_____________2008 to 2016 __________

How creations of Kashmir’s mainstream politicians make 1.25 crore people bleed through their nose

After death, Burhan Wani caused Rs 16,000 crore loss to Kashmir's economy

Ahmed Ali Fayyaz

________

JAMMU, Jan 10: The Jammu and Kashmir Government’s most authentic official document, Economic Survey 2016, released by Finance Minister Haseeb Drabu in Legislative Assembly here on Tuesday, makes a bizarre admission of the near-total breakdown of all activities of growth and development in the second year of the PDP-BJP regime. For the first time, it was officially revealed on the floor of the Legislature that the upheaval created by the Hizbul Mujahideen militant Burhan Wani’s death in an encounter on July 8, 2016, had caused damage worth Rs 16,000 crore to the Valley’s economy.

Wani became a militant in Omar Abdullah’s regime in 2010-11 when some Policemen associated with counterinsurgency operations in Tral area allegedly maltreated with him and other teenagers. During Mufti Mohammad Sayeed’s regime in 2015, politicians and media in competition created him as an “icon and inspiration” for the Valley’s new generation of the youth. A many of the mainstream politicians, including Ministers, MLAs, MLCs and MPs glorified Wani as a “hero” until his death and thereafter began eulogising him as a “martyr”. Paradoxically, these mainstream politicians are on oath to uphold the sovereignty and integrity of India and this country's Constitution. Burhan treated them as "traitors" and "Indian agents" and claimed to be struggling for Kashmir's separation from India and establishment of Caliphate.

Birth of the PDP-BJP coalition in March 2015 frittered away entire enthusiasm of the Jammu and Kashmir’s best held Parliamentary and Assembly elections, in 2014, and lent a fresh lease of life to political uncertainty and the badly marginalised separatist politics and armed insurgency. Massarat Alam’s release by Mufti Sayeed’s government, followed by permission to a massive pro-Pakistan demonstration on Srinagar Airport Road in reception of the separatist hawk Syed Ali Shah Geelani, witnessed hundreds of youths abandoning their studies and picking up guns and stones — something almost completely forgotten after failure of Alam’s 2010 turmoil.

In a week of his taking over as Chief Minister, Mufti freed Alam on March 8, 2015. With their honour of reception to Geelani, in front of the Police Headquarters, on April 15, 2015, followed by a similar demonstration in Tral four days after Burhan's brother Khalid got killed in an encounter between militants and Army, Alam and his associates revived pro-Pakistan euphoria in a big way. Even as Alam was re-arrested under BJP’s pressure, Burhan carried the mantle while dominating newspapers, television channels and social media with his jihadist slogans and naked-face videos. Soon he discovered himself turning into a “role model” and inspiration for many of the Valley’s youths in schools and colleges. His death created yet another take of the turbulence Kashmir had witnessed in 2008 and 2010.

Ironically, even in 2008, when the two PDP Ministers, namely Qazi Mohammad Afzal and Tariq Hamid Karra, created a street turmoil with allotment of a piece to Shri Amarnath Shrine Board and Mufti Sayeed brought down Ghulam Nabi Azad’s government, the Valley had forgotten militants and marginalised the separatists. It was none other than Mufti and is PDP who brought down Ghulam Nabi Azad's coalition and unleashed a new era of political instability that comes intermittently knocking on the Government's doors with different intervals. Later, over one hundred people got killed and hundreds injured in street clashes and demonstrations in the summer of 2010.

“…the prolonged cycles of unrest since 2008 have become a new normal in the social, political and economic life of Jammu and Kashmir resulting into highly adverse impact on economic growth and infrastructural development”, Drabu’s Economic Survey admits. “Since June 2008, there have been four cycles of unrest — Amarnath land row, Shopian ‘rape and murder’ case (2009), 2010’s summer turmoil and the latest unrest following killing of Hizb militant Burhan Wani  — adversely hampering the delivery of public services and drastically slowing down the development expenditure”, it records.

The Survey reveals: “The general estimates of the losses caused due to the unrest are estimated at more than Rs 16,000 crore over a period of 5 months from 8^th July 2016 to 30^th November 2016. The cost of security related expenditure is over and above the losses caused due to unrest of 2016 in J&K State”.

“The continuous hartals, stone throwing and curfews have resulted in loss of tourist season, loss of working season, about 116 days out of total working season of 180 days (may to October) in 2016. Thus about 64% of the tourist and working season has been lost”, says the Economic Survey.

“Tourist season in Kashmir valley starts from April and lasts up to October, thus making season of 7 months. During 2015-16, the number of tourists who had visited the Valley stood at 6,23,932 including 2,20,490 Amarnath Yatris. The tourist season had started during 2016 in April and was in full swing upto end of 7^th July, 2016. The remaining about 4 months (24 days of July, August, September and October) remained completely tense and registered closure of all activities due to turmoil in almost zero arrival of tourists in the Valley”, it added.

The Survey details how the tourism revenue of Rs 32.45 crore of Quarter-1 (April, May, June) came drastically down to Rs 1.84 crore in the Quarter-2 (July, August, September) in Kashmir valley in 2016-17. As compared to Q-1 of the year 2015-16, tourism revenue had remarkably gone up in Q-1 of 2016-16. While as it was Rs 19.13 crore in Q-1 and Rs 9.37 crore in Q-2 of 2015-16, it went up to Rs 32.45 crore in Q-1 of 2016-17 but dipped to a paltry Rs 1.85 crore in Q-2 after Wani’s death.  The State Cable Car Corporation alone had earned record revenue of Rs 31.62 crore in April, May and June of 2016 but it nosedived to Rs 1.67 crore in July, August and September.

“The estimated loss suffered by Industry during hartals/curfews (130 days) is of the order of Rs 13,291 crore comprising of Rs 6,548 crore of private sector and Rs 6,713 crore of Govt sector”, says the Survey. “In addition to the above, some Jammu-based SSI units have also suffered production losses due to turmoil in the Valley. The turnover loss has been reported as Rs 1,800 crore and revenue loss as Rs 275 crore”.

The Survey attributes cumulative economic losses of Jammu and Kashmir to the “political conflict” and draws a comparison between the turbulent J&K and the peaceful Himachal Pradesh, making clear how the neighbouring State’s businesses and economy are flourishing every year.

According to the Survey, J&K’s area is 1.01 lakh square kilometre and population 1.25 crore souls. HP is spread on 0.56 lakh sq km and has population of 68.65 lakh souls. Both the States have Himalayan mountain terrain and 20% each Forest cover. In 2015-16, HP’s GSDP (Constant prices) has been Rs 95,929 crore while as it was only 91,806 crore in J&K. While as 1.75 crore tourists visited HP, only 92.03 lakh (including Vaishno Devi and Amarnath pilgrims) visited J&K. As against HP’s 4.06 lakh foreigners, only 29,000 foreign tourists visited J&K.

As regards the power sector, HP and J&K have hydroelectric generation potential of 20,000 mw each. While as HP is generating 6,370 mw (revised estimate 10,264 mw), J&K’s harnessed capacity currently is not more than 3,220 mw. HP has 503 units of Medium and Large industrial units compared to only 86 in J&K.

While as HP’s GSDP (at constant prices 2011-12) for 2015-16 is Rs 95, 929 crore and per capita income (NSDP 2015-16) is Rs 1,11,977, it is only Rs 91,806 crore and Rs 57,858 respectively in J&K.

END

[STATE TIMES]

Mufti Mohammad Sayeed:
Politician, Patriot, Peer, Pandit, Paadshah

KEEPING MY PROMISE of expressing my opinion about late Mufti Mohammad Sayeed Sahab and his political ideology on occasion of his first death anniversary, I am now exercising my right. Since I have seen most of our contemporary politicians closely without ever having my own newspaper, need to seek loans or advertisements or contracts or transfers and I don't have to contest elections or play to the galleries, I will give my own independent, objective, dispassionate view which may be different from that of many of the esteemed friends. According to my belief, which can be partly or fully wrong, Mufti Sahab sailed against the wind of then popular Plebiscite Front from 1955 to 1965 and he, alongwith friends and colleagues like Mohammad Shafi Qureshi, GM Sadiq etc. played a key role in integrating Jammu and Kashmir with the Union of India by sowing the first seeds of the Congress party in Kashmir and collaborating with the Centre in diluting the State's special statutory position. So it stands as incontrovertible evidence that he was New Delhi's agent and representative in Kashmir, not Kashmir's representative in New Delhi. He paid its prices but got equally attractive dividends. He lost all the Assembly and Parliamentary elections in Kashmir till 1998 and to become an MLA he contested and won the elections from RS Pora of Jammu in 1980s. He and his colleagues faced social boycott in Kashmir when NC under Sheikh Abdullah and Farooq Abdullah made the slogan "Mufti sinz qabbar Kashiri nebar" popular in 1970s-80s. To become a Member of Parliament and Union Minister of Tourism, followed by Union Home Minister, he had to contest from Bihar and UP. He won his first and the last Parliamentary election from Kashmir on Congress ticket only in 1998 and later his first Assembly election once from Pahalgam and once from Anantnag. Because of support and faith from Delhi, he became Chief Minister of J&K twice and has the distinction of being till date the only Muslim who was inducted as the Union Home Minister in India. Even before floating his own PDP, and while being in Congress, Mufti Sahab had started expanding his base with destabilising the elected governments in 1970s and 1980s and later in 1990s generating a sentiment with his severe criticism of Farooq Abdullah's anti-militant, anti-separatist and anti-Pakistan politics and governance that ultimately helped him erase much of his regime's massacres and massive human rights abuse in 1990 when he was India's Home Minister. He was an exceptionally shrewd and connected-to-people politician and made lakhs of Kashmiris to believe that Farooq Abdullah had been the architect of the "rigging" in 1987 Assembly elections inspite of the fact that Mufti himself was part and parcel of the Rajiv-Farooq Accord in 1986-87. Srinagar Deputy Commissioner Ghulam Qadir Pardesi, who was District Election Officer in 1987 and has to share maximum responsibility of the alleged rigging, was a founder member and served the media kebabs at the press conference when Mufti Sahab floated PDP in July 1999, months after J&K Legislature passed a resolution unanimously and the Farooq Abdullah government's Autonomy Committee report called on New Delhi to restore 1953 position to the State. One can't be taker to the wild allegations that then PM AB Vajpayee and Home Minister LK Advani paid huge amounts of money to create and promote PDP but it is a fact that the Kashmiri mainstream was never as split as it became post-1999. Being great visionaries, Vajpayee and Advani perhaps wanted to set J&K's politics in such a mould that a Valley-based Muslim-dominated party, be it NC or PDP, should never be able to hold 44-plus seats and thus form the government without making a national party like Congress or BJP a part of the coalition. With such a coalition, autonomy or J&K's special status will never be a consensus demand in Assembly or outside. This goal could not be achieved without bringing NC and PDP to the position where they could win seats in range of 15-30 and run the government by rotation every six years. And this would not be possible until PDP was given a long rope, free hand and license to raise and exploit the secessionist passions with glorification of separatists, militants and Pakistan and while demonising and discrediting the Indian institutions and systems particularly the Army and paramilitary forces and "Farooq Abdullah's Task Force". Thus, while calling for friendship with Pakistan, opening of all roads to Pakistan, release of "political prisoners", prosecution of Police officers and soldiers involved in human rights abuse, space to separatists et al, Mufti Sahab created a political space for PDP in the Valley and in 2002, 2008 and 2014 he managed to get a chunk of vote from the genetically pro-Pakistan and separatist populace that helped him assume power twice. New Delhi's unflinching support and faith made him over-confident to the extent that towards the end of his career and life, he did what few in the Valley had imagined---formation of the government with RSS-driven BJP which, all through campaigning, he had described as a demon and asked the Kashmiris to fail. He was never, and could never have been, what some people like Arnab Goswami called him "pro-separatist" and "pro-Pakistan". It was because of his long rope from New Delhi and remarkable support even from very influential Congress leaders, including Pranab Mukherjee, Ahmad Patel, Digvijay Singh and Makhan Lal Fotedar, that PDP's agenda to unsettle Ghulam Nabi Azad led to fall of the coalition government and subsequently an unprecedented regional and communal divide in J&K in 2008 when the militancy had reduced to a trickle and the separatists had been marginalised by the political developments across the globe post 9/11. It resuscitated what many in Delhi had forgotten as the "dead snake" which is now biting everybody Indian in Kashmir after intervals. It had two devastating manifestations in 2010 and 2016---when Mohammad Shafi Qureshi died in Delhi and India could not hold his burial in Kashmir. Today's competitive separatism among the mainstream parties, including NC and PDP, are an essential consequence of the theatre created in 2008. If NC will return to power in 2020, we will see PDP playing this role in next 6 years. It is now clear that New Delhi does not need genuine, legitimate politics and democratic institutions or patriots and nationalists in J&K. It just needs vote and someone in the chair as CM or Minister. Irrespective of party, New Delhi also needs sustenance of a scenario in which 68% Muslim population or 58 Muslim MLAs in a House of 87 will have no independent say in any matter of policymaking. Our politicians will claim to be "friends of peace with Pakistan" and "peaceful resolution" of the Kashmir issue but the fact is that they have little role in the whole game as long as the separatists will act as the bonded labours of Islamabad and the so-called mainstream politicians will provide the same service to New Delhi. One shall have to make a dispassionate introspection to find as to who are the real beneficiaries of this sort of the political theatre in Kashmir. I believe late Mufti Sahab did a great, unparalleled service to the Indian nation to achieve many of its strategic goals in Kashmir. Once jingoistic, hardcore Indian, Farooq Abdullah is just learning some lessons and making himself attractive for New Delhi by using the language Mufti Sahab did for years. It is well possible that only 4,000 Kashmiris will attend funerals of such politicians and people like Burhan Wani will live as heroes and die as martyrs with 200,000 attending their last rites. But India is least worried about that. Governance and development will become relevant only when this era of Delhi-protected dynastic politics will end in Jammu and Kashmir. Having said about his politics, I have no hesitation to accept that late Mufti Sahab was an extremely humane and helpful politician in his personal behaviour who would keep with him friends and enemies alike. May his soul rest in peace.

______ Ahmed Ali Fayyaz

No representation of Jammu Muslims, Sikhs in J&K High Court in 88 years

Only 3 Kashmiri Muslims reached the top slot and held the CJ’s chair for less than 3 years since 1928; one of them worked for 2 years, 2 others for less than 6 months

Ahmed Ali Fayyaz

____________

JAMMU, Jan 7: Constituting a substantial chunk of the population in Jammu division, Muslim or the Sikh minority have never found a representation in the Jammu and Kashmir High Court in its history of the last 88 years. While as the major share of judges and Chief Justices has gone to the Kashmiri Muslims, Kashmiri Pandits and the Jammu Hindus, Mr Justice Tashi Rabstan is the first—and so far the last—judge of the JKHC who has been picked up from the Buddhist minority or the entire Ladakh region, in March 2013.

Of the 33 judges who were appointed as CJs since 1928, 10 have been Muslims. While as three of them — Mian Jalal-ud-din (1978-80), Mufti Baha-ud-din (1983) and Bashir Ahmad Khan (2007) — were Kashmiri Muslims, all the seven others were from different Indian States. In totality, even the Kashmiri Muslims, the largest majority in the State, retained the top chair for less than 3 years in 88 years, since the State High Court assumed embryonic form in Maharaja's rule in 1928.

Freedom fighter and lawyer Mian Jalal-ud-din was the first Kashmiri Muslim who functioned as CJ of JKHC. Of the three Kashmiri Muslims, he alone worked as CJ for more than one year. He held the top position from February 15, 1978, to February 22, 1980.

While as Mufti Baha-ud-din was transferred from J&K by Indira Gandhi’s Congress government at the Centre without regard to then Chief Minister Dr Farooq Abdullah’s threats and protests in August 1983, within six months of his taking over as the 12th CJ of JKHC in March 1983, Justice Bashir Ahmad Khan functioned as CJ from January 25 to March 31 in 2007. However, some Kashmiri Muslim judges officiated as CJ for brief stop-gap arrangements.

Among the 71 judges of JKHC, 23 were Kashmiri Muslims and 11 Kashmiri Pandits. With some representation to Jammu, many of the the judges were brought in from different Indian States. Three of them—S.S. Kang (1989-93), T.S. Doabia (1997-2003) and Virender Singh (2007-14) — were Sikhs from Punjab.

The Jammu Hindus got different occasions to function as CJ or judge in JKHC. The Jammu Muslims, who constitute more than 30% of the population in the region and have around 500 of them as members of the 3,000-strong High Court Bar Association, Jammu, did never get a chance. Sikhs, who constitute 10% of the HCBA membership and have a substantial concentration in Jammu, and are a minority in the Valley, were also never picked up as judges for JKHC.

Even as judges or CJs are not essentially picked up from ethnic, regional, religious, linguistic, gender or cultural identities, there are remarkable instances when the selections were influenced with interventions from different pressure groups and corridors of power in New Delhi. If well-placed judicial sources are to be believed, eminent lawyer Mr Sunil Hali was appointed as a judge of JKHC within months of a communication from Rashtrapti Bhawan, seeking representation to the Kashmiri Pandit minority and satisfaction to a “sentiment”, in 2008.

Again in 2013, lawyer Tashi Rabstan was appointed as a judge of JKHC when influential political and religious entities from Leh to New Delhi had built up considerable pressure for giving “due representation” to the Ladakh region and the Buddhist minority. Such campaigning however did not work when names of some Jammu-domicile Muslim lawyers had been even recommended by the Collegium.

On different occasions, the Collegium of JKHC had recommended leading criminal lawyer Ghulam Nabi Goni, his son and former Advocate General Mohammad Aslam Goni, besides another former Advocate General Shabir Ahmad Salaria, to fill up some vacancies of the judges in the State High Court. All the three hailed from Jammu region. Of them, Mr Salaria and Mr Aslam Goni also emerged as National Conference leaders. Salaria also served a term as a member of Rajya Sabha. However, not one of them became a judge in JKHC.

As lately as in 2012, when Mr B.S. Salathia was President of HCBA Jammu, his association submitted a memorandum to then visiting Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh, seeking representation to the Jammu Muslims in the State High Court. However, no Muslim from Jammu, or a Sikh from J&K, was picked up when four judges — Ali Mohammad Magrey, Dhiraj Singh Thakur, Tashi Rabstan and Janak Raj Kotwal— were appointed as judges in March, 2013, and three more — Bawa Singh Walia (2015), Ramalingam Sudhakar (2016) and Alok Aradhe (2016) — were transferred to JKHC from different States.

No Jammu Muslim or Sikh does also figure among the seven lawyers and three judges currently under consideration of the competent authority in New Delhi.

END

[STATE TIMES

J&K High Court may get 6 new judges in February

Selection process to fill up 8 vacancies of judges resuming after retirement of TS Thakur, MH Attar

Ahmed Ali Fayyaz

____________

JAMMU, Jan 5: With the appointment of Justice K.S. Khehar as the new Chief Justice of India, to be followed by retirement of Justice Muzaffar Hussain Attar in Jammu and Kashmir later this month, the stalled process of filling up eight vacancies of judges in the Jammu and Kashmir High Court (JKHC) is starting afresh any time from now.

Top judicial and bureaucratic circles insist that minimum of six new judges could be inducted in JKHC any time in the months of February or March. With the Chief Justice (N. Paul Vasanthakumar) and 9 judges being currently in place, JKHC has a shortfall of 7 judges which would further rise to 8 with the retirement of Justice Attar on January 30.

During Governor’s rule, in March 2015, Collegium of JKHC had initiated the process of the appointment of 6 judges while recommending a list of 9 individuals from the Bar and the higher judicial service. However, the boat hit rock after rock as Governor Narendra Nath Vohra reportedly complained that the names had been recommended without his knowledge, Mehbooba Mufti took over as Chief Minister in April and a confrontation between then CJI Tirath Singh Tkakur and the Union Government over the procedure of the appointment of judges froze the whole exercise.

After the appointment of 4 judges---Ali Mohammad Magrey, Dhiraj Singh Thakur, Tashi Rabstan and Janak Raj Kotwal---in March 2013, only three new judges have joined JKHC (Bawa Singh Walia in February 2015, Ramalingam Sudhakar in April 2016 and Alok Aradhe in September 2016) in the last about four years. Of the 10 incumbent judges, 8 are from the Bar and only 2 from the judicial service.

As the Union Ministry of Law and Justice returned the list for certain clarifications and explanations, the Mehbooba Mufti government is understood to have recommended the already submitted list. It was marked that the previous exercise had been carried out with the approval of then Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed. However, ahead of the retirement of Justice Hasnain Massodi in 2016, the government in coordination with the Collegium is understood to have incorporated the names of the advocate Mohammad Yousuf Bhat and Principal District and Sessions Judge of Jammu Sanjay Gupta.

Those recommended initially included former Registrar General Kaneez Fatima, who was in beginning of last year functioning as a Member of J&K Sales Tax Tribunal and Registrar General Maharaj Krishen Hanjura. Both have retired from judicial service in 2016. Mr Hanjura was appointed as a Member in the Union Government’s Company Law Board. However, he quit that position upon his appointment  as an appellate authority under the Food Safety and Standards Act. While as he was appointed as appellate authority in Jammu, Mohammad Yousuf Akhoon, who retired as Principal Secretary to Chief Justice in JKHC, was appointed as appellate authority in Kashmir.

With complaints and accusation pouring in as usual, Union Ministry of Law and Justice is understood to have dropped some names including one on “adverse report" from the Intelligence Bureau. If the sources are to be believed, Kashmir-based advocate Nisar Hussain Shah was taken out on account of having crossed age of 59 years and replaced by advocate Mohammad Yousuf Bhat. Jammu-based advocates Raj Kumar Gupta and Sanjeev Kumar Shukla are understood to have been taken out for being litigants in a matter, involving allotment of premises in Bahu Plaza, currently pending with JKHC.

With then CJI Justice Thakur reportedly having reservations vis-a-vis some names in the list, sources say that Kaneez Fatima and Sanjay Gupta were discussed from among the three judicial officers and Mir Syed Lateef, Gandarabh Singh Thakur and Mohammad Yousuf Bhat from the seven advocates in a meeting chaired by CJI in November 2016.

According to sources, retirement of the now 61-year-old Kaneez Fatima would not affect her prospects for appointment as High Court judge in view of the recent precedent of B. Gokuldas who was appointed as a judge of the Madras High Court in 2016, nearly a year after his retirement as a District judge in June 2015. He will serve at High Court for just a little over one year.

While as the District judges reach superannuation at completing 60 years of age, High Court judges retire upon 62 years. If no other issues, like integrity and security, hinder her appointment, Kaneez Fatima could create history in the State by becoming the first female judge in JKHC.

END

[STATE TIMES]

MLA wants raishumari, MLC calls militant Burhan Wani ‘shaheed’

BJP, PDP mute to separatist voices in Assembly; Pawan Gupta attributes Kashmir killings to ‘lowering of guard’ by Mehbooba government

Ahmed Ali Fayyaz

________

JAMMU, Jan 3: Competitive separatism by the Valley’s mainstream politicians on Monday created a theatre of the absurd Martin Esslin wouldn’t have imagined on the floor of the Legislative Assembly and Legislative Council in Jammu and Kashmir which has every member on oath to uphold the sovereignty and integrity of India. New Delhi’s licensed secessionist narrative turned bizarre when the BJP-PDP coalition watched dumbly independent MLA Er. Rashid calling for ‘raishumari’ (plebiscite) and the National Conference (NC) MLC Showkat Hussain Ganai eulogising the Hizbul Mujahideen militant Burhan Wani as a ‘shaheed’ (martyr).

Those having enjoyed Vishal Bhardwaj’s chutzpah sequence in the Bollywood film Haider—the depressed protagonist at Lalchowk chantingto the crowds iss paar bhi lenge aazadi, uss paar bhi lenge aazadi—were amused to listen to an elected lawmaker. “Raishumari insha allah hokar rahegi. Aaj nahi tau kal ittihas banega” (Plebiscite, God willing, will be held in Jammu and Kashmir. If not today, tomorrow history will be created) the MLA from Langet grumbled on the floor of the Assembly.

Even as a former BJP-associate and MLA of Udhampur Pawan Gupta registered his strong protest and the BJP-PDP chose to remain a mute spectator, Rashid went ahead to claim that the slain militant Burhan Wani and the Lashkar-e-Tayyiba’s J&K chief Abu Dujana were “ruling the hearts” in Kashmir. “You want to rule us at the barrel of the gun”, Rashid shouted on the BJP MLAs and Ministers. “Fact of the matter is that not more than 4,000 Kashmiris participated in Mufti Sayeed’s funeral while as thousands and lakhs of them attended Burhan’s and (former LeT chief) Abu Qasim’s last rites”, Rashid asserted.

“What are you guys going to get out of this rhetoric of the domicile certificate? See 25 of this House’s seats are lying here vacant for that part of the State since decades. If the Parliament has passed a resolution of getting back that part of Kashmir in 1995, why didn’t you get it back in 20 years? You are concerned about nothing but elections in Kashmir. Once you hold them, you forget about everything. Your slumber breaks when turbulence crashes into your face. Then you send envoys and interlocutors to Valley to touch Geelani’s feet. You have messed up things. With this irresponsible behaviour, Kashmir has slipped out of everybody’s hand. If Geelani will tread a single step toward you, Kashmiris today will burn down his house. You people are responsible for every drop of blood being shed in Kashmir”, Rashid shouted.

Rashid contended that successive governments in New Delhi had created and perpetuated an atmosphere of political uncertainty with deceitful rhetoric, leading generation after generation to believe that the State’s borders would be redrawn one day. He alleged that nothing but expediency and convenience were the cornerstones of the alliance between BJP and PDP that, according to him, had been driving in opposite directions in Jammu and Srinagar. There was no ideological symmetry or commitment, he claimed.

“Here in Jammu, you BJP guys call Burhan a terrorist. I dare a single PDP member get up and call him a terrorist”, Rashid challenged the principal ruling party whose MLA of Tral Mushtaq Ahmad Shah in July was the first mainstream leader to describe Burhan as a martyr and “popular crusader”. He referred to the dichotomy about Burhan between the statements of Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Minister.

“If you people get 80% of the Kashmiris to vote in elections; if you people claim that only 5% Kashmiris are shouting for aazadi, why don’t you hold a referendum in Jammu and Kashmir?”, Rashid addressed the Treasury benches before he was marshalled out during an altercation with the former Minister and MLA Pawan Gupta. Pawan and a couple of the BJP MLAs shouted on Rashid that he should go to live in Pakistan.

In his hard-hitting speech, during the special discussion on the 2016 turmoil, Pawan assailed BJP for the volte face after becoming a partner in the government with PDP. He alleged that the BJP-led Centre had remained permissive and tolerant to competitive separatism for PDP’s pleasure and things had deteriorated to the extent that even the elected legislators, who were on oath to protect the sovereignty and integrity of India, were now outsmarting the Hurriyat with their secessionist rhetoric on the floor of the House.

“Why are you guys mute to their allegation that over 100 people were killed in Kashmir by our Police and security forces? The fact is that your government has lowered the guard in Kashmir and allowed a combination of separatism and terrorism to revive. These are only the consequences of your helplessness and incompetence”, Pawan addressed the BJP fold.

Parallel to the drama in Assembly, NC’s MLC Showkat Hussain Ganai in Legislative Council described Burhan Wani as a "shaheed” (martyr). “Kashmiris will continue to pick up guns and sacrifice their life fighting until the issue is resolved,” Ganai said.

PDP MLC Firdous Tak interrupted Ganai and asked him to clarify if it was his party’s stand. “The statement of the member is very sensitive. This massage would go outside. So he must realize what he is speaking in the House.”

“I am fully aware about the place where I am saying it and I stand by each word I said about Burhan Wani”, Ganai asserted in response to the PDP MLC. “Burhan was a freedom fighter, a martyr and this is the thinking of the people of Jammu and Kashmir, not mine alone”, he said. According to him even the Hizbul Mujahideen chief Syed Salahuddin had crossed over to Pakistan “for finding resolution of the long-pending Kashmir dispute, not for contesting elections”.

END

[STATE TIMES January 4, 2016]

Governor, CM forced to cut short their speeches in Assembly

·       Vohra speaks of the Kashmiris ‘killed by a tear gas shell or blinded by pellets’, leaves while national anthem was on

·       NC-Congress MLAs corner Mehbooba over her reference to 1987 polls, claim Mufti Sayeed was driver of that ‘rigging’

Ahmed Ali Fayyaz

_________

JAMMU, Jan 2: The Jammu and Kashmir Legislature’s Budget session commenced in the winter capital on Monday with Governor Narendra Nath Vohra’s ceremonial address jointly to the both Houses even as he was forced by an uproarious opposition to cut short his speech before Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti faced a similar situation in Assembly.

As soon as Mr Vohra began reading out a 69-paragraph speech approved by the Cabinet, entire opposition in the Central Hall got up to protest ‘bloodshed in Kashmir’, domicile certificates to the PoK refugees and ‘failure on all fronts’ of the PDP-BJP Government. Members shouted slogans, waved placards and did not allow Governor to proceed with his address.

For about 7 minutes, Mr Vohra continued reading out his speech in the din without regard to the opposition’s pandemonium. Thereafter he stood mute for 5 minutes. The visibly upset, Governor suddenly jumped to the concluding paragraph numbers 68 and 69. As the national anthem began playing and the opposition stood shouting, Mr Vohra walked out the House and drove straight to Raj Bhawan.

Even the ruling BJP MLAs like the vociferous Ravinder Raina objected to Governor’s behaviour and told mediapersons that Mr Vohra should not have moved while the national anthem was on. They complained that the opposition as well as the Governor had shown “disrespect” to the national anthem, probably for the first tie in the history of the State Legislature.

Governor’s address stressed on reconciliation and healing touch with special references to the five-month-long cataclysm witnessed in the Valley after the Hizbul Mujahideen militant Burhan Wani’s death in an encounter on July 8 in 2016. Around 90 persons, including some Policemen, got killed and thousands of civilian protesters and security forces personnel injured in hundreds of clashes, crippling every activity including transport, businesses, tourism, education, telecommunication and development.

“For the last few years, from around 2008, social order has been targeted and this has posed a far bigger challenge than any of the earlier ones. I am confident that we shall not allow the weave and weft of our social fabric to be affected in the name of religion or ethnicity”, Mr Vohra said.

“It is in our interest to urgently embark on this mission, particularly to protect the psyche of the incoming generation from being fractured by the unprecedented civil strife, political disruption and chaos which we have seen in the State, while enormous progress has been taking place in other parts of our country. No responsible society can afford to stand by and see the alienation of its youth”, Mr Vohra said. “Let us not forget that our young people, aged from 15 to 30 years, account for around 40 per cent of our total population”, he added.

Governor said: “The loss of lives in the past six months is most unfortunate and regrettable. The irreparable pain of losing someone we love is not unknown to us. While the political rhetoric may result in keeping us at odds, our grief brings us together — whether of a mother who has lost her young soldier son on duty at the line of control or of a mother whose child has been killed by a tear gas shell or blinded by pellets”.

“While hundreds were injured, civilians, Police and paramilitary forces personnel lost their lives. I share the grief of all the families who have lost their loved ones and pray for the early recovery of all those who were injured”, Governor said.

After the Governor’s address ended at a turbulent note, both Houses of Legislature started routine business with the obituary references while paying tributes to the former Governor Lt Gen (retd.) S.K. Sinha, former State Congress President and Governor of some States Mohammad Shafi Qureishi, former Deputy Chief Minister Mangat Ram Sharma and five other politicians who had served as legislators and passed away after the Legislature’s summer session.

In Assembly, Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti invited trouble for herself with her tangential reference to the “days when some people were fighting for Plebiscite, which they finally dismissed as waywardness, and leaders like Qureishi Sahab and Mufti Sahab laid the foundation stone on the national mainstream party in Kashmir”. It evoked some hostile reactions from NC but she went on: “These very people rigged the elections in 1987 and created the unending militancy”.

NC’s MLAs, most vociferously Abdul Majid Larmi of Homeshalibugh, shouted on Mehbooba with the rejoinder that if her allegation of rigging was correct, her father late Mufti Mohammad Sayeed was equally involved and responsible. “Madame, stand corrected that in 1987 Mufti Sahab was an important leader in Congress and thus no less responsible for the rigging than NC and Congress”, Larmi shouted with the support of solidarity from other MLAs of the two opposition parties who had earlier staged a walk out.

As the ruckus refused to die down, Chief Minister hastily concluded her speech and Speaker Kavinder Gupta signed off the business.

END

------------------------------------------------------------------

West Pak refugees will continue to be non-State subjects: Vohra

Ahmed Ali Fayyaz

_________

JAMMU, Jan 2: In his address to J&K Legislature on Monday, Governor N.N. Vohra clarified that issuance of domicile certificate would in no way affect the State’s laws about the permanent residents and asserted that the West Pakistan refugees settled in Jammu would continue to be the non-State subjects.

“Yet another issue that is being played up is the issue of West Pakistan Refugees. As a part of the Agenda of Alliance (between PDP and BJP) it was decided to sympathetically deal with this humanitarian issue. The State Government has facilitated their identification to enable them to get work in the paramilitary forces and other Central Government establishments. This identification does not change the status of the West Pakistan Refugees; they continue to be non-State subjects”, Governor said in para-66 of his address.

As regards Government of India’s support to the PoK refugees, Governor said: “In order to extend monetary support to Displaced Persons of PoK (1947) as well as the Displaced Persons of Chhamb (1965 and 1971), an immediate settlement at the rate of Rs 5.50 lakh has been provided in favour of each of the 36,384 families who have been found eligible through the laid down procedure”.

END

[STATE TIMES January 3, 2017]

Timber smugglers attack Forest party in Sopore; 15 officials injured, 6 vehicles damaged

Ahmed Ali Fayyaz

_________

JAMMU, Jan 1: Fifteen officials of Forest Department were injured and six vehicles damaged when timber smugglers in Sopore area of Baramulla district, in northern Kashmir, attacked them during a series of raids in Rampora forests.

Officials in Sopore told STATE TIMES that immediately after receiving SOS from the Forest party, a Police team swung into action and got the badly trapped rescued from Rampora Rajpora forest cover of Kandi in the evening on Sunday. Case FIR No: 2/2017 has been registered against the assailants who are said to have damaged six vehicles and caused injuries to 15 officials of Forest Department and Forest Protection Force (FPF). Sources said that the accused named by the complainants would be arrested and some of them could be detained under Public Safety Act.

DFO Kamraj, Mohammad Ayub Sheikh, told STATE TIMES over telephone from Sopore that on specific information he had earlier on Sunday organised a major raid on the houses of the timber smugglers and the people who were known to have dumped the illegally felled trees and timber on their premises. DFO Langate Mohammad Ayub Pandit and Deputy Directors of FPF units of Kupwara and Baramulla were also in the raiding party comprising 100 to 150 officials.

“As we recovered a quantity of the illegally acquired timber from some houses, the timber smugglers along with the residents mounted an organised attack on our party. They attacked our officials with lathis, axes, sharp-edged weapons and stones and left 15 of us injured. Six of our vehicles, including two private Tata Sumo vehicles, were badly damaged in the attack. One of our critically injured employees was prevented from reaching the hospital and held in wrongful confinement. A Police official in that area provided us shelter till we contacted SDM Sopore, Sopore Police and CCF Kashmir through a WiLL phone as there is no mobile connectivity in that area. Thereafter a Police party arrived in and it rescued it”, DFO Kamraj Mr Sheikh said.

DFO Kamraj added that with the help of the Police party, his team persisted with the raid and seized around 130 cubic-foot of timber from several houses. He said that the injured were evacuated and later treated at Sopore. “We have prepared PSA detention cases against 10 timber smugglers and their helpers. We are submitting these cases to DC Baramulla tomorrow”, Mr Sheikh added. He said that Rampora was a notorious hub of the timber smugglers where the illegal felling of conifer trees and timber smuggling had not been fully neutralised, notwithstanding several raids and seizures and detentions under PSA in the last 10 years.

END