Internal peace in Jammu and Kashmir has had a marked external dimension and depends on whether the Pakistan Government, its omnipotent Army its notorious Inter Services Intelligence and agents provocateurs want it. But, this time these have been aided by bungling politicians and incompetent administrators, who generated an unnecessary controversy and lit the fires of regional hatred and communal mobilization -- something unprecedented in the chequered history of the State. They infused new life in the debilitated separatists in the Valley led by the All Parties Hurriyat Conference who, on receipt of a signal from Islamabad that former President Pervez Musharraf's peace initiatives had been jettisoned and the Kashmiris should agitate to revive the co-called self determination slogan.

The excuse was provided by the State Government, whose then Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad succumbed to pressure from pro-Hindutva Governor S.K. Sinha and got a formal Cabinet resolution passed on land allocation to the Shri Amarnath Shrine Board (which he himself headed) to create facilities for use of pilgrims at Baltal during the two-month period of the Pilgrimage to the holy cave of Lord Shiva. The People's Democratic Party of Mufti Sayeed (also former Chief Minister) played deceit, opposed the coalition decision, pulled out of the government, forced Azad to resign and gave a signal to the separatists to start agitating over this issue of forest land allotment. The separatists took the cue and Hurriyat leader Maulvi Farooq and pro-Pakistan Tehrik-e-Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani seized the opportunity to embarras India and came out in the streets accusing India of having hatched a "conspiracy" to change the demographic character of the Valley by brining in Hindus from outside to live in the hutments to be erected at Baltal.

The ousted and demoralized former Chief Minister Azad, or Sinha who forced the Government's hands to issue allotment orders, made no effort to explain that no formal transfer was intended, that the land use was for a two-month period and all the temporary structures built thereon were to be demolished. Why Sinha forced the Government's hand will remain a mystery. Temporary shelters for Amarnath pilgrims have been set up over the decades during the yatra period and then pulled down, with no questions asked or any protests from anywhere. Unless any impediments had been created, there was no need for a cabinet resolution on formal allotment, particularly because the High Court had already given a judgment on this issue and the Supreme Court had ruled that no forest land should be transferred for any purpose without its permission as that would violate the provisions of the Forest Act. Former Governor Sinha took the specious plea that the J & K Forest Conservation Act did not come under the Center's jurisdiction.

Handling Pakistan-sponsored agitations by the Hurriyat, backed by terrorist outfits, has become routine for those in charge of administration and political management in the State. But it is amazing that the newly appointed Governor B. B. Vohra, a former Home and Defence Secretary, panicked in the face of the agitation and withdrew the request of the Sri Amarnath Shrine Board for formal land allotment by the Government. He made no effort to explain that no formal land transfer would take place, that the land use was temporary and all structures put on it during the pilgrimage would be dismantled, as usual.

The reaction in Hindu-majority Jammu was predictable. The people took it as an affront to their right to practice religion and undertake pilgrimage to the Holy Amarnath cave. The Hindutva brigade quickly moved in and saw an opportunity to build a purely religious campaign for the ensuring State Assembly elections. Political failure and administrative callousness set the entire State ablaze, with people in both provinces of Jammu and Kashmir rising in revolt, as it were, against the Central Government.

Nothing pleased Pakistan more than being presented with a situation in which violence was widespread with many casualties at the hands of the police and its agent's provocateurs arculating the demand for "Azadi" in the Valley. Islamabad got a resolution passed in the National Assembly, took the issue before the Human Rights Commission and the OIC and threatened to approach the United Nations to reopen the dead Kashmir case and force India to conceded the so-called right of self determination to the Valley's people. That this tragic and painful episode in the State's history should have continued for so long baffles imagination. The entire political, administrative and intelligence set up, which consumes a substantial budget, proved of no avail. The man-for-all-seasons National Security Advisor M. K. Narayanan, who thinks he is as much qualified as the Prime Minister or the External Affairs Minister to pronounce his views on issues over which he had better keep his mouth shut, also paid a visit. Perhaps it will take him a while to understand the complexity of the Kashmir issue and the forces at play, as also the dubious role played by some Indian agencies there.

The mess in Kashmir is partly our own creation, though the incendiary role is played by Pakistan, its Army which has a vested interest in keeping up tension with India, and its notorious Inter Services Intelligence, which has promoted terrorism in the State for two decades and is now blamed by the United States also for promoting terrorism internationally, particularly in Afghanistan. The Government India lacks a consistent policy on Jammu and Kashmir, is oblivious of the aspirations of the people of Jammu and Ladakh and is unable to curb the influence of Pakistani agencies, it is allowing the separatist fringe to grow by giving it respectability and according the Hurriyat a place on the India-Pakistan negotiating table, thereby weakening secular and pro-India forces, who feel let down.

It was after BJP Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee cut a botched deal with Gen Musharraf that the Hurriyat was accorded respectability and projected as the authentic voice of the Valley's people, sidelining others. Of course, the NDA government was ousted, but it did permanent damage to the cause of the Kashmir people, by throwing open the entire issue of accession to India and giving Musharraf a virtual veto to suggest how to resolve the tangle. Now that entire policy lies in a shambles, with Musharraf ousted and his successor government disowning all that he did and the Army back to its old agenda of destabilizing Kashmir from within and stepping up the rate of infiltration and egging on the separatists to keep agitating to embarrass India. While Islamabad is back to its old policy of deceit and destabilization, New Delhi is still groping for a new policy and is unsure what it should do next.

An avoidable miscalculation regarding land use led to repercussions well beyond the imagination of those responsible. Now that a satisfactory settlement of the controversy has been arrived at and the situation is limping back to normalcy, is time to address the genuine grievances of the people of Jammu, who feel discriminated against in the matter of development, as also those of the Valley, who would want their autonomy ensured and the safeguards provided to them in the Indian Constitution respected. It is because of political and administrative failure that the pro-Pakistan fringe in the Valley, aided by Islamabad sponsored militants and terrorists, take the opportunity to fuel protests in which most of the people are forced to participate in the name of religion. This section of the population led by the two Hurriyat chiefs has never summoned courage to contest elections in the Sate for fear of being exposed.

The people in the Valley have overwhelmingly participated in successive elections and voted for democratic and secular parties committed to the State's accession to India. Whether the motivated commentators care to realize or not, Gen Musharraf and other Pakistani leaders past and present, know fully well that the people of Valley would never want to become part of Pakistan. Hence their emphasis on finding alternatives, such as open borders, joint management of rivers and increased trade and commerce to meet the aspirations of the people of divided Kashmir.

While New Delhi should take care of the external angle, it should also ensure that regional disparities are removed and the Valley people assured that their autonomy would not be diluted and their developmental problems addressed. The Union Government failed in its responsibility to keep open the national highway between Pathankote and Srinagar to ensure free flow of essential supplies to the Valley who, for the first time in 60 years were forced to march to open the old road to Rawalpindi. Such callous mishandling entails heavy costs which New Delhi should avoid at all costs.

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