Religion is often mixed with politics, and that has happened with Srinagar and Jammu recently. Several lives have been killed, the property worth crores has been burnt the life in both the regions has life has come to a standstill over the allotment of land to the Amarnath Shrine Board.
The two regions can continue to be yoked together. But they have been out as under emotionally, socially and otherwise. Yet it would be an .oversimplification of the situation if one were to conclude that the allotment of land or its cancellation was responsible for the agitation. Wounds the two regions have inflicted on each other over the years have deepened. The land incident only provided spark to the haystack of alienation which was there to burn.
The, two regions have been going distant from each other for a long time. Separatists and politicians in the Valley and Jammu have been widening the gulf to see if they could become separate states. Some straws have been in the wind in the shape of demand for autonomy for Jammu. Some Kashmiri Pandits who wanted to return to their homes in the Valley have realized that there was no going back.
What is disconcerting is to see the well-read young Muslims participating in the agitation. Some of them have worked in India at important positions in the private sector. This is a message far beyond the allotment of the land. It reflects anger and desperation. It is clear that the normalcy seen at Srinagar is far from real. Once the chips are down, practically everyone is on the streets. That the religion has played a key role in consolidating the Kashmir community is something which should make the intelligentsia in the country thinks that the status-quo in the state cannot last indefinitely.
The BJP exploiting the situation for its Hindutva ends because it has no faith in India’s ethos of secularism. And it is equally disappointing to find the Hurriyat leaders and the Mufti, People’s Democratic Party, vying with the fundamentalists, to outdo them. It is well known that Mehbooba Mufti talks irresponsibly for the sake of effect. India’s politics as it is going to get more vitiated because of coming elections. The Central government is on its last legs and probably a long-term solution of Kashmir is not possible. But some exercise should begin.
The idea of blocking the Jammu-Srinagar road was that of RSS, the BJP’s mentor. It is another matter that the army was able to pierce through the blockade and sustain supply of essential goods to the Valley. For some reasons, the inept government at Srinagar and still mere inept at Delhi did not think of measures to keep the road open from the day one. The threat of Kashmir fruit growers to cross Muzzafarabad border to take their produce to Pakistan should have made the RSS realize the repercussion of its bandhs and blockades. The government once again woke up to threats of going across to Muzzafarabad late. The whole situation has a lesson from New Delhi. Having opposed the two-nation theory, India has a point that the Hindu majority Jammu and the Muslims majority Kashmir cannot be separated because it will tell upon India’s secular polity. However, after the recent happenings in the Valley and Jammu, the whole thing becomes a question mark.