Simrit Kahlon
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The visit of mega-star Shahrukh Khan to the valley of Kashmir on a shooting stint was a piece of news carried by almost all national dailies. Kashmir, once a favoured destination for Bollywood has been passed over during the last two decades owing to terrorist inflicted violence in the Valley. The return of Bollywood to Kashmir is indicative of a return of the old times when the Valley was regarded as a tranquil and beautiful heaven on earth. Naturally, a mega star shooting in the Valley is being seen with optimism since it will give a boost to the public image and the economic health of the valley.
The incorrigible Syed Ali Shah Geelani, however, has struck a discordant note in this largely up-beat atmosphere. He has tried to deflect attention from Shahrukh Khan by organising a Bandh call to protest the decision to build a road to the Amarnath shrine. Geelani is, today, looking for an issue to rake up to make his presence felt in the otherwise peaceful scenario in Kashmir. For this he has picked up the relatively safe cause of environment degradation and is saying that building of a road to the shrine of Amarnath would lead to untold damage to the environment. He also feels that the number of pilgrims allowed to visit the shrine should be severely curtailed to a few measly hundreds; a colossal come down from the figure of six lakh pilgrims who visited the shrine this year. To buttress his argument the Hurriyat leader has drawn an analogy from the limit put on visitors allowed to Gangotri. It is his view that if the pilgrims can be stopped from going up to Gangotri then why not Amarnath? Like all unreasoned and narrow vision arguments this sounds perfectly normal till one delves slightly deeper into it. There is no comparison between the two situations since Gangotri is a glacier that has for the past few years been receding at an alarming rate which is a matter of concern. On the other hand there are no such visible alarm bells ringing in the case of the route to the Amarnath shrine.
The problem here is of a different nature. The trek to the cave is so arduous that people find it extremely difficult to undertake and complete the same. Secondly, inclement weather is a big inhibiting factor. While it is true that the building of the road to the shrine will leave an ecological footprint on the landscape but then then the final decision can be taken after a proper assessment of the environmental impact it is likely to cause. On the second issue, there is no real need to limit the number of pilgrims who are visiting the shrine. The pilgrims who undertake the Amarnath Yatra are also the ones who form a majority of the summer tourist influx to the valley. If the state administration and the locals of the valley have started looking towards a footfall of one million plus tourists, it is primarily because of the large number of pilgrims who undertook and completed the Amarnath Yatra in the last few years. Needless to say, the Yatra provides a major economic impetus to the common man in Kashmir, be he the Shikara plier, the tourist guide, the shawl weaver or the fruit vendor.
The question then arises, why would Syed Geelani, who ostensibly has the interest of Kashmiris close to his heart, want to do away with a venture as beneficial as developing infrastructure for the Amarnath Yatra? Two immediate possibilities come to mind. The first has to do with the timing of this protest. It is notable that this protest was not voiced in the last two years when the Yatra had first started attracting increased number of pilgrims. Even this year Syed Geelani has waited for the tourist season to culminate before voicing his protest. Obviously, his activity is no more than an act of rabble-rousing. The valley earns millions in revenue from the tourist season and once that is over out comes Geelani with his outlandish ideas. Such rabble rousing mostly results in
the central government taking placatory steps like giving additional dole which is what this set of leaders is actually looking for, this time the rabble rousing theme is – environment. There is hardly anything new about this modus operandi.
The second more wily reason could be the fear of the goodwill that the security forces have begun to earn in the valley. The fact that the security forces had a prominent role to play in the safe and incident-free conduct of the Yatra and the additional fact that the same is being acknowledged by the residents of Kashmir as well as the pilgrims and tourists is probably irking the Hurriyat leader. Let’s face it, the security forces have for long remained the favourite punching bag of the Hurriyat leader and it is primarily through their vilification that the separatist leadership has carved an identity and consequently relevance for itself. The minute the security forces stop being perceived as a threat by the common man and start being acknowledged as the boon that they are, the likes of Syed Geelani would immediately lose their raison d’etre.
Syed Geelani does not realise that this is something inevitable. Sooner or later the people in Kashmir are bound to see the light of day. In such a situation it would do him well to change tack and dwell on issues that have greater relevance for the population and landscape of Kashmir rather than creating problems where none exist. The annual Amarnath Yatra is an event that is intrinsic to the landscape as well as the spirit of Kashmir and is not something that he or anyone else can wish away or argue away and after all, why quarrel with it at all?
