sinha duo is a classic example of inaptitude and political shortsightedness.

Without going into the merits or legality of the decision on land allotment (in the face of the Supreme Court's ruling forbidding any forest land transfer in the area without its permission) Azad and Company unnecessarily touched a highly emotive issue without realizing that its fallout would be disastrous for him. The state will take long to return to normal and play host to lakhs of visitors from all over the country who visit it to savour the scenic beauty of what they regards an integral part of India. Unperturbed by the agitation, thousands of pilgrims continue to visit the Holy Amarnath cave every day because their devotion transcends the triviality of politics and the machinations of self-seekers and political players. One only hopes that their prayers. Will restore sanity to the agitationists and peace and tranquility shall return to the State. Nothing pleases the enemies of India more than resurgence of communalism and violence that divides religious groups.

Mr. G. N. Azad made some pertinent observations in the speech in the Assembly before submitting his resignation to the Governor. The separatists have one foot in New Delhi and the other in Islamabad. The mainstream parties are also playing politics in the name of religion for their gains. The separatists got money from abroad, mostly through Hawala channels, (which is no secret), but they make the common people suffer by organizing protests and bandhs. The counter-agitationists in Jammu threatened to cut off the road link to the Valley to let the people suffer. Obviously, referring to the role played by his predecessor Mudti Sayeed and his daughter Mahbooba, he said he did not waste time debating whether Kashmir was disputed or not." He ended on a note of warning that the power vacuum in the State may help separatist and extremist forces "who have been strengthened by the agitation in the Valley.

It is a pathetic swan song, though he was late in realizing the repercussions of his decision, taken at the behest of a motivated ex-Governor. After a long hibernation, the separatists were suddenly woken up. The various factions, which were pulling in different directions, joined together and "extremists" and "moderated" become one. Mr. Geelani joined with Maulvi Omer Farooq and JKLF Chief Yasin Malik, cut short his Pakistan visit to join the agitators. PDP, which was responsible for bringing about the situation, also demonstrated its solidarity with the separatists cause. To aggravate the situation further and deepen the religious divide, Pakistani agents got busy finalizing their plans for sabotage and set fire to a portion on the Jenab Shah shrine. They had earlier torched several other shrines -- symbolizing Kashmiri Sufi tradition -- to set the people against the Government and the Indian security forces. Fortunately, the Kashmiris have understood the game through decades of militancy, which is now affecting them mostly, and refused to be provoked.

Ex-Governor S. K. Sinha vented bile against Mufti Sayeed whom he accused of playing the separatist card and siding with the religious fundamentalists for political gains. They endorsed all the proposals made by Gen Parvez Musharraf, including demilitarization of the Valley, dual control by India and Pakistan and allowing both Indian and Pakistani currencies to step up trade between the two separated parts of the State. The separatist's argument that land transfer would lead to colonization and changing the demographic character of the State is patently absurd. Lakhs of Kashmir Pandits, who were forced to abandon their homes, have still not been facilitated to return to the Valley and over 30,000 refugees from Pakistan languishing in camps in Jammu have not even been given voting rights, much less State citizenship. It is a drama of the absurd.

Since the Congress and the National Conference are sworn enemies, the former was forced to enter into a loveless marriage with the newly-formed PDP, which had done rather well in the Assembly elections by winning 14.6 per cent of the vote in the Valley, while the National Conference got 28 per cent. The PDP has since moved aggressively to expand its base in rural Kashmir, where the National Conference is pretty strong. It adopted a posture slightly critical of India's operations in Kashmir, freed detenus against whom no charges had been framed for years and asked the security forces not to violate human rights. By so doing he created a wider constituency of support, sided with the separatist's agenda of settling the Kashmir issue only with the consent of the people of the State, and generally gave the impression that he was, in fact, a "Mufti" and occasionally waved a green handkerchief at election rallies.

The separation with the Congress had to come about, but it happened as a result of Azad's miscalculation. There is every hope that tempers will cool down and the parties in the Valley and Jammu will get busy preparing for the next round of Assembly elections to usher in a stable government which will decommunalise the situation.

Source - NPA

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