Tension is brewing over the reconstitution of Shri Amaranth Shrine Board, with Union water resources minister and PCC president Saifuddin Soz complaining to governor NN Vohra.
Tension is brewing over the reconstitution of Shri Amaranth Shrine Board (SASB), with Union water resources minister and Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) president Saifuddin Soz complaining to governor NN Vohra for not including a member of the Malik family in the board.
“I want to congratulate you for reconstituting the SASB. I had imagined that you would include a member of the Malik family in the board. I am sure it is known to you that his family has been looking after Amarnath yatra for 160 years,” Soz said in a letter to Vohra.
Malik, a Muslim shepherd of Pahalgam, had discovered the cave housing the Shiv lingam in 1850 and his family was the custodian of the shrine till a few years ago when SASB was formed by the National Conference government. The then Dogra monarch Ghulab Singh declared that a family member of Malik would get one-third of the offerings to the shrine. Prior to the setting up of the SASB, a member of the Malik family used to be present at the shrine with a Hindu priest at the beginning of the yatra.
Vohra on January 7 reconstituted the SASB by appointing six new members, including Art of Living founder Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, santoor player pandit Bhajan Sopori, environmentalist and director of Centre for Science and Environment Sunita Narain and Sanskrit scholar Ved Kumari Ghai.
Soz’s letter has triggered a row with Shri Amarnath Sangrash Samiti, which led the agitation for restoration of land to SASB, accusing the Congress leader of playing vote-bank politics. “There can be no Muslim on the board as is the case with Muslim shrines where a Hindu cannot be a member. Soz is playing dirty politics,” Leela Karan Sharma, convener of SASS, said.
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