Gen SK Sinha has said a similar solution to the problem could have been found during his tenure had political leaders “behaved with maturity”.
NEW DELHI: Former J&K governor Gen SK Sinha, who was “responsible” for the Amarnath land controversy, has said a similar solution to the problem could have been found during his tenure had political leaders “behaved with maturity” and exposed the separatists’ false propaganda on the shrine issue.
The Centre’s failure to formulate a proper Kashmir policy and the knee-jerk reaction of the Union and state governments to tackle the land issue led to the turmoil in the state.
“Such a situation would not have risen had there been a proper plan in place,” he said.
Sinha, during whose tenure the issue of forest land and allotment to the Shri Amarnath Shrine Board was hustled through, said in an exclusive interview to DNA that even the basic facts of the case could not be put forth by him in the face of a vicious communal propaganda unleashed by the separatists. Many political parties, especially Mufti Mohammed Sayeed’s People’s Democratic Party (PDP), had backed them.
Sinha supported the BJP’s stand on Kashmir, including abrogation of Article 370, and even went to the extent of giving the saffron party a clean chit while holding the remaining political parties responsible for the “Kashmir mess”.
Interestingly, he was reluctant to admit that the communal amity of the state has been harmed as he advocated strong-arm tactics in the valley to control the situation.
According to him, the prevailing situation in Kashmir could be best described in terms of benefit or loss of Kashmiriyat rather than calculating in terms of communal divide and growing anti-national feelings.
The veteran soldier finds nothing new in the highly-polarised and surcharged atmosphere in the state. “There is nothing new. Such a situation existed in 1947-48 when I went to Kashmir as part the Indian forces to repulse the Pak-backed tribal attack. The only difference was that Jammu was communal and Kashmir had total communal amity at that time,” he recounted.
On the growing “azadi” sentiment in the valley after the Amarnath land row, Sinha once again apportioned the blame on prime minister Manmohan Singh and PDP patron Sayeed. “Singh has been saying borders cannot be changed. Let him prove how the LoC cannot be changed,” he said.
a_anil@dnaindia.net
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