Comment

Chief Information Commissioner Wajahat Habibullah has not left Jammu and Kashmir in heart and mind though the J&K cadre IAS officer had moved away physically since the near-fatal accident he had in 1994 where he had a big hand in deflecting the confrontation between the militants holed up in the Hazratbal shrine near Srinagar and the security forces. He went back to the state in 1999-2000 before returning central government assignments. He both retired and took over as the first CIC in 2005. In an interview with Parsa Venkateshwar Rao Jr at his home in Delhi, Habibullah expressed his apprehensions that the situation in Jammu and Kashmir is on the brink of disaster.

Is the Amarnath land row the real reason behind the present crisis in Jammu and Kashmir?
The land row is just a trigger. The real reason is the deeper resentments in the state, in the valley and in Jammu which have been simmering just below the surface. It was not noticed and there was a perception that all was well when it was not. I had conveyed this to the people involved.

Have not the elections in 1996 and in 2002 enabled the state and its people to return to the democratic mainstream?
The elections have been helpful. But the people felt that they were not involved in making decisions which affected them. They felt that the decisions were being made by those at the top. Democratisation, devolution and local self-government were not effective enough. The panchayati raj institutions are there but not strong enough. The Right To Information (RTI) Act is on the anvil. Once it is there, people will feel empowered because then they will be able to raise questions about the decisions being taken by the government. That will give the people a sense of being in control of their own affairs.

Could the land transfer to the Shri Amarnath Shrine Board (SASB) been avoided?
All this while, it was the state government which had been making the arrangements for the pilgrims going to Amarnath, especially on the Baltal, which is a shorter but a more difficult route. The government could have continued to do so without transferring the land to the board. But this was not a decision taken by the government on its own. The request for the transfer came from the board. It was sent to the ministry of forests, and the final decision was approved by the cabinet. The state government in its wisdom chose to transfer the land.

If the government was managing the travel of pilgrims to Amarnath, was there need for a shrine board?
It is true for more than a century since the shrine was discovered by a Muslim shepherd it was the local Muslims who provided facilities to the pilgrims. The Amarnath shrine board was formed on the lines of the one at the Vaishno Devi temple. The Vaishno Devi board has been able to make vast improvement from the money collected from the pilgrims. Of course, there is this difference between Amarnath and Vaishno Devi. The Amarnath pilgrimage lasts for three months in a year, whereas people visit Vaishno Devi all the year round. The shrine board is an administrative mechanism for a more efficient way of managing things.

There is criticism from some leaders in the valley that Jammu had nothing to do with the Amarnath?
It is not true. People travelling to Amarnath do stop at Jammu. People from Jammu make the pilgrimage. The Amarnath pilgrimage was a symbol of J&K’s secular traditions.

Did people of the valley felt besieged by the ‘economic blockade’ caused by the Jammu protests?
Yes. They did feel besieged. There was shortage of medicines. It did create a sense of insecurity. People in the valley and in Jammu took hardened positions and that made things worse.

Does the call for a march to Muzaffarabad make sense?
The suggestion of opening the Muzaffarabad route for trade, apart from travel, was made by prime minister Manmohan Singh. The government has sent the proposal to the Pakistan government. But there has been no response from the other side. It will not be possible to open the trade route forcibly unless Pakistan agrees. It cannot be a unilateral move.

Do you feel that the central government has failed to act in time?
The central government had left it to the state government to deal with the situation. Ours is a federal system. The centre cannot interfere in day-to-day affairs.
Do you think that prime minister’s initiatives in convening the Kashmir round- tables, though some of the groups had boycotted them, were steps in the right direction?
The intentions were good. But they were not adequate.