Land Issue - New Problems in Kashmir

It is good to know that at last good sense has prevailed upon different political parties in J&K and have reached to an amicable solution of the amarnath land issue. The state government has agreed partially to the demands of both regions i.e. keeping the rights of land with the J&K forest department and allowing the shrine board to use the land for three months. Amarnath Sangharsh Samiti has accordingly withdrawn stir in Jammu. But the main question remains to be unanswered as, who has lost and who has gained from the agitation for the last two months. The common man in both Kashmir and Jammu has suffered the most due to the superfluous exploitation of the issue by PDP in the valley and BJP in Jammu just for their vote banks. But both these parties had not ever anticipated that the situation would take such a vicious turn and their filthy political game has been exposed. The agitation has brought nothing but lot of massacre, misery and disaster to the people of both regions and people are never going to forgive these parties. If one sees in the broader perspective the agitation has resulted in main outcome as revival of separatist’s movement in the valley for freedom struggle against India and creation of detestation between the people of two regions due to the economic blockade call sponsored by BJP. It is hard to know that how much time it will take now for the state to come back to normalcy at the grass root level. Further the hard work done by the centre and the state government during the last few years to bring the state back to the mainstream has gone into waste and instead the state has gone back to square one. To add fuel to the fire the attitude of security forces against peaceful demonstrators in the valley has resulted in disentangling of the people of valley from India. The claim of India to be the biggest democratic country in the world has also been questioned because different yards sticks were used to handle the agitators in the two regions. While there are clear evidences that violent agitators in Jammu enjoyed the patronage of security forces, the same security persons fired bullets on peaceful demonstrators in the valley. The government was a mere spectator on the attacks of muslims in different parts of Jammu and on the economic blockade to the valley. This continued step mother treatment against the Kashmiri’s has once again proved that Indian proclamation that Kashmir is an integral part of India is baseless in real sense. How long can Indian government hide the truth as even after sixty years of independence Kashmiri’s do not accept India as their country? All political parties must realize this and work towards everlasting solution to the problem. There are only two options before India either own Kashmir entirely or disown it completely. The second option may be harder one but then is India ready to accept the first option and if yes then it has to take it very seriously. It needs to treat J&K at par with other states in terms of prosperity & development. J&K especially Kashmir valley is given least preference in development among all the states in the country. There have hardly been any industrial set up in the state, as government has never been serious about this issue, although there exists a tremendous potential of different industries in the valley. This must be the only state in India where the power shedding is done throughout year although state is having hydro-power potential to the extent that if fully exploited can supply power to whole of India. There are many similar examples which clearly show how serious India is about owning Kashmir fully. India needs to take special measures in J&K at grass root level for prosperity and advancement and make involvement of locals in all departments of administration. In case India continues its step mother treatment against Kashmir’s time will come soon when it will find it impossible to retain it and therefore any Indian government must work cautiously in this sensitive state.