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Pakistan will never leave Hurriyat out: Jha‘India mishandled Kashmir’

HAROON MIRANI

Srinagar, Mar 28: Noted columnist Prem Shankar Jha on Saturday said that Pakistan is highly suspicious of India but still wants to give dialogue a chance due to its domestic situation.

Jha who presided over the inaugu-ral function of literary festival Sonth, at SKICC said that putting off talks last year created a lot of bad air between the two sides. “It had its effects, but still Pakistan wants to resume dia-logue process and give it another try,” said Jha. “But one thing is sure Pakistan will never leave out Hurriyat

leaders, so the importance of separat-ist leaders won’t be diminished. In fact I feel people with more shades of opin-ion would join the process too.”

Jha said that if the Kashmir issue is resolved it will bring enormous change to 180 million Muslims of the subcontinent, “Who are living in a glass ceiling created by the mistrust.”

Terming Kashmir as abode to finest and most peaceful form of Islam in the subcontinent Jha said that insurgency erupted in Kashmir due to the mishan-dling of India.

Jha said that peace and mutual respect have been hallmark of Kash-mir for a long time. “The people here adopted Islam after they found that it reflected their values,” said Jha.

“Fused with Sufi culture one finds the finest form of Islam here. People have been totally against violence and respected rights of others.”

While referring to the past 25 years of suffering of Kashmiris, Jha said that the situation was reached due to the mishandling of Kashmir from New Delhi. “There was ignorance and prej-udice among the people in New Delhi, many of whom themselves were suf-fering from trauma of partition. Such was the mishandling that armed insur-gency broke out in otherwise peaceful Kashmir,” said Jha. “People were not able to freely express themselves, so in 1990s they found the other way.”

Jha traced the problems with gov-ernance to the advent of foreign rulers

in Kashmir.”More than 400 years ago Kashmir was invaded by rulers from our side, and then the foreign rule continued under Sikhs, Dogras and so on,” said Jha. “In all these years Kash-miris lost the control over their land and that left a deep impact on their psyche. So after 1947 the local leaders who feared losing Kashmiri identity wanted to control Kashmir fully and that is why we had majority of assem-bly seats in Kashmir.”

Jha said that after 1947 Jammu became a victim of political engineer-ing. “The leaders at that time killed the democratic process and Jammu felt being left out, “said Jha. “The recent elections are the open manifestation of such divisions, when both regions

chose their respective side. The verdict was such that PDP had to forge alliance with BJP that represented Jammu. They couldn’t be left out and it is the regaining of ascendancy of Jammu.”

While talking on PDP-BJP coalition government Jha said that the govern-ment will go a long way creating a new political order. “The first few months are important and if the two parties sail through then it will trigger change in BJP at national level and they will go even beyond the BJP spearheaded by Vajpayee,” said Jha. “Be it peace with Pakistan, which they were earlier averse, or space to other representatives in Kash-mir, everything will follow.”

Jha also rued the fact that 99 per-cent of money spent here has never

reached to common people. “Look at the rural areas, the development there is zero despite India spending generously during the last so many decades,” said Jha.

JK literacy festival Sonth begins ‘News channels creating negative perceptions about Kashmir’

Toll tax on highway arbitrary: RanaNagrota, Mar 28: Seeking immediate roll back of the toll tax by the National Highway

Authority of India i n t h e J a m m u and Kash-mir, Pro-v i n c i a l President National

Conference Devender Singh Rana on Saturday said the decision depicts lack of com-prehension and imagination, as the highway is still in the construction stage.

“The decision is highly

arbitrary and those bent upon to implement it are showing scant regard for public sensi-tivity, as the toll tax will not only impact the commuters, both using public and private transport, but manifest in price rise of essentials due to enhancement in freight of con-sumer goods,” Rana said while addressing a public meeting at Padyari village of Korgan Pan-chayat in the Nagrota Assem-bly Constituency.

The NC Provincial Presi-dent said the toll tax would take toll of various economic activities, as it would prove additional burden for over ten

million pilgrims thronging to Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine and lakhs of pilgrims and tourists embarking for the Kashmir Valley annually. “What an irony, schemes and incentives are being devised to promote tourism across the country but in this part, no such initiative is even being considered”, he said and hoped that the State Government will forcefully take up this issue with the Min-istry of Surface Transport as also the designated authority.

Rana made a particular reference of the Nagorta, saying the inhabitants of this constituency are required to

visit Jammu quite frequently in pursuit of jobs, educa-tion of children and even the errands. “Instead of treating it as a periphery of the Greater Jammu, tax is being imposed for day to day mobility”, he said adding that the people reserve right to protest against this arbitrary decision.

He said the proposal will not only fleece the Vaishno Devi-bound pilgrims and tour-ists going to Kashmir , who will have to pay additionally, those travelling between vari-ous areas from Lakhanpur to Udhampur, may also have to bear the brunt,” he said.

The interpretation of each vaakh of Lal Ded can form a whole book. Such is the literary tradition of this land which we want people to be conscious of, and appreciate

GK NEWS NETWORK

Srinagar, Mar 28: Chair-man of a Non Government Organization Lehar, Bashir Assad, on Saturday said the hyper-nationalism and the negativity spawned against Kashmir by a few news channels is so severe that the Tourism Department has to battle this unofficial travel advisory and convince people to come and experi-ence the amazing beauty of this land, which is as peace-ful as Mumbai or Delhi.

The ‘judge, jury and executioner’ role played by some of India’s leading tele-vision anchors, and how it impacts the life of an ordi-nary Kashmiri, was one of the major issues raised at the inaugural function of Sonth, The Jammu and Kashmir Literary Festival.

Assad said that he was immensely proud of the incredible literary and cul-tural heritage of his land, and was pained to see the negative perceptions about

Kashmir created by the powerful media. There was a need to oppose this dis-torted view by focusing on the scholarly culture of this land, he said.

The three-day festival, which would continue till March 30, was inaugurated by Rehman Rahi, one of the most illustrious contemporary poets and authors of Kashmir. Speaking on the occasion, Director Tourism Farooq Ahmad Shah said that the lit-erature, culture and ethos of Kashmir have been the rich-est in the sub-continent.

Aziz Hajini, who delivered the keynote address at the festival, said that the great saint of Kashmir, Lal Ded, was a contemporary of Geof-

frey Chaucer, considered the father of English literature. He said that even a casual reader can make out a world of difference between the divine words of Lal Ded and the poems of Chaucer. “The interpretation of each vaakh of Lal Ded can form a whole book. Such is the literary tra-dition of this land which we want people to be conscious of, and appreciate,” he said.

The richness of the cultur-al and literary heritage of the valley was also highlighted by author and film-maker Sadia Dehlvi. She said she was amazed by the deep Sufi traditions of Islam that she observed in the hearts and lives of ordinary Kashmiris.

After the inaugural ses-

sion, there was a vibrant technical session in the afternoon on ‘Women and Youth in Literature, Art and Alternate Media of J&K’. Acclaimed poetess Naseem Shafaie, Dr Tarannum Riyaz, Prof Shad Ramzan, Prof Ellora Puri, Jyoti Singh, Ms Surinder Kaur Neer, Swami Antar Neerav and young author Muneesa Aslam were among the panelists.

A soulful Sufiana per-formance, folk music by Gulzar Ahmad Ganaie and party, live demonstrations of handicrafts artisans of the School of Designs and a ghazal presentation in the evening were also part of the festival.

The literary fest has been organized by Lehar NGO in collaboration with J&K Tourism Department. J&K Academy of Art and Culture, J&K Bank, J&K Information Department, Radio Kashmir Srinagar, Doordarshan and J&K Department of Handi-crafts are also supporting the literary festival.

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