[Reader-list] Amaranth Yatra

Tue Jul 1 13:13:40 IST 2008

Hi all, 
       one can sure expect the oldest party which ruled nation for fifty years to resort to partial appeasement tactics after is stint of rule in Kasmir with its duck lackey Gulam at the helm.

     After years of proxy rule in the state and later the rule of modern maharaja  Abdulla ruling the state from Golf course, the kashmiris had only bad governance for all the sixty years. Hindus fled the dtate, became refugees in their own nation, but this present system of governance played again in to the hands of fanatic elements of both the religions with the appeasement game.

   Let it be remembered that a kashmiri can come into any part of India do business ,buy lands and enjoy, but from other parts of India, citizens can only enter Kashmir for tour and pilgrimage, thus never allowing the amalgamation of the kasmir into India, inspite of accession agreement which is 58 years old. Systematically the citizens were keen to send off hindus from the state out of kasmir, but wanted all the benefits from India, are these kashmiris who claim to be good muslims really good ? They are the kafirs in islam, who kill innocents for their power hungry games.

 Gulam Nabi Azad, in his ploy to gain votes for Congress did the appeasement trick of "giving" land for pilgrim accommodatin and then could not stick to his decision thus now Congress in this appeasement game has lost sight of good governance.

   As to the yatra itself, it was in early days lasted only for 15 days, later it was extended, but management was by family of maliks with full cooperation from all in Kasmir as it was livelihood from this pilgrims that served them for a year. Similarly, tourism was only income generator for this state, but fanatic violence has made a common man in Kashmir irrespective of his religion a poorer man, politicians of PDP and NC are rich exploiters of forest wealth with their dummies in all contracts and loot of public money, with nw addition of Congress hangers on.

 Regards.
----- Original Message -----
From: Aditya Raj Kaul <kauladityaraj at gmail.com>
Date: Tuesday, July 1, 2008 10:17 am
Subject: Re: [Reader-list] Amaranth Yatra
To: sarai list <reader-list at sarai.net>
Cc: Shuddhabrata Sengupta <shuddha at sarai.net>

> "Nothing is being said against the Pilgrims". Sad to see a few 
> people here
> pushing this point a bit too much; maybe because they are out of 
> their usual
> stock of arguments; because the situation is very clear here.
> 
> The current situation in Kashmir has nothing to do with the so called
> environmental laws and ecological imbalance. The situation there 
> hasn'treached a point yet where 40 hectare's of land for Hindu 
> Pilgrims would
> bring with it mass destruction of trees, greenry and life. In 
> turn, it would
> multiply the revenue generated by local Kashmiri Muslims and to 
> some extent
> the government.
> 
> The current communal protests in the valley come at a time when 
> electionsare round the corner and Amarnath Yatra is being carried 
> on with lakhs of
> Hindu Pilgrims visiting it from across India. The main point here 
> is the
> questions of Tollerance. Its a sad state. I don't think Muslims 
> would have
> felt the same restrictions and protests in case of their Haj House's,
> structures etc. across India in every nook and corner.
> 
> Its a sad state indeed. Communal Politics is being played to 
> garner votes.
> Rather, PDP, CONGRESSS and NC are trying to score each other in 
> the race for
> becoming the most communal outfit.
> 
> The entire hue and cry on Land Transfer and the Shri Amarnath 
> Shrine Board
> is completely tragic and absurd. Isn't the Shrine Board and 
> Kashmiri Hindus
> part of Kashmir ? Then why these protests. Should we also demand 
> that funds
> and land to various mosques in Kashmir including Hazaratbal be 
> held back ?
> 
> The violence in Kashmir has been sparked by a man called Mufti 
> Mohd. Sayeed.
> A former Congress chamcha, he now has his own Peoples Democratic 
> Party. He
> is famously known because his daughter's kidnapping and thereafter 
> releasingof terrorists from Indian Jails in her exchange became 
> the reason for unrest
> in Kashmir. Killing thousands. Mufti played a very active role in 
> it; many
> say, he had all information about her daughter's kidnapping.
> 
> This isn;t the first time Mufti's mouth blabbered and violence 
> erupted on a
> non-issue. He with his old time Congress Party friend Arjun Singh were
> involved instigating and taking part in Communal Riots in Kashmir; 
> back in
> 1986. In 1989-90, he remained a mute spectator to the exodus of an 
> entirecommunity from Kashmir. Rather, he became a part of those 
> anti-national
> forces.
> 
> This time around; he cautiously waited for the opportue time to 
> act and turn
> things in his favour.. Rightly so. He had to appease a certain 
> section as
> elections were round the corner. Sadly, he might not get what he 
> expected.Anyways, lets leave that to time to tell.
> 
> Those who scream at top of their voice about Demographic Changes 
> are nothing
> but taking a bit too far. How much polulation would a 40 hectare land
> accomodate anyway ? The biggest demographic change was with the 
> exodus of
> more than 3 and half lakh Kashmiri Hindus from the valley. Sadly, 
> its a
> forgotten tragedy.
> 
> As my great-grandfather was the first Ornithologist of Asia, I've 
> some if
> not all information on Environment, its protection and also tilted
> government policies in relation to Kashmir especially. Major 
> ecologicalimbalance occur when locals push tons of waste material 
> and toxic substances
> into the lakes like the Dal. Many know what it has resulted it 
> now. Also,
> the land mafia in Kashmir (Mufti being strong part of it) is 
> another major
> force. They cut thousands of trees to clear land and sell 
> illegally or maybe
> legally through corrupt administration and revenue officers.
> 
> The massive destruction of the Pir Pangal range three years ago 
> again by
> Mufti Mohd. Sayeed is now a wide known fact. No protests, no cabinet
> meetings etc. were seen in Kashmir then. Strangely, this questions the
> entire base of the protests today ?
> 
> Its time people who blabber too much to know about Kashmir; for a 
> changeread history and understand the facts and details about 
> Kashmir and its
> Politics.
> 
> Lets cut the crap about protests in Kashmir about the 
> environmental reasons
> behind Baltal Land Transfer. The locals don't give a damn to it. 
> Its economy
> that runs on tourism through Amarnath Yatra.
> 
> "Naara E-Takbeer - Aalah Hu Akbar" is no environmental slogan 
> invented by
> Greenpeace. Shuddha, maybe you can enligten us on this.
> 
> Its time the impotent Governmnet of India shows a strong force at the
> speratist and terroist elements in Kashmir who are sparking 
> violence and
> encouraging and brainwashing locals against Hindus.
> 
> Best Regards
> 
> Aditya Raj Kaul
> 
> 
> On 7/1/08, Shuddhabrata Sengupta <shuddha at sarai.net> wrote:
> >
> >
> > Dear Rahul,
> >
> > Why is it naiive to believe that tens of thousands of protestors
> > would take to the streets for environmental reasons? Are you trying
> > to say that tens of thousands of protestors do not turn up on the
> > streets for environmental reasons? As far as I know, tens of
> > thousands of protestors routinely protested in the Narmada 
> Valley for
> > environmental reasons, on several occasions, across several years.
> > Why should Kashmir be different?
> >
> > Having said that, I would like to underscore that I am not for a
> > moment making a categorical statement, either way, about the
> > sincerity of the sudden display of 'ecological consciousness' by
> > elements within the Kashmiri separatist constiuency, or within any
> > other segment in the Kashmiri political spectrum today. I have 
> no way
> > of gauging the sincerity of these entities when it comes to
> > environmental issues. No one has any means of gauging their
> > insincerity either. I am, in fact, not interested in sitting on
> > judgement on whether the protestors are 'sincere'  or not. I can see
> > why there should be protests. And if there are protests, I think 
> they> ought not be dismissed on the basis of speculations about the
> > purported 'sincerity' of the protestors.
> >
> > Furthermore, there is nothing that demonstrates to me that a
> > sentiment against a change in the demographic profile of a 
> region is
> > identical to a sentiment against Hindu pilgrims. No one has said
> > anything either implcitly, or explicitly about pilgrims. I will come
> > to my take on the question of 'demographic shifts' later.
> >
> > Pilgrims are transients. They do not settle and change the
> > demographic profile of a place. The protests are against the 
> transfer> of land. The transfer of land can legitimately raise the 
> suspicion> that permanent structures will be build on that land, 
> (why else argue
> > for a change in the status of the owner of the land). It is clear
> > that the permanence of these structures does not have any 
> relation to
> > the duration or necessities of the traditional 'Pilgrimage 
> Season' in
> > Amarnath. It may be remembered, that even at the height of the
> > Kashmir insurgency, when some groups had sought to attack the
> > Amarnath pilgrims, the Hizbul Mujahideen, the largest and most
> > significant armed Kashmiri secessionist outfit, issued statements
> > against any attempts to attack Amarnath pilgrims.
> >
> > The Action Committee Against Land Transfer, the organization co
> > ordinating the Anti land Transfer movement in Kashmir has
> > categorically stated that it has nothing against pilgrims or the
> > pilgrimage to Amarnath.
> >
> > None of this amounts, in my book, to an adequate amount of
> > circumstantial evidence for 'sentiments' against pilgrims. Would it
> > not be better if we saw the reality of this anger against the 
> pattern> of the forcible acquisition of land by state agencies in 
> Kashmir.>
> > Let me conclude by saying that I do not think that anything done on
> > 38.99 acres of land can amount to a demographic shift. And those who
> > (in Kashmir) , even within the Action Committee Against Land 
> Transfer> are talking about a 'demographic shift' with reference 
> to the
> > Amarnath issue are pursuing a red herring. There is a real issue of
> > the forcible acquisition of land by agencies of the state and the
> > armed forces in Jammu and Kashmir, that is much wider in terms 
> of its
> > ramifications than the single issue of Amarnath alone.
> >
> > I for one, do not think that the presence of Bangladeshi immigrants
> > in say, Assam, needs to be attacked because it represents the threat
> > of a demographic shift to some people. There are good reasons 
> why in
> > some parts of India (in J&K under article 370 and under the Fifths
> > Schedule of the Constitution in certain notified tribal areas in
> > different parts of the country) non aborigionals or non-state
> > subjects (in the case of J&K) are barred from acquiring landed
> > property. These have to do with the histories of disposession and
> > land alienation in these areas.  But that does not mean that such
> > people (non aboriginals and non state subjects) cannot live in these
> > areas. To state that would be to confuse lived practices of
> > habitation with  the ownership of property, and to confuse the
> > category of the citizen with the reality of the denizen.
> >
> > best
> >
> > Shuddha
> > Shuddhabrata Sengupta
> > The Sarai Programme at CSDS
> > Raqs Media Collective
> > shuddha at sarai.net
> > www.sarai.net
> > www.raqsmediacollective.net
> >
> >
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