Click to play videoThe crisis over the land grant to the Shri Amarnath Shrine Board threatens to divide Jammu and Kashmir along communal lines.
Talks between an all-party delegation and the group leading the agitation demanding land for the shrine board failed in Jammu on Saturday. The Shri Amarnath Sangharsh Samiti, a combine of over 30 groups leading the agitation, said the talks were "inconclusive" and announced it would carry on with its campaign.
The land grant controversy has troubled the state for over five weeks now, with at least 15 people dying in violent protests and clashes. The controversy began when the state government allotted 40 hectare of forestland in north Kashmir to the shrine board in May—a step which angered Muslims—and then scrapped its decision on July 1, this time angering Hindus.
An all-party delegation led by Home Minister Shivraj Patil visited Jammu on Saturday to find a solution but both sides in the controversy refuse to budge from their positions.
Does the controversy threaten to pit Jammu and Kashmir against each other? CNN-IBN’s Editor-in-Chief Rajdeep Sardesai asked this on the Weekend Edition to Virender Raina, national spokesperson for Panun Kashmir, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, chairperson of All Parties Hurriyat Conference, and youth activist Aditya Raj Kaul.
Situation communalised?
The Hurriyat has declared that it would march to Muzaffarabad in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir on Monday with trucks of fruits, which they said are "rotting due to the economic blockade" by protestors in Jammu. Would that be a responsible thing to do in a tense situation?
“People have to understand the situation in Kashmir. The Rs 600-crore fruit industry is dying slowly. There is no fuel, no essential commodities—the Hurriyat has no choice. We have to decided to support the fruit growers’ association,” said Farooq.
Won’t crossing the Line of Control (LoC) stoke communalism? “Not at all. There was an agitation against the land grant in Kashmir but no Hindu or Amarnath pilgrim was hurt. The Amarnath yatra (pilgrimage) in Kashmir is still on but communal forces in Jammu have turned the land grant issue into a Hindu-Muslim issue. This was never the case,” he said.
Groups in Jammu have said they won’t talk to Mehbooba Mufti, Saifuddin Soz or Farooq Abdullah, meaning they won’t speak to leaders from Kashmir. Isn’t that communalism?
“Not at all,” said Raina. “We are not dividing the state on communal lines but the leadership of Kashmir is. Mehbooba Mufti, Saifuddin Soz and Farooq Abdullah are part of the problem. It is Mehbooba Mufti who has precipitated the entire land controversy,” he alleged.
Will the rigidity on both sides lead to the splitting of the state?
“I hope not. The Hurriyat Conference has always talked about the unity of the state—not just about Jammu and Kashmir but for the region in Azad Kashmir,” said Farooq. “It is unfortunate that there are political differences between Jammu and Kashmir but we can work them out. Hurriyat Conference is committed to the territorial integrity of the state, but we need an alternative mechanism which gives more authority to the regions—sort of a federal structure.
“Many suggestions have come; why not have a United States of Kashmir,” he said.
Kashmiri leaders’ talk of unity of the state is hypocrisy, said Kaul. “Let heroes of hate not talk about secularism. Secularism in the Valley got over a long time back when five lakh Kashmiri Pandits left it. Then temples were destroyed and now that Amarnath is the last Hindu heritage of Kashmir they are hell bent on destroying it by discontinuing the yatra and attacking yatris,” he said.
Farooq rejected the allegation and claimed there was an attempt to create an impression that Kashmiri Muslims were against the Amarnath Yatra. “Mudslinging won’t achieve anything—dialogue will,” he said.
Are Raina and Kaul willing to reach out to Kashmiri leaders? “Not to people who have rejected coexistence,” said Raina.
The world is wrong if it thinks that the issue is Hindus and Muslims battling over land, said Kaul. “Gurjars, Sikhs, Muslims and Hindus have protested against this disinformation campaign in Jammu,” he said.
Farooq said he was willing to reach out but can’t clap with one hand. “We need reciprocity. When someone demands Panun Kashmir, or Dogra land, or Hindu land then it’s against the essence of the fact that Jammu, Kashmir, Ladakh, Azad Kashmir and northern areas have to be together. There are political concerns and they have to be addressed,” he said.
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