Jammu goes crazy over Amarnath

It is really sad to see that the Amarnath yatra (pilgrimage) controversy refuses to die down.  Two young men have lost their lives in the latest protests against a decision by the state government to revoke an order transferring land to an organization (SASB) that runs the yatra.  Meanwhile, in Kashmir, one person was killed during protests undertaken in solidarity with the Muslim population of Jammu.

One thing is quite clear: the weakest sections of society will suffer the most during this turmoil which has now become a full blown communal disgrace.  In this whole affair, no one really looks good (see a nice editorial by Kashmir Times on August 5, 2008).  Kashmiri Muslim leaders who opposed the land move, did so in such a jingoistic way that I can't in good faith believe them when they claim to be supportive of an annual Hindu ritual that has become a source of angst for some people in Kashmir.  On the other hand, Jammuites (as people of Jammu are called) have given in to the intensely parochial BJP-type communalists who cannot explain how this whole controversy has become a Jammu versus Kashmir issue.  The one group that really benefits from all of this the Hindutva crowd.  They are exploiting this situation and can only hope to score big in the Indian parliamentary elections.

In India, religion is so pervasive in all the wrong ways that I sometimes wonder if religion does any good at all (but it does).  Everything about faith seems untouchable (no puns intended).  If I were to say that it is completely ridiculous to have almost half a million people attend a religious pilgrimage each year in an ecologically pristine area, people might call me anti-Hindu (I am not).   It is even more preposterous that the state government thought the best way out of this mess was to offer pilgrims complete facilitation of the pilgrimage in the hopes that they wouldn't worry about the revocation of the land deal.  Now, one might ask, and quite reasonably so, why taxpayer money should finance private religious activity?  There, I made my point.  The government should get out of the business of religion, be it Hinduism, Islam or any other faith.  

Extremists in both Kashmir and Jammu are licking their chops.  This is a great opportunity for them to ply their trade of dividing society to garner support for their causes.  The common man (and woman and child) suffers.  This cannot go on.  This madness must stop before innocent families become victims of bigots, as is already happening in some places.

Let this also serve as a warning to the rest of India.  Faith is all well and good but, in India, it keeps exacting a severe toll when mixed in with politics.  Someone must stand up and shout that we will no longer accept the tyranny of hate mongers.  

And, yes, let's please make a start by agreeing to use taxpayer money for a limited number of activities.  It is most certainly not for facilitating a Hindu's visit to Amarnath or a Muslim's pilgrimage to Mecca.

Until next time...