The current situation in Jammu and Kashmir has caused great alarm and some papers have blamed politicians of different shades for a crisis that, according to them, could have been pre-empted. Hyderabad-based Rahnuma-e-Deccan, in an editorial (Aug 17), writes: “When the government indicated its intention to take back the land (from the Shrine Board), then the Muslims said once the land has been given, it should not be taken back and no disturbance should unnecessarily be created on the issue of a religious place. But this assertion was suppressed as it would not have helped to promote communalism. Creators of disorder made it a Hindu-Muslim question leading to actions and reactions in Jammu and the valley”.

Rashtriya Sahara says: “If politics was not the objective, so much hue and cry might not have been made, at the instigation of the PDP, on the decision of the government (to reverse the land allotment). Nor would have PDP stoked the fire with its efforts for political instability by withdrawing support from the government to please the voters.” The paper has not spared either former Governor S.K. Sinha or Ghulam Nabi Azad for the political cobweb in which the state has got enmeshed. Delhi-based Milap (Aug. 22) expressed the view that tensions between the Jammu region and the valley had always been there, even during the days of Raja Hari Singh. The remedy for peaceful co-existence and efficient administration lies, according to the paper, in the trifurcation of the states into Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh.

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