Living in Jammu, I often think that who has won and who has lost in the forest land transfer controversy? Almost every leader has burnt his or her fingers. The noble concept of religious tolerance has been treated with scant respect. Secessionists have left no doubt at all that they are pursuing a fundamentalist agenda. Even those among them who carry a Jammu man and a Kash-miri Pandit on their bandwagon to flaunt their secular credentials have been found woefully wanting. A common man is left bewildered why a piece of land allotted to a body devoted to a religious cause in out-of-the-way hills should raise a storm.

The Shri Amarnath Shrine Board (SASB) is an organization created by an Act of the Legislature. It is not a foreign or what many of us are fond of saying a non-State subject element. Why can’t it have a piece of land to create facilities for thousands of pilgrims paying obeisance at the holy Himalayan cave? The new Governor, Mr. N.N. Vohra, has taken just four days to conclude that the Board no longer requires the land at Baltal (the entire process of the allotment itself had taken three years). He does not care to consult anybody in this regard except for meeting a beleaguered Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad and the leaders like National Conference president Omar Abdullah who had already publicized their stance. Mr. Vohra does not feel it necessary either to take into confidence either the members of the Board or consult non-aligned public figures.

Actually, the curtain has been sought to be rung down on this affair in a manner that indicates a well-orchestrated drama both by the Governor taking advantage of his position as the SASB Chairman and the State Government caught in a maze of its own making. It is clear that some people in Jammu have been trying to create communal tension with sinister design. No accusing finger can be pointed in the direction of the inhabitants of Jammu who have shown exemplary patience and spirit of accommodation from 1989 onwards.

There are no two opinions that the PDP has been caught trying to run with the hare and hunt with the hounds. Having not only acquiesced but also facilitated the allotment of the land to the SASB it chose to wash its hands off without realizing that the truth can't be hidden all the more so when all records are in black and white. This does not mean that the Congress is a gainer in any way. It has failed to stand up to the onslaught of communal forces in the Valley where in any case it is not considered much of a force. An adverse consequence for the party is that its support base in the Jammu region has become suspect.

The spontaneity of bandh in this region on Monday reveals how anguished the people are. Nobody believes that the SASB has given up its claim to the forest land. Instead, the feeling is and rightly so that it has been forced to do so with the new Governor was offering no resistance worth the name and the State Government too wilting. By all means the people of this region have a right to express their sentiments. They are entitled to exercise all democratic options available to them. While doing so, however, they must ensure that they don’t take the law into their own hands.