Fwd: Facts and Fiction about Amarnath Issue:
Abhishek Srivastava
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: gautam navlakha <gnav...@gmail.com>
Date: Aug 12, 2008 3:35 PM
Subject: Fwd: Facts and Fiction about Amarnath Issue:
To: acti...@pudr.org, Abhishek Srivastava <guru.a...@gmail.com>, asish gupta <rights....@rediffmail.com>
From: Kashmir Media Watch <kashmirm...@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, Aug 12, 2008 at 2:43 PM
Subject: Facts and Fiction about Amarnath Issue:
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In Favor of Land Transfer:
Unless the 100 acres of land are not provided to SASB, Shri Amarnath Sangharsh Samiti shall not withdraw its agitation. The economic blockade of Kashmir Valley shall continue.
Against Land Transfer:
Currently thousands of acres of the forest and mountain land are at the disposal of the SASB for use for the yatra. Hutments, concrete and pre-fabricated, have already been constructed on the 100 acres of the controversial land. So why is a legal transfer of land needed? The real motive behind the land – as mentioned in one of the editorials of the RSS mouthpiece – Organiser - is to set up a launching pad for reviving Kashmir's mythological Hindu past and restore Hindu hegemony over the region. If Kashmiri Muslims since the last 150 years have been happily hosting the yatra, why its politicization now?
In Favor of Land Transfer:
Land is not to be used for establishing any township. It is simply for providing better facilities for the pilgrims. Those opposing land transfer don't want the yatra to happen.
Against Land Transfer:
As per government figures, this year (2008), the number of Hindu pilgrims to the Amarnath cave has been record high – 536,000 until Ist August, 2008. Kashmiri Muslims are publicly committed to host the pilgrims and facilitate the logistical needs for the same. J&K government is legally committed as ever to make available the best possible arrangements for the Yatra. SASB remains legally empowered as before by virtue of the SASB Act, 2002 to autonomously conduct the Yatra.
Kashmiri Muslims are not against the yatra but only against its saffronisation (a reference to ultra right wing Hindu ideology). Exponential increase in the number of pilgrims beyond the area's carrying capacity, contamination of fresh water sources which feed 80 per cent of Kashmir's drinking water system and hijacking of the yatra by Hindu right wing elements is tantamount to aggression.
In Favor of Land Transfer:
Land is to be used for temporary shelters and other facilities for a limited period of time. So there is no threat to Kashmir.
Against Land Transfer:
The affidavit of the SASB to the J&K High Court (Page no. 17-18) makes it clear that the plan is not for temporary shelter but a well-thought-out plan to create a religion-based State within a State on the pattern of the Middle East. The decisions taken at the 8th Board Meeting of the SASB, which have been communicated to the J&K High Court in writing, make that amply clear. It decisions include:
- Construction of a metalled road from Baltal to Sangam
- Installation of cable cars from Sangam to the cave
- Raising resources to the tune of Rs 82 crore over the next five years for providing various facilities
- Erecting LoC type fencing [isolating the whole yatra area from rest of Kashmir, over which J&K government would have no authority],
- Electrification around the cave areas, including construction of hydel projects, accommodation, toilets/bathrooms, etc.
In Favor of Land Transfer:
It is nobody's business to tell us how many pilgrims should go to the cave and how many should not. And how can J&K's demography change when there is Article 370?
Against Land Transfer:
Until 1990, between 5000-10000 pilgrims would visit the cave shrine for a period of one month. The period has been increased to two months and the number has risen to over 550,000 in 2008 as per official figures. Unofficially, one million pilgrims visited the cave shrine this year. Though earlier it was a pure religious affair, it has been now saffronised and politicized by the BJP and its affiliate Hindu right wing organisations.
If the numbers are not checked it would destroy Kashmir's ecology and environment, as 80 per cent of drinking water to Kashmir comes from the streams of Lidder and Sindh, which are fed from glaciers through which the yatra takes place.
Demography is a genuine concern for J&K's Muslims. According to 2001 Census of India, out of a 10 million population, Muslims were 6.8 million (66.97%), while Hindus were just over 3 million (29.63%). Let us do not forget that from a Muslim population of 72.41 per cent and that of Hindus 25.01 per cent in 1941 (Out of a total population of 2946728), the Muslim composition was reported reduced in 1961 Census at 68.30 per cent as against an increased 28.45 per cent that of Hindus (of the reported total population of 3560976).
In Favor of Land Transfer:
500, 000 people visiting the shrine would not impact the environment of Kashmir. It is Kashmiri Muslims themselves who are responsible for harming their environment.
Against Land Transfer:
If governments of India and Uttarakhand can limit the number of pilgrims to Kailash Mansarovar and Gangotri due to environmental concerns, why the Amarnath yatra has to be kept open ended? The number of pilgrims who go to the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra (which is a pilgrimage of the Hindus undertaken to Mount Kailash in a similar ecological area in China) is also limited. In 2008 only 960 were selected for the Yatra. This year the Government of Uttarakhand has announced limiting the number of pilgrims/visitors to Gangotri glaciers and Gomukh (two holiest sites of Hindus in the Himalayas) to 150 per day. That comes to 54750 pilgrims/visitors per year.
If the number of the visitors to the Amarnath is not checked it would render Kashmir fresh water streams un-usable in the next two years. In addition to that it impacts the area's wild life, sensitive flora fauna, generates huge amounts of green house gases.
Moreover, there has been no Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA), looking in to the consequences of increasing the number of pilgrims to the Amarnath.
In Favor of Land Transfer:
Since Kashmir is an integral part of India and the SASB Act, 2001 and the Indian Constitution empower the SASB to take all steps necessary for the smooth conduct of Yatra, J&K government has no locus standi in interfering with the matters.
Against Land Transfer:
Kashmiri Muslims have been since decades facilitating the Yatra and actively been part of the same. However, there are no environmental safeguards in built in the SASB Act, SASB Constitution or the Indian Constitution (the latter being only applicable conditionally to J&K because of J&K's own Constitution).
In 1996, when thousands of Hindu pilgrims on the way to the Amarnath cave were caught in an untimely snowstorm it were the Kashmiri Muslims who opened the doors of their homes to the pilgrims, offering them food, bedding, and what not, free of cost. Kashmiri Muslims did not even bother for the loss of their homes' privacy.
Moreover, Nitish Sengupta Committee, which was formed by the government after the incident ( in which 273 pilgrims died), has made the following recommendations in its report on 2-12-1996:
Regulation of the number of people visiting the cave
A total of 3500 pilgrims be allowed to the Cave every day—2800 from Pahalgam and 700 from Baltal side.
Mandatory registration of yatris and allocation of fixed quota to the States.
In Favor of Land Transfer:
Jammu & Kashmir Shri Amarnath Ji Shrine Act, 2001 vide SRO 54 dated 12-2-2001 took effect from 21-2-2001. Under the Act, the entire management, administration and governance of Amarnath Shrine vests with a Board, namely Shri Amarnath Ji Shrine Board (SASB) as constituted under section 4 of the Act.
The Act says, "His Excellency, the Governor of State of J&K, if a Hindu is an ex-officio Chairman of the Board and if a non-Hindu he has to nominate an eminent person of the State professing Hindu religion, and otherwise qualified to be a member to function as the Chairman the Board. So a Muslim Chief Minister cannot dictate the terms of the yatra.
Under Article 26 (b) of the Indian Constitution a religious denomination or organisation enjoys complete autonomy in the matter of deciding as to what rights and ceremonies are essential according to the tenents of the religion they hold and no outside authority has any jurisdiction to interfere with their decision in such matters".
Against Land Transfer:
The law should be changed as it is intrinsically communal and against Kashmir's syncretic traditions.
The sub clause (2) Article 26 (b), of the Indian Constitution saves the power of the State "to make laws regulating or restricting any economic, financial, political or other secular activity which may be associated with religious practice." So the government can use this clause of the Indian constitution.
The draft of the law makes it clear that it is a poorly conceived law, having neither considered an environmental impact assessment nor having kept the environmental concerns in sight. Ironically, the law does not even seem to have bothered to draw inferences from India's National Environment Policy (NEP), which has some clear guidelines for the States.
The NEP clearly calls upon State governments to regulate tourist inflows into mountain regions. In section 5.2.6 on Mountain Ecosystems it says, "[governments must] Take measures to regulate tourist inflows into mountain regions to ensure that these remain within the carrying capacity of the mountain ecology and consider particular unique mountain scapes as entities with "Incomparable Values", in developing strategies for their protection."
NEP's section 5.1.3 on Substantive Reforms for Industrial Activity in Forest Areas clearly says that it aims to:
e) Restrict the diversion of dense natural forests and areas of high endemism of genetic resources, to non-forest purposes, only to site-specific cases of vital national interest. No further regularisation of encroachment on forests should be permitted.
In section 5.2.3 on Forests and Wildlife, NEP recognises that "in recent decades, there has been significant loss of forest cover….and the principal direct cause of forest loss has been the conversion of forests to agriculture, settlements, infrastructure, and industry. It also calls to "ensure that human activities on the fringe areas of Protected Areas do not degrade the habitat or otherwise significantly disturb wildlife."
In Favor of Land Transfer:
This controversy is between the people of Jammu and Kashmir regions.
Against Land Transfer:
It is no between Jammu and Kashmir regions. It is about a handful of people instigated by the BJP and its extremist allies in Jammu, Kathua and half of Udhampur districts. Rests of the 15 districts are one in their opposition to the land transfer.
In Favor of Land Transfer:
J&K High Court has already given its directive to J&K Government for fully facilitating the empowerment the SASB to freely conduct the yatra.
Against Land Transfer:
It is not the J&K High Court but a single bench comprising of Justice Permod Kohli, who has served as the Standing Counsel of the SASB for its legal advocacy issues. As such, the moral and ethical bases of the "judgment" stand in serious question. Moreover the "directive" has been issued on the basis of a writ petition of a Shiv Sena member of the Ludhiana Bar Association who acted on behalf of the SASB.
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Abhishek Srivastava