When the army as an institution uses symbols of a particular religion, it gives a wrong colour to the entire exercise in Kashmir; sharply skewing the secular standing of the country’s biggest and strongest institution.
Ashiq Hussain
Few days ago in Kashmir, the army took everyone by surprise by its public announcement of launching ‘Operation Shiva’ to “secure Amarnath Yatra” based on its “specific intelligence inputs” of militant threats.
Owing to a few attacks in the past, the possibility of militant attacks, albeit the government has ruled out any heightened threat perception, can’t be entirely ruled-out either. In this context that the army has to provide security cover to the yatra, one of the holiest for Hindus, is a national duty for them.
But what is surprising is the way that the army has unilaterally gone public about the issue and the way it has used the name of a particular religious symbol – which otherwise was being protected by thousands of Hindu, Muslim, Sikh or Christian soldiers every year with utmost sincerity. It has painted this “important national duty” with a particular religious colour.
An individual soldier guarding the route of the pilgrimage zealously out of his personal devotion to Lord Shiva while another puts his life at stake to be loyal to the oath he takes to protect his countrymen, irrespective of his faith, should not bother anyone. But when the army as an entire institution uses symbols of a particular religion, it gives a wrong colour to the entire exercise; sharply skewing the secular standing of the country’s biggest and strongest institution. Infact it exposes the potential threat to the idea of India itself.
The Amarnath Yatra has been an annual practice in Valley much before Indian army landed in princely state of Jammu and Kashmir in 1947. While some date the pilgrimage to pre-Islamic period based on their interpretation of some religious and historical texts, the oral history says that the cave shrine was discovered by a Muslim family of Batkote village near Pahalgam in mid 1860s. The fact that successors of the family would receive a part of the offerings made by devotees in the shrine as recently as year 2000 gives much credence to the latter theory.
The elders in the valley still remember Sadhus, in hundreds, marching from Srinagar capital while travelling up to Amarnath cave housing an ice stalagmite, which Hindus believe, represents the emblem of Lord Shiva. Stories are abound of dozens perishing while climbing the icy streams, glacier-fed lakes and frozen passes, to reach the temple located at an altitude of 3,800 metres (12,700 feet).
There were hardly any records or for that matter memories of any ‘operation’ by the armed forces to rescue those stuck in the rough weather till the start of armed struggle against Indian rule in 1989. So much so that to say the Yatra was an all-Muslim (or more particularly all-Kashmir) affair in terms of management won’t be an exaggeration till the formation of Shri Amarnath Yatra Shrine Board in year 2000. The board is headed by Governor of the state who is elected by centre, often a non-state subject.
Army and pan-Islamic militants
It was only in 1994 that a Pakistan based ‘pan Islamic’ militant outfit – Harkat-ul-Ansar – announced a ban on this religious pilgrimage. Harkat said that the pilgrimage to the Amarnath cave would not be allowed to take place. The threat gave an unprecedented hype to the Yatra with state for the first time giving it a full-fledged security cover mostly relying on army.
But despite ban from the militant group, local Muslims never dissociated from the pilgrimage. It was Muslim potters and labourers who helped in the smooth conduct of yatra. An estimated 45,000 people were able to perform the pilgrimage in the year which would earlier be negligible owing to the harsh weather conditions and dangerous travel route.
A year later in the summer of 1995, Al-Faran, which Indian agencies called a militant front for Harkat-ul-Ansar, kidnapped six foreign tourists in Pahalgam, one of the base camps of pilgrimage, during the peak of ongoing Yatra. Of the six, one escaped, another’s dead body was found later and the rest were never traced.
Last year, authors Adrian Levy and Cathy Scott-Clark who worked in south Asia during 1995- kidnappings wrote a damning book “The Meadow” ironically blaming military and intelligence agencies for hiring the “militants to take hostages” to portray the “Pakistan backed insurgency in Kashmir as savage”.
Where lies the threat
Since the threats in 1990s in general and more particularly after a steady decline in militant activities, administration in Kashmir has been continuously spending its men and machinery to make this long exercise every year a success. Thousands of men from police, CRPF, border roads organisation, traffic department, weather centres, bureaucracy besides the SASB, army and the locals make sure to contribute their part into this gigantic annual pilgrimage which seems to be swelling in number every year.
For the years 2008, 2009 and 2010 which witnessed an unprecedented violence from the state to quell the massive uprising in Kashmir, national press was overawed by the efforts of locals as well as government to make sure the smooth progress of the Yatra.
When everything was relatively peaceful with even tourists swelling in number along with the pilgrims, an announcement by a senior Army officer followed by Union Home Minister that there was an “enhanced militant threat” to pilgrimage sent everybody into surprise.
That the statement by army and home ministry was out of the blue can be gauged from the fact that there was an abrupt rebuttal by none other than state Chief Minister, Omar Abdullah. After chairing a meeting of the Unified Headquarters (UHQ) over security related matters, he said that the claim was an exaggeration.
Whether the threat exists or not is not the question to debate as the security apparatus was already in place to thwart any attempts of sabotage. What has prompted people to raise fingers is the unilateral announcement by army without taking into confidence other official machinery and state institutions. The differences between the two have given more credence to the view that Amarnath Yatra was being politicised more by the state institutions than individuals.
And one can easily judge what poses a greater challenge to the country; religious bigotry of a few isolated individuals or religious slant of an institution representing the secular nation.
(views are author’s own. The organisation does not necessarily subscribe to them. For response mail to [email protected])
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