Click to play videoNew Delhi: An all-party meeting convened by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Wednesday to end Jammu and Kashmir's worst communal divide ended in a stalemate.
“It was imperative that communalisation of the situation should be prevented at all costs as this would adversely affect the secular fabric of the nation,” External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee said.
The Government was hoping to persuade Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) to retract its demand of restoring 100 acres of forestland in Baltal region to the Amarnath Shrine Board.
“Today the situation is very complex in what is good for Kashmir happens to be bad for Jammu and vice versa, so you have to tread very cautiously,” People’s Democratic Party leader Mehbooba Mufti said.
Even though some say that BJP doesn’t want to let go off a controversy that is giving United Progressive Alliance so much of a heartache, the party doesn't have full control of organisations like the Amarnath Sangharsh Samiti.
Samiti leaders like convenor Leela Karan Sharma are refusing to take orders from the BJP top brass.
The Centre has made it absolutely clear that land belongs to state government and it can’t be handed over to the Shrine Board.
With the four-hour-long meeting not making much of headway, Jammu and Kashmir Governor N N Vohra formed a four-member peace panel to hold negotiations with the Amarnath Sangarsh Samiti, the umbrella organisation under which the protests against the land transfer revocation are taking place in the state.
Vice Chancellor Jammu University, a retired judge of state High Court Justice G D Sharma, former chief secretary S S Billoria and Principal Secretary to the Governor B B Vyas have been authorised to negotiate with agitating protesters.
But whether the peace panel can achieve what an all-party meet could not remains to be seen.
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