With the situation in Jammu and Kashmir turning the gravest it has in recent years, The Sunday Express looks at how the Centre let the state slip out of its control
ON August 6, when UPA constituents met at External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee’s official residence in New Delhi to discuss the violent agitations in Jammu over the Amarnath shrine land, an irrepressible RJD supremo Lalu Prasad Yadav burst out, “In Bihar, you had a Governor who would not even administer oath to an MLA without your permission; and, here (in J&K), land is transferred and you did not even know about it.”
Other leaders from the Lok Janshakti Party and the Samajwadi Party soon took over from Lalu, pointing out intelligence failure and the Home Ministry’s failure to gauge the seriousness of the situation. Home Minister Shivraj Patil tried to defend himself, but there were too many detractors for him to handle.
That was probably the first time in the last two months that the ruling combine was forced to do some soul-searching. The usual rhetoric till then had been targetted against Sangh Parivar affiliates for stoking trouble in Jammu and against the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and the National Conference (NC) for making trouble in the Valley.

In the Congress camp where leaders were visibly growing weary and apologetic over Shivraj Patil’s role, there were already murmurs on how the “Jammu gambit” had failed.
The root of the trouble can be traced back to the tenure of then Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad; though Azad’s arguments in his defence hold ground too. After all, there was no allotment of land to the Shri Amarnath Shrine Board (SASB) and the May 26 Cabinet decision only approved the “diversion” of 39.88 hectares of forestland for raising “pre-fabricated structures” for camping pilgrims and not building permanent structures.
“The propriety status of forest land shall remain unchanged,” said the Cabinet order, “…the forest land so diverted shall not be mortgaged, reassigned or sub-leased by user agency (the SASB)…The forest land so diverted shall be returned to the forest department free of any encumbrances when it is no longer required by the user agency.”

... contd.