The “Big-fight” – Dirty Games Uncovered

The “Big-fight” on the transfer and revocation of land to Shri Amarnath Shrine Board (SASB)

The Amarnath land transfer controversy


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The following events prove the dirty political games played by the Congress and the Islamic fundamentalists and terrorists just to fool the entire nation, under the guise of winning “vote of confidence” at one side and trying to harass Hindus in J & K and kill Hindus elsewhere through Islamic terrorists. Incidentally, these events are coincided with LOC infiltration, firing and encounters between the Indian forces and Pakistani counterparts and of course Pak-trained terrorists





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. Read the events.

15-07-1999


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Amarnath Yatra was disturbed





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in 1999.

2001


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The National Conference Government passed the Act to set up Shri Amarnath Shrine Board (SASB).

29-05-2005


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The government withdrew the order for the usage of forest land by the pilgrims, as it was against the provision of the J & K Forest Conservation Act of 1997.

The J & K High Court stayed the withdrawal of permission to use the forest land.

January 1, 2008


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The SASB informed the legislature of Jammu and Kashmir, through a letter to the deputy chief minister, that “(t)he Governor is sovereign ex-officio holder of the power . . . who acts on his own personal satisfaction and not on the aid and advice of the council of ministers . . . the member (of the legislative council) may be explained that he does not enjoy the powers to question the decisions of the body”.





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20-05-2008


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The J & K government rejected the transfer of land in Baltal to Shri Amarnath Shrine Board (SASB) for construction of road and raising hutments on it at various points, however giving “clearance” to blacktopping of Ronga-Baltal road.  The state cabinet, which met here on Tuesday (20-05-2008), rejected the Board’s suggestion to construct a road from Baltal to Dumel and raise hutments along the route. The hutments were supposed to be raised for Amarnath pilgrims, a charge refuted by SASB.  The cabinet rejected transferring the land on the ground that it fell in a wildlife area and its transfer would invite “adverse judicial notice.”  The land falls in compartment 62 which is a wildlife area and could not be transferred to the Board without sanction from Supreme Court of India, they added.

25-06-2008


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N. N. Vohra





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took over as a Governor and Immediately after his swearing-in, he conferred with Shri Amarnath Shrine Board (SASB) officials and was informed that not a single permanent structure had been constructed in the base camps of Pahalgam and Baltal or enroute to the cave Shrine. to transfer 39.88 hectares of forest land to SASB.

26-05-2008


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The Secretary, Tourism was acting as the CEO of the Shrine Board, pointed out that all the toilets and camping facilities were constructed on government land and nobody objected. It was only when the bribe channels were stopped for the politicians’ protégés that they objected to government land being used for pilgrims. Hence, after the stay was obtained from the High Court, the Shrine Board asked the state government in 2005 to regularise use of government land by formally transferring a few plots of land to the board en route to the Amarnath shrine. It took three years to take a decision and finally on May 26, 2008, the state cabinet passed a proposal diverting (not selling or leasing) 38 hectares of land near Baltal to the Shrine Board on a temporary basis at a cost of Rs 2.5 crore vide Government order No. 184-FST of 2008 dated 26-05-2008. The Minister of Forest, under whose jurisdiction the land was diverted for the Shrine Board’s use, was a member of the PDP headed by Mufti.

27-05-2008


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The President inaugurated the “Institute of Kashmir studies” at the University of Kashmir, Srinagar! N. Ram was there





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03-06-2008


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The State Government approved the transfer of 800 kanals of forest land to SASB (which was dubbed as “land grab” by Gautham).

15-06-2008


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Muzaffar Hussain Baig, the Dy. CM accused two senior Congress Ministers – Mangat Ram Sharma and Gulchain Singh Charak of “blackmailing’ them into transferring forest land to the SASB





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28-06-2008


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 The People’s Democratic Party has withdrawn its support from the Jammu and Kashmir] government. All ministers from the party submitted their resignations to Governor N N Vohra on Saturday evening (28-06-2008), party president Mehbooba Mufti told mediapersons. Mehbooba said, “We had given a deadline to the chief minister to rescind the controversial land allotment order to the Sri Amarnath Shrine Board. From his attitude, it appears that the Chief Minister Ghulam] Nabi Azad was in no mood to address the aspiration of the people in this regard,”

29-06-2008


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Next day, Vohra, in his capacity as ex-officio chairman of the SASB, wrote a letter to Azad, returning the land and also offering to relinquish the board’s task of organising the annual yatra, thus making the pilgrimage to the Amarnath shrine subordinate to the valley’s Muslims politics and Muslim appeasement. Vohra reportedly sent his letter to Azad at 8.30 pm on June 28. “The news of that abject surrender provoked an explosion of outrage across Jammu,” says a senior member of the Amarnath Yatra Sangharsh Samiti, a broad-based organisation without any political affiliation which is at the forefront of the protest. The governor has violated the SASB Act. As he cannot act unilaterally. Any decision of the board has to be endorsed by at least five members of the Board. He is also in contempt of the high court which had passed an interim order approving the transfer of 800 kanals of land to the board in Baltal.

01-07-2008


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The government order transferring 100 acres of land to the Sri Amarnath Shrine Board was revoked by the Jammu and Kashmir government in Srinagar on Tuesday (01-07-2008) to defuse the snowballing situation in the Valley over the past week, which claimed four lives besides injuring 300 others. The decision to annul the order was taken by the state cabinet which met at the residence of Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad immediately after his return from Mumbai.

07-07-2008


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Gulam Nabi Azad, the Congress CM resigned.

13-7-2008



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The protest of around 150 Kashmiri Hindus gathered at the cantonment park on Sunday when the Kashmiri Hindu Sabha, in Pune, that took out a protest march to the collector’s office against the decision of the Jammu and Kashmir government to revoke the transfer of land to the Shri Amarnath Shrine Board (SASB). It  put forth a set of demands. It wants the government to reinstate the powers of the Shri Amarnath Shrine Boardthat was dissolved after the revocation of the land transfer order. The land transferred to the SASB was in a bid set up tents and make conditions more conducive for travel for the pilgrims,” The members have also called for the reopening of the Wandhama case of 1998, when 23 people were shot dead calling for a CBI intervention into the case, as the government has also been adopting double standards in handling the protests of both communities, granting subsidies to the Muslim community for Haj, but revoking the transfer of land to the Amarnath board.

26-07-2008


: Gautham Navalakha writes[7] an article against the Amarnath yatra etc., interpreting that it was promoted to support “Hindu chauvinism” and so on.

Understanding issue


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To understand the background, Indians have to understand the context of land transfer took place. In May, 2008, the government of India and state government of Jammu and Kashmir reached an agreement to transfer 100 acres of forestland to the Amarnath board, which organises the annual Amarnath yatra. The land is for the usage to build facilities for Amarnath pilgrims as lakhs of pilgrims make the journey every year. Some environmentalists argued that the land transfer would hamper the region’s delicate ecological balance. There were also reports that the SASB was planning to construct dams across River Indus to generate electricity for the shrine. One of the reasons behind the controversy is the government policy of bringing religious bodies under the state’s control. The Governor heads the Hindu shrine boards and the chief minister heads the Muslim Wakfs, in other words, the appointed Governor is a Hindu and the CM a Muslim.

Political orientation as expected


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The protests, took a more political tinge as State elections are scheduled to be held later this year. The People’s Democratic Party said that it would withdraw support to the Congress-led State government if it did not revoke the land transfer agreement. The opposition National Conference and the Communist Party-Marxist (CPM) – have also opposed the transfer of land. BJP said that it would hold widespread protests in Jammu if the decision to revoke the agreement is made. Now the state is polarized, as the discourse has become an issue of Kashmiris vs non-Kashmiris and Hindus vs. Muslim.

Hindus have been on the receiving end


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The “separatist groups” say the transfer of land to the Shrine Board is part of a “conspiracy to settle non-local Hindus in the valley with a view to reducing the Muslims to a minority“. The “separatist groups” as has been mentioned secularly, have been only jihadi and Islamic terrorists who have been fighting against Indian government and driving away Hindus or the so-called “Kashmiri Pundits” out of their own State. The controversy has led to unity among the Mohammedan separatists – “the hardline and the moderate factions” of the All Party Hurriyat Conference (APHC) – have decided to carry out a joint campaign against the land transfer. Two people were killed and seventy-five injured when police fired into a crowd in Srinagar protesting the transfer of forested land. In addition to protesters, some Hindu pilgrims making pilgrimage to Amarnath were also injured when mobs attacked their vehicles with rocks. Angry rioters also threw rocks at vehicles in the cities of Anantnag, Shopian, Pulwama, Bandipora and Baramulla. Syed Ali Shah Geelani and Mirwaiz Omar Farooq, leaders of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC), which planned the protests, were placed under house arrest.

In Jammu, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) activists orchestrated counter-protests, supportive of the land transfer, and threatened to shut down the city on 26 June. 20 kilometers away, in Nagrota, BJP supporters blocked a highway and burned tyres. Throughout the Srinagar area, most public buildings, including schools and government offices, along with many businesses have remained closed.


India


moved hundreds of security forces into the region with Indian authorities restoring the Amarnath pilgrimage route after a brief disruption. As the land transfer controversy has become an occasion for all sides to trade communal allegations, many believe It has more to do with the Kashmiri sub nationalism where every move aimed at the transfer of land to non-state subjects has been opposed.

Amarnath Sangarsh Samiti




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The NDTV’s description of the Samiti








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: “At the centre of the Jammu and Kashmir divide is a little known group called the Amarnath Sangarsh Samiti. It is a group of about 28 social and political outfits like the Shiv Sena, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Transport Union and even the Jammu Bar Association. Protests of the Samiti were somewhat low-key in the beginning, that is early July. The agitation gathered strength only after the suicide of one protestor.” Thus, it is evident that NDTV has been biased against the Samiti, as it does not analyze other organizations, which have been creating problems and killing people for so many years in India. In fact, in the said-above program, Gautham Navalkhar is introduced as a |Social activist”, though, he has been a “communist ideologist”, pro-separatist Islamic movements and anti-Hindu.

“Action Committee against Land Transfer”


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This pro-Pakistani anti-Indian outfit called off its strike, the moment the land allotment to the Shrine Board was cancelled on July 1, 2008 and its chairman – Mian Abdul Qayoom





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asked people to resume “normal live” declaring it as a “victory”. The NDTV or Gautham Navalkar do not whisper about this organization or why they should oppose. That the tourism department would get the land and it would provide facilities for yatris and all prove the intention o the government actually facilitates the Mohammedan parties of all shades to such money from the Hindus. They have already collected Rs. 2.5 crores from the SASB. Incidentally, when all this drama was going on, the Pakistani troops were firing at the so-called LOC and 11 militants were reported to be killed in encounter





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. On July 4^th, 2008 (Friday), Shabir Ahmed and other separatist and anti-national elements celebrated the “victory” near the Hazratbal. The Hindu





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gloriously publishes a photo showing that he was “manhandled”. However, none cared for the Hindus killed or hundreds of them injured, got fractured and taken to hospital. No photos of Hindu women crying, Hindu children running for life, Hindu old-men clasping hands with request to protect their lives. This has been the ant-Hindu reporting of the print and electronic media.

NDTV’  “Big-fight” program (09-08-2008)


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NDTV started on the