My Mother’s 22 Rooms

Story Courtsey : Rahul Pandita

There it is. Huddled among other dolls and a few shreds of cloth. It is wearing a blue dress. I don’t remember what mine wore, for it has been sixteen years since I saw it. It might not be there anymore, but I would like to believe that it is there, invisible to the new occupants of my house. It is a dancing girl made of earth, decorating a corner of my friend’s drawing room. Touch it a little and it will start dancing, moving her neck gracefully. My dancing girl, mother bought it, when I was a child, from a potter selling his stuff on a pavement in Lal Chowk.

And sixteen years later, as I speak to you, there is no significant noise outside my room. No guttural voice and no sound of my mother’s U-shaped walker making its presence felt through the small corridor of my house. Mother fell down from her bed again this morning.

23 years ago, in Srinagar, a team of health officials was to arrive at our school. Their aim was to administer cholera vaccines to children. But for that we were supposed to take the written permission of our parents. Back home I told my father and as expected he wrote ‘No’ on my home task diary. I found it very insulting. Tomorrow all my classmates would take the vaccine and sing laurels of their bravery. And me, I would be hidden in some corner, red-faced with shame. It was not acceptable to me. So I erased father’s nay and wrote ‘Yes’ on the diary. Next morning as the needle of the syringe pierced my left arm, I did not even flinch once. I became an instant hero. But as it is with most acts of heroism, I had to pay a price for mine as well. By late afternoon, a lump had formed in my arm. By the time I reached home I was feverish and drenched in sweat. As I pulled off my shoes, mother saw me and in one instant she knew what had happened.

It was August and even by Kashmir valley’s standards, it was hot. I flung myself on the bed. Mother came and sat next to me. She gave me a glass of milk and kept her fair arm on my forehead. It felt very soothing and cold; like a spring. I went off to sleep. Next morning as I opened my eyes, the fever was gone.

Mother handled the affairs of the house like a seasoned ascetic would control his senses. She knew what was kept where. Rice, coal powder, woollen socks and gloves, soap – she kept a tab on everything. Her daily routine was more or less defined. She would wake up in the wee hours of the morning, wash clothes in the bathroom, sweep and mop the floor of every room and corridor, put burning coal dust in Kangris in winters and ultimately take stock of the kitchen. She did not believe much in spending time in worship. She was not an atheist but her belief was restricted to occasionally folding hands in front of the Shivalinga. Her God was her home and hearth.

But mother was in awe of nature. She feared its fury. Sometimes, when a storm blew, she would close all doors and windows and sit in one corner. When she no longer could face it, she would ask my father, “Will this storm stop?” Father would usually try to pacify her, but ultimately he also lost his patience. “What do you think? Would this storm last till the doom’s day?” he would snap at her. But the same meek heart turned into brave heart when any family member struggled with adversity.

It was in the mid of 1988 that my father had a mild heart attack. Actually father had a pain in the stomach and an injection prescribed by a gastroenterologist reacted, which led to the attack. Everyone in the family was too shocked to react. But not my mother. She single-handedly took my father to the hospital in an auto rickshaw. At the hospital, mother recalls, a doctor appeared like an angel. He had a black mark on his forehead, a result of praying five times a day. The moment the doctor started examining him, my father vomited. Mother says it was so intense that it went right into the doctor’s shoes. But not once did he raise his brow. He kept on treating my father.

By the end of 1989, men like that doctor somehow became rare in Kashmir. One day mother came back from office and she was crying. In the bus someone had tried to help an old Hindu lady in getting down from the bus. Another woman, who was a Muslim, criticised that man saying that the woman he helped was a Hindu and she should have been kicked out of the bus. Mother didn’t know whether what she heard was true or whether it was a nightmare. But what she had heard and seen with her naked eyes was what seemed like holding a mirror in front of Kashmir in a few months time. The time had come, once again, to leave our homeland. The migration began. Salvaging whatever little we could, essentially a few utensils and educational degrees of my college-going sister, we reached Jammu.

After spending a couple of nights in a hotel, father hired a room in a marriage house. It was situated in the old city, amidst a bristling market of saris and dupattas. Every now and then marriage ceremonies were solemnised in the marriage house. When the crude ovens, laced with mud and gas cylinders arrived at the house, we would understand that a marriage was taking place that evening.
In the ten by ten feet room, ants held a sway. No matter what you put outside, it would be swarmed by ants in a matter of minutes. They appeared in hordes, hundreds of them, attacking every edible item. It was similar to how people would come out on streets in Srinagar, few months before we were forced into exile. Mother obviously could not put up a fight with them, but she always managed to save a bowl of curd from the marauding ants, by keeping it in a basin of water. I always felt that whenever mother took out that bowl of curd, a secret smile would pass her lips. It was like a symbolic victory for her or so I thought.

And one night, that smile was also snatched from my mother’s lips.

I remember that evening. Somebody was getting married in the marriage house. The entire compound was filled with men, women and children, dressed in shimmering clothes. The stereo with huge speakers played popular Bollywood numbers as some of the guests danced on the tunes. And a few metres away, we had closed ourselves in the room.

When the bride was taken away and the noise had eased, there was a knock on our door. Mother opened the door and found a young man standing there. He was holding a plate in his hand. He said that he had been told that there were refugees living here and so he came to offer us some food. Before mother could say something, he handed over the plate and turned back. Mother lifted the cover and I caught a glimpse of the food inside. There was rice, dal and some vegetables. Mother kept on staring at it for some time and then she cried.

After this incident, Mother developed a strange habit. She would tell all, whether they cared to listen or not, “ Our house in Kashmir had 22 rooms”.

For the next few years, we would keep on shuttling from one place to place, becoming victim of the whims and fancies of landlords. We stayed at various places. After the marriage house, we stayed in a window-less room in a dilapidated lodge, where the number of mosquitoes was probably more than the cells constituting our bodies. Then we rented a single room where we ate, studied, slept, cooked and ate our food as well. Then there was another house. The bathroom there had no door and we had to keep on coughing for obvious reasons. Amidst these episodes of Greek tragedy, mother kept her struggle on. Everyday was a battle. From filling water from a leaking tap to bathing under the tap of an adjacent vacant plot, life threw numerous challenges at us.

It was years later that I completed my education somehow and came to Delhi. Few years ago, we bought a 2-bedroom flat in Delhi. But the struggle of Jammu has left a mark on mother. She cannot walk now. Her left leg is paralysed. Sometimes she falls down as she tries to drag her leg. As it happened this morning. She cannot even speak now. Degenerative neurosis, whatever that means. With each passing day, her condition is worsening.

I walk on the road. There is a sea of vehicles moving; endless. Sometimes I feel that there are more vehicles than humans in Delhi. And when I cannot bear the noise any longer, I feel like shouting, “Our house in Kashmir had 22 rooms.”

[ This story is a personal experiance of young and famous Kashmiri pandit journalist Rahul Pandita ]

Dr.Agnishekhar – Convenor Panun Kashmir

Vir Sanghvi finally speaks up against ‘Islamic blackmailers’

August 16th, a day after india celebrated yet another Independance day,while as Kashmiri Pandits continued to live as refugees in this great country, Vir Sanghvi in his editorial, Think The Unthinkable’, for Hindustan times wrote the following in his controversial article

………The exception to this trend has been Kashmir. Contrary to what many Kashmiris claim, we have tried everything. Even today, the state enjoys a special status. Under Article 370 of our Constitution, with the exception of defence, foreign policy, and communication, no law enacted by parliament has any legitimacy in Kashmir unless the state government gives its consent. The state is the only one in India to have its own Constitution and the President of India cannot issue directions to the state government in exercise of the executive power of the Union as he can in every other state. Kashmiri are Indian citizens but Indians are not necessarily Kashmiri citizens.  We cannot vote for elections to their assembly or own any property in Kashmir. ……..

In the above para Vir Sanghvi writes what every other Indian thinks,but is hesitant to demand a change to overcome this. Vir Sanghvi as a ’sickular’ writer is also from the same bloc, which is no surprise. He continues with statements and writes further..

Then, there is the money. Bihar gets per capita central assistance of Rs 876 per year. Kashmir gets over ten times more: Rs 9,754 per year. While in Bihar and other states, this assistance is mainly in the forms of loans to the state, in Kashmir 90 per cent is an outright grant. Kashmir’s entire Five Year Plan expenditure is met by the Indian taxpayer. In addition, New Delhi keeps throwing more and more money at the state: in 2004, the Prime Minister gave Kashmir another $ 5 billion for development. ……

Given that Kashmir has the best deal of any Indian state, is there anything more we can do? Kashmiris talk about more autonomy.  But I don’t see a) what more we can give them and b) how much difference it will make. …..

The write up of Vir Sanghvi was almost a surrender to the people who have a nonsense value. People who use violence to make a state surrender to their idiotic demands which are backed by Islamic fanatics . Vir Sanghvi seemed to be saying, lets give up Kashmir and buy peace.

It discouraged me and many like me who eagerly wait every Sunday to read Virs editorial. I hated Vir & Hindustan times, i hated it for indirectly supporting those people who made me homeless.

And then i read todays Hindustan times ,six months later,and reluctantly opened the editorial . It reads “Stand up to the Mullahs“……It was a strange heading coming from a ’sickular’ editor who are not supposed to write against Islamic might and mullahism , else they risk being called ‘hindu communalist’.

As i read the artcile i wondered where the hell is Vir going to run ? Is he going to be another Salman Rushdie or Tasleema Nasreen ? How has he dared to take on mullahs ? How has he rebuked even the moderate muslims ?

Just read the following excerpts from the article by Vir Sanghvi

The rioters said they were offended by a passage in the article where Hari referred to the Prophet’s marriage to a much younger woman and his directive to burn Jewish villages. (In all fairness, he was as critical of other religions and of the Israeli assault on the West Bank.)

The rioters say that nobody can criticise any aspect of the Prophet’s life.

Why?

There’s no shortage of books and articles criticising Jesus, suggesting that he might have been secretly married (as in The DaVinci Code), arguing that the resurrection was a hoax or that Mary was never a virgin.

Vir Sanghvi questions the might of fanatics and gets even bolder and writes

 And yet, it is an article of faith with Muslims — even moderate ones — that the Prophet’s life is beyond reproach.

Does this make any sense?

Vir continues with much more reasonable arguments and makes a quick comparison of how tolerant Islami fanatics and moderates are , he writes

It is now clear that the liberal society has been suckered into relaxing its standards for free speech by militant Islamists.

Let’s take the most obvious example. Every liberal I know is outraged by the attacks on MF Husain. Why shouldn’t he paint nude Saraswatis? That’s his right. If people are offended by the paintings, they shouldn’t see them.

So far, so good. But now imagine that Husain had painted an extremely reverential portrait of the Prophet. (Never mind cartoons, nude pictures etc.)

There would have been riots. And even secular liberals would not have supported him.

We would have said: Islam prohibits any visual representation of the Prophet so Husain has committed a great crime.

But so what if Muslims cannot visually represent their Prophet? Why should non-Muslims be bound by their religious edicts? Why should non-believing Muslims be forced by liberal society to obey the restrictions of their religion?

Believers should follow what the Holy Book and the mullahs say. But why should the rest of us? Why should we abandon our right to free expression?

Nobody I know has ever explained why the double standards are justified.

In his concluding argument Vir Sanghvi accepts that we surrender to islamic fanatics …just read what he writes…

The real reason we give in to Islamic fanatics is the desire for a peaceful life or, to put it another way, cowardice.

Every one of their objections is always framed in terms of violence. Ban The Satanic Verses or we will kill Salman Rushdie. Apologise for the Danish cartoons or we will offer a reward for the head of the cartoonist. Arrest the editor of the Statesman or we will shut Calcutta down by rioting in the streets.

Faced with these threats, we abandon our principles and say things like, “Come on, is a single article worth the death of so many people?” or “Let’s just ban the book, otherwise these guys will keep rioting.”

The fanatics know this. They have identified the cowardice at the heart of our liberalism. So every demand is a) pitched in terms of protecting the religious sentiments of the Muslim community or b) facing murder, mayhem and more.

Almost every single time, we cave in.

Either we say that Islam is a peaceful religion

Or we get death threats.

…. Isn’t it time to finally stand up to these thugs and blackmailers?

It is good that Vir Sanghvi has finally spoken what is truth, spoken about being blacmailed by Islamic hardliners.

It wont be late when taliban , which are already knocking our doors, would be trying to rule us. Making our life miserable.

Today is it only the Kashmiri Hindus which have suffered and non speaks about them . Tommorow rest of Indians are likely to suffer from the same fate and that would perhaps make some ’sickulars’ speak….

Perhaps it would be late then……..Its time Pronoy Roy, Barkha , Karan Thapar, Rajdeep , Sagarika and the rest wake up.

Wake up , speak the truth to save our India.

Dear Omar – hope you remember us

Dear Omar (Abdullah please and not Omar Farooq),
 
As one of your contemporaries, I will take the liberty of addressing you by your first name and not as the honourable CM or any of the official titles. I write to you as a fellow Kashmiri whose ancestors shared the same land, air and water as yours.  But somewhere I seem to have lost the right over the place while you have achieved the highest office in land. As an Indian and a Kashmiri I was thrilled to see someone like you take the oath of office of the CM, rather than a rabble rousing ranter. The gods of Kashmir seem to be finally listening.
 
Though you might know and be aware of the existence of the community of Kashmiri Pandits, I don’t know how many of the current generation of the Valley are aware that such people did live alongwith their ancestors not so many years back. For their information I will add a few details about the community. Kashmiri Pandits are Hindus (all of them Saraswat Brahmins) whose generations were the early habitants of the Valley. Sparing the detailed historical tomes over here, the Kashmiri Pandits or KPs as they are called for short, suffered a series of religious persecutions over centuries. Yet to the surprise of everyone they managed to survive and achieve a high-level of erudition, both at the scholastic and spiritual levels. However as history teaches us, smartness doesn’t always lead to success. Continuous years of persecution created a shift in demographics against us pushing us to lose our religion and culture. However being a very stubborn and at times a very arrogant race, the Kashmiri Pandits decided to fight back on ways to preserve their way of life.

Omar Abdullah & Kashmiri Pandits

While as past has no reasons for Kashmiri Pandist to keep hoping for good , neverthless the ‘endangered race’ of Kashmiri pandits still keep on hoping that justice would be delivered.

Omars party did not field any Kashmiri pandit for the elections , however one of the first promise Omar made was that a Kashmiri pandit would be made a minister in his cabinet.
Till date with around a month of having sworn in, the promise seems to have taken a back seat.
No policy has been announced for how Kashmiri Pandits would be delivered Justice….Killers like Yasin malik and Bitta Karate are still free…
Is it business as usual ?

ASKPC has a website

It is a matter of pride for all Kashmiri pandits, that perhaps the oldest Kashmiri Pandit organization, All State Kashmiri Pandit Conference has a website of its own.

In 1931 under the able and bold leadership of Late Pt. Hargopal Koul, Known as Sher-e-Kashmir, “ROTI MOVEMENT” Was Launched and All State Kashmiri Pandit Conference Was formed Officially.

The Website has the following address http://askpcsheetalnath.org/index.html

Kashmiri Pandits hand over memorandum to Ban Ki-Moon at United Nations Office in New York

 

On September 26th, 2008 scores of Kashmiri Hindus demonstarted outside the United Nations Office in New York [USA].

Some of the demands of Kashmiri Pandits to the UN were :

• Declare Kashmiri Hindu community as Internally Displaced People (IDP). The Human Rights Working Group on Minorities in Geneva has since recognized Kashmiri Hindus, formally, as a Reverse Minority. The use of the insulting term ‘Migrants’ for this forcibly exiled community may be removed from all records and communications relating to us hence forth.
• Direct the Government of India to set up a ‘Commission of Enquiry’ to establish the causes that led to the selective and targeted killings of Kashmiri Hindus and their subsequent forced exile, and appropriate the responsibility and punish the guilty.
•  Direct the Government of India to ensure adequate protection to the residual Kashmiri Hindu population currently living in the Kashmir valley.
• Direct the Government of India to restore Kashmiri Hindus’ political and economic rights that would give them equal status rather than a second class citizenship in their native land of Kashmir. Share of Kashmiri Hindu jobs in government bureaucracy, placement in state supported professional educational institutes and the representation in the state assembly has steadily diminished to virtually nothing in the last two decades.
•  Grant funds to Kashmiri Hindus for the preservation and documentation of relics of Kashmiri Hindu heritage and culture.
• Direct the Government of India to hand over the management of Kashmiri Hindu religious shrines, icons and cultural centers to Kashmiri Hindu leadership.

 

It is further requested that the United Nations Human Rights Commission may put on record these Human Rights Violations by Pakistan and its agents, and Pakistan be declared a terrorist state.

The complete memorandum can be downloaded by clicking here iakf-un-memo-sept262008

 

For more info , log into www.iakf.org

 

500000 Kashmiri Pandits Fled From Kashmir :Beersmans Paul [ President Belgian Association..]

 

REPORT ON THE STUDY TOUR OF BEERSMANS PAUL, PRESIDENT OF THE BELGIAN ASSOCIATION FOR SOLIDARITY WITH J&K TO INDIA AND THE INDIAN J&K STATE FROM 02 TO 30 AUGUST 2008

Syed Ali Shah Geelani started agitation against the land transfer to the Amarnath Shrine Board because he feared Hindus would settle permanently and thus change the demographic composition of the population.  This fear is completely without ground as it is impossible to settle permanently in that area: more than six months of the year this area is covered with snow, there are blizzards and it is so cold that nobody can survive there.  On the other hand, it is surprising that the same concern regarding the demographic composition of the population was not there in 1990.  In that year, the Kashmiri Pandits were hounded out of the Valley by militancy in 1990.  The Kashmiri Pandits are the original Kashmiri speaking inhabitants of the Valley.  Some 500.000 of them fled from the Valley to safer places.  This exodus changed drastically the demographic composition of the population in the Valley.  At that time, nobody cared about this: no agitation, no demonstrations, no harthals, no bandhs, no strikes, nothing.  After more than eighteen years, the return of the Kashmiri Pandits is more and more blurred.  Nevertheless, they have their emotional attachment with their birth ground, their roots.  They only can return when peace is there and when the rule of law, not the rule of majority is re-installed.

 

Pakistan has no stand in J&K.  Pakistan invaded J&K and is at the origin of the de facto partitioning of the State.  As early as 13 August 1948 the UN Commission for India and Pakistan requested Pakistan to withdraw its troops from the State as a pre-condition for organising the plebiscite.  The same Commission in its resolution of 5 January 1949 repeated this request.  Until this date, Pakistan has not withdrawn its armed forces and consequently the plebiscite has not been held. 

 

This conclusion is confirmed by the ‘Report on Kashmir: present situation and future prospects’ of Rapporteur Baroness Nicholson of Winterbourne, Vice Chairperson of the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the European Union, and almost unanimously adopted by the Committee on Foreign Affairs (March 2007) and by the European Parliament. 

‘Panun Kashmir’ Homeland – Better Sooner to save India !

A Homeland for the seven hundred thousand displaced Kashmiris in the valley will be the only logical, natural and permanent solution for the displaced Kashmiris. Homeland is where home is and home is where land is and our land is in the valley of Kashmir. Our demand for a Homeland within the valley, from where we have been driven out by armed Islamic terrorists, is an assertion of our rights as much as of our patriotism for India. In order to save Kashmir from the clutches of Pakistan which has been instigating, encouraging and perpetuating terrorism in Kashmir, the Indian nation has to shed all inhibitions and unequivocally declare its resolve of resettling tbe displaced Kashmiri Hindus in the Homeland which will serve as a bastion of secularism and democracy in an otherwise Islamic State.

 

Panun Kashmir is an expression of the innermost hopes and urges of the Kashmiris displaced from Kashmir valley, that were suppressed for centuries and lost in the nethermost corner of their subconscious. It is a natural and instinctive desire of the community to seek its roots, to preserve its identity and to assert its political, legal and historical nghts. It provides a nascent political rostrum to translate the idea and vision of an honourable and peaceful existence emanating from a sense of pride and a feeling of self- esteem which has been snatched from this community. 

 

Essentially the Homeland will contribute to the aims a ideals of democracy, secularism, free exchange of thought, trade and culture, right to work and right to live, justice and equality for all, including women. It will not be a theocracy. It will identify with the letter and spirit of the Constitution of India and exist in amity and brotherhood with all the regions and provinces of the State of Jammu and Kashmir and with the rest of India.

We have asked for the area North and East of the River Jehlum. The valley has to be divided in acceptance of our claim. River Jehlum provides a natural geographial divide and, therefore, shall represent a line of demarcation between the Homeland and the rest of the valley. The southern region of the State to the North and East of the Jehlum with the National Highway passing through it also happens to be the region with most of our holy shrines including the holiest of the holy, Sri Amarnath. Logistically and demographically, this area is most suitable for conversion into the Homeland with a Union Territory status. 

Picture courtesy : Mr R.Raina ;Mr Aditya Raj Kaul

Contents : www.panunkashmir.org

 

India Vs Pakistan @ United Nations !

An ingenious example of speech and politics occurred recently in the United Nations Assembly that made the world community smile.

A representative from India began: ‘Before beginning my talk I want to tell you something about Rishi Kashyap of Kashmir, after whom Kashmir is named.

When he struck a rock and it brought forth water, he thought, ‘What a good opportunity to have a bath.’

He removed his clothes, put them aside on the rock and entered the water.

When he got out and wanted to dress, his clothes had vanished. A Pakistani had stolen them.’

The Pakistani representative jumped up furiously and shouted, ‘What are you talking about? The Pakistanis weren’t there then.’

The Indian representative smiled and said, ‘And now that we have made that clear, I will begin my speech’  :)

PANUN KASHMIR

PANUN KASHMIR is an effort to Save Kashmiri Pandits…. to Save Kashmir…. to Save India.

 

For more details log on to www.panunkashmir.org

“Mr. Prime Minister …Pay attention to Kashmiri Pandits” -Jayalalitha

Former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and AIADMK General Secretary J Jayalalithaa today asked Prime Minister Manmohan Singh not to turn a Nelson’s Eye to the plight of Kashmiri Pandits, 3.5 lakh of whom have been displaced from homes due to terrorism.

In a statement here, she said, ”the displaced pandits lived in abominable conditions in make-shift camps in Jammu and Delhi despite being the original inhabitants of an idyllic paradise with a 5,000-year-old well-documented history.” She added that known for their highest literacy rate among all groups in the country the pandits’ liberal, broad-minded and secular views made them good teachers, but their small numbers and polite and passive temperament made them easy to be ignored and overlooked. 

In the 90s’ militant groups destroyed or took away their property and thousands brutally killed and they became refugees in their own motherland.

As many as 1,800 Kashmiri Sikhs also became the targets of Islamic militancy as well, she claimed and said they deserved to be viewed with the same sympathy as the Christian victims of Orissa violence.

While appreciating the Prime Minister for announcing a package of assistance for victims of Kandhamal violence in Orissa, she requested him to declare the Kashmiri Pandits as victims of religious extremism and provide them with rehabilitation package similar to that offered to the Orissa victims.

Source :News Kerela : Sept4.,2008

Amarnath Accord – What A.G.Noorani did not tell you !

Much has been discussed and propagated by Pseudo Secularists and “Jhola Chaaps” about an article by right wing writer A.G.Noorani .

AG Noorani

 

Here I would like to share the points with the readers of how biased A.G.Noorani is when it comes to sharing the right facts.

 

The accord ignores completely Kashmir where the land is to be given. Jammu alone was represented. – A.G.Noorani

What Noorani has forgotten that Jammu & Kashmir is a one complete state and anyone in Jammu & Ladakh has an equal right over every single inch of land in the whole state. Also Noorani has completely ignored that Kashmiri Hindus who have been in the forefront of the agitation led by Sangarsh Samiti also represent Kashmir in particular. The authors seems to have probably bowed to the wishes of Kashmiri terrorists by erasing the thought of Kashmiri Hindus from even the memory.

Even the controversial order nowhere used the word “exclusive”

What Noorani does not either know or does not want to be known is that there is a order of High Court dated 15.04.2005 [ OWP No 732/2004 Rampal Bathonia Vs State ] in which the Hon Court Ordered ” Since the Board intends to upgrade the infrastructure across the tracks and at different places, the state shall,immediately permit the use of Forest Land by the board,if not already allowed,to enable it to carry out the development activities for the benefit of the Yatris. I am informed that the Forest Department has already granted permisssion to the board for the purpose.”

The state Govt went in to appeal to the Division Bench of High Court. The division bench vide its interim directions on 17.5.2005 ordered as follows ” The land to be allotted by the board would be only for the purpose of the user and would remain limited for the duration of Yatra.

I wonder if Noorani has ever read the court orders, which I am sure he may not have , as it did not suit his own support to the fundamentalists in Kashmir and elsewhere.I wonder if Noorani understand the meaning of these judgements and the least he could is to understand the meaning of “only” in the above order.

The Baltal route is a recent demand. It was regarded by the Army and Nitish Sengupta Report as dangerous.- A.G.Noorani

Again,Noorani misses the finer points. Noorani does not care to share with his readers that out of 20 odd recommendations by Nitish Sen Gupta committee on Amaranth.,the prominent was activation of shorter Baltal route to reduce the hardships via Chandanwari & SheshNaag route.

This violates the citizen’s fundamental right under Art. 19 (1) D to move freely throughout India.–A.G.Noorani

Alas Noorani uses the fundamental rights to his own requirements. Wonder why Noorani does not support abrogation of Article 370 of Indian constitution. Of all the fundamental rights listed in our constitution the first one is “Right To Equality”…..”The State shall not discriminate against any citizen on grounds only of religion, race, caste, sex, place of birth or any of them.” Does Noorani not feel that 100 crore citizens of India are denied these rights as they do not equal the pampered state subject of Jammu & Kashmir. Why deny the right to buy land in Jammu & Kashmir to 100 crore Indians? Why is Noorani silent on this fundamental right ?

 namely “undertaking measures relating to … preservation of ecology” etc. Breach entails no fine… A.G.Noorani

Even though the Amarnath Shrine Board has insisted that they would be taking measures to reduce any harm to ecology the concerns were largely raised when someone said that the “Thajiwaas” glacier is endangered. Again what Noorani does either not know or does not want to share with his reader is that in a report  submitted by Chief Wild Life Warden , WLP/Tech/1971/07 dated 11.06.2007, after on spot inspection, the following information was shared “It was noticed that the proposed site for construction of Shri Amarnath Shrine Board Complex,falling in the compartment 63(s)/ Sindh/Kullan is located on the right side of Sindh rivulet.The proposed complex does not seems to have any significant impact on the ecology of “Thajwaas” Wild Life sanctuary. ……It is also given to underastand that the board is using pre-fabricated structures as such likely pollution due to discharge of muck and garbage should not be significant.

The order of 26 May was rescinded on 1 July. The accord will require a fresh order to implement it. By itself the accord has no legal force. Section 2(a) of the J&K Forest (Conservation) Act 1997 says “the Government shall not, except on a resolution of the Council of Ministers based on the advice of the Advisory Committee” constituted under the Act “make any order directing that any forest land or any portion thereof may be used for any non-forest purpose…..A.G.Noorani

The recommendations of the Forest department has already been heard by council of Ministers and a decision taken. The whole idea was to understand the feasibility of land for the board. Since the land was approved by Forest Committe and under order No 108-FST dated 17.03.2008 , it clarifies that the camping site and Thajiwaas wild life sanctuary are divided by Sindh river.The Forest committee recommended that SASB should take Safeguards for pollution control.It also agreed that land be used for pre-fabricated structures for camping of pilgrims . It was basis of the report of the committee constituted vide Govt. Order no 108/FST dated 17.03.2008 the Forest Minister cleared the file for diversion of file to the Shrine Board.The cabinet followed vide its decision No 94/7.

One can understand the total partisan article coming from A.G.Noorani who always find anything related to Hindu rights as communal.

He talks of Amarnath accord as “Gunah” , and that makes me believe that when it comes to even justice….a Muslim lawyer is a Muslim first and the “real” justice” comes as a second priority. And for me that is a real “Gunah”

Hurriyat Leaders – Hiring Contract killers to silence rivals in Kashmir !

 

Alam asks the Hizb ul-Mujahideen chief to “take action” against Butt, who he identifies as “tambakoowala.” or “the tobacconist,” in a sardonic reference to his heavy smoking. In the evident belief that Alam is advocating Butt’s assassination, Shah replies that such an action would discredit the Hizb ul-Mujahideen. Alam then clarified that he wanted the Hizb ul-Mujahideen chief to ask Butt’s backers in Pakistan to exert pressure on him…..

 

…………………Later in the conversation, Alam claims that three members of the pro-dialogue faction —Mirwaiz Farooq, Sajjad Lone and Malik — met with National Security Adviser M.K. Narayanan during his August 19 visit to Srinagar. He also asserts that Lone flew to New Delhi with the NSA……………………..

Indian Army In Kashmir

 

An Indian Army Doctor Treating an Old Muslim Lady in Kashmir

 

Despite the propaganda unleashed in Kashmir by pro separatists, terrorists and Pakistan based support groups and the pseudo secular supporters in India, the humanitarian Indian Army continues its good work in the Kashmir valley. Not only have they established schools and orphanages, but give free medical consultation and treatment to muslim citizens of the Kashmir valley.

These are facts that the Islamic fanatics would never like the world to know.