•Seema Chishti: What would you say to critics who question the way the PDP reacted to the land transfer decision, considering that you were part of the government then?

Mehbooba Mufti: I would like to begin by explaining our stand on the Shri Amarnath Shrine Board (SASB) controversy. When Mufti Mohammed Sayeed (Mehbooba’s father) was chief minister of the coalition government in J&K, General S K Sinha arrived as Governor in 2003. Until then, nobody really took notice of the SASB. But with him on the scene, SASB became commercialised — everyone, the ponywallah, the shawlwallah, or the kheriwallah was charged a registration fee. This led to resentment as people felt that something which belonged to them was no longer theirs.

As a child, I remember everybody used to wait for the yatra, even children would sometimes help to carry things. Suddenly, things changed with General Sinha: he sent a proposal to Mufti saab, asking for some hundred kanals of land. He wanted to extend the yatra period to two months. But the administration of the two districts gets totally involved in the yatra and the security forces are taxed, so Mufti saab tried to put down his foot. Unfortunately, the Congress played politics — ministers from Jammu threatened to resign. The Central Government intervened and finally Mufti saab agreed to extend the yatra to 45 days. That’s where the controversy began.

And then in 2005, we found that without taking the Cabinet into confidence or going through the state Conservation Act, the Governor wrote to a senior officer demanding the land. The officer put up the case to the concerned minister. According to the state Forest Conservation act, any diversion of forest land needs clearance by the Forest Advisory Committee. This was not done. When Mufti saab learnt of it, he realised that apart from environmental repercussions, this could cause a flare up. So he revoked the order.

... contd.