Jazia on Amarnath yatra: furthering the

Islamic cause
Nancy Kaul

The dark ages of Islamic domination seem to be slowly seeping back into independent India. First
was the Kashmiri Muslim hegemony of not allowing land and infrastructure for Hindu yatris; and
now Jazia has been levied on the pilgrims and langars for the revered Amarnath Yatra.

In their appeasement of Muslims, the Omar Abdullah Government and Governor N.N. Vohra-led
Sri Amarnath Shrine Board (SASB), have fallen on the repressive Mughal policy of imposing
Jazia (religious tax) on Hindus in their very own country.

The abode of Lord Shiva, Amriteswara tirtha, is a pilgrimage precious to Hindus; the Shiva lingam
manifests itself in the holy cave of Sri Amarnathji. The yatra to Sri Amarnath is as old as the
history of Kashmir and Neelmat Purana bears testimony to this. Rishi Kashyap, Adi Sankara,
Vivekananda and the common Hindu find peace and solace in the darshan of the Holy lingam;
the soul is entrenched in the divine manifestation.

A levy of Rs 15/- from each yatri (pilgrim) for registration was not considered sufficient by the
authorities, so they imposed a charge of Rs 2,800/- per day (earlier Rs 300/day) on the buses
and trucks, and Rs 2,300/- on light vehicles, carrying food supplies and pilgrims, in addition to the
toll tax on entering the State of Jammu & Kashmir at Lakhanpur. The State Government has not
stopped at this, and has further sponsored the radicalisation process by asking the Langar
committees, which constitute religious and social organisation, to deposit a non-refundable sum
of Rs 25,000/-! At the same time, the area on which the langars are to run has been considerably
reduced.

The proponents of Islam have thus imposed religious tax on Hindu yatris, whereas they spend
thousands of lakhs of rupees on Muslims in terms of Urs and Haj.

Chief Minister Omar Abdullah in one breath does away with the tax on houseboat owners and
hoteliers in Kashmir, and on the other hand imposes Jazia on Hindus; they will have to pay even
for placing their shoes in the racks near the cave and toll on entering the State. These measures
reek of an illogical bent towards Islamic talibanisation and immense hatred channelled at slighting
the religious sentiments of the Hindus.

Sri Amarnath Shrine Board (SASB) is in charge of the yatra and the money that the devotees
offer. The Board has yet to come clean on how the money is used. The money accumulated
should have been used for infrastructure development and yatri comfort; however, typically this
money donated by Hindus is being diverted towards the amusement and entertainment of
Kashmiri Muslims. In 2006, the then Governor Lt Gen (retd) S.K. Sinha launched a Sufi festival
(SASB along with ICCR) in Srinagar on the banks of the Dal Lake, where artistes from Pakistan
apart from others participated, with the money of Sri Amarnath Shrine Board! Lakhs was spent
and since then ever year this sham of Sufism is conducted from the money of the devotees of
Amarnath ji.

Governor Vohra has increased the paradigm of this entertainment sham and it continues. The
role of Shri Vohra during the Amarnath Yatra and his overtures to Muslims are neither reformed
nor new. His closeness to the People’s Democratic Party is no secret, and along with the
Kashmiri Muslims he was largely responsible for the atrocities heaped on the nationalistic Jammu
population when they stood up for the Yatra in 2008.

As Chairman of the SASB, N.N. Vohra wanted Muslims as Board members, a move which would
have meant direct Muslim interference in a Hindu shrine, whereas no moves to include Hindus in
Wakf Boards are ever conceived. Yet the present committee of six members has so far
maintained silence over this issue.

The present Chief Minister, who has yet to prove his acumen, has rushed to play to the separatist
gallery. His by now famous speech in Parliament, “I am a Muslim and I am an Indian…” and, “not
even an inch of land will be given,” with reference to the Amarnath agitation of Jammu cannot be
wished away.

Omar Abdullah is so emotionally overwrought for the gun-totting terrorists and their life in
Pakistan Occupied Kashmir, where they went for terror training to unleash violence in Jammu &
Kashmir and the rest of India, that he wants the Centre not to ask them to surrender, but to give
them an honourable return. He wants the Central Government to clear four crossover points for
them to return to India with their families. Such magnanimity for one group, such pettiness for
another community!

The terror network that these terrorism-trained Kashmiri Muslims are part of in PoK and Pakistan
is still intact; so is the motive to unleash terror on India through overt and covert means and
thousand cuts. Pakistan has not resiled from its agenda of terrorism against India, nor has
Lashkar-e-Toiba and many such terror factories. In a recent meeting organized by the Jamaat-ud-
Dawa (new name of the banned LeT) in Lahore, it demanded that the government of Pakistan
should either stop India from building dams on rivers flowing into Pakistan or give a ‘free hand’ to
the ‘Kashmiri mujahideen’ (read terrorists) to deal with the issue. After the meeting a joint
declaration was issued by the JuD which asked the Pakistan government to keep open the option
of using force to protect its water resources if India does not stop work on projects on rivers
flowing into the country.

The head of JuD's political affairs wing, Abdur Rehman Makki, and the group's Pakistan Water
Movement convener, Hafiz Safullah Mansoor, presided over the meet. It included representatives
of major political parties including the Pakistan Peoples Party, the Pakistan Muslim League-
Nawaz, the Jamaat-e-Islami and cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan's Tehrik-e-Insaaf.

Interestingly, Omar Abdullah wants the Indian State to give amnesty to terrorists who could still
be part of this terror network. The terror network with the active help of Pakistan is also taking
advantage of the trade and bus routes between Kashmir and POK. Recently, two PoK citizens
were sent to judicial lock-up for smuggling satellite phones for a commander and working for
militants (read terrorists). One of them had reached Poonch via the weekly Poonch-Rawlakote
bus service, while the other was arrested in Mendhar for travelling via the Wagah border.

Another ISI agent managed to return to PoK after spending a month in Mendhar; his involvement
surfaced only after he had gone back. Earlier, few traders on Uri-Muzaffarabad and Poonch-
Rawlakote route were found working for militants/terrorists by providing hawala money which was
being used to fund militancy and terrorism. Sources confirm that the intelligence agencies have
issued an alert on this front again.

As if this was not enough, Omar Abdullah has further rushed to the rescue of terrorist Afzal Guru,
who has been sentenced to death by the Supreme Court for masterminding the attack on the
Indian Parliament in 2001. He wants Afzal Guru to be treated like other criminals. A person
holding the office of Chief Minister should know better, for Afzal Guru is no criminal but a terrorist.
This love for a terrorist is followed by another MLA of Kashmir.

Abdul Rashid, MLA from Langate, attended the funeral prayers of three terrorists killed in a recent
encounter with security forces in Handwara area of the frontier Kupwara district. A fortnight ago,
the Army launched Operation Thunder Strike, to neutralize terrorists. The MLA in his speech in
Shazipora grounds wanted the government to talk to armed terrorists. “The key of peace lies with
militants, and there should be direct negotiations with them for they have rendered sacrifices,” he
said.

This appalling love for Islamic terrorists and Jazia for Hindu yatris raises vital questions about the
efforts of Pakistan, terror organisations, and the likes of Omar, Mufti, Rashid and others. The
effort to Talibanise Indian Muslim society is getting a fillip by such overt and covert actions.

It will be pertinent to watch what the UPA chairperson will do about this tax on Amarnath, as it
was her mother-in-law and Prime Minister Indira Gandhi who desired the concrete flight of stairs
to be made in the 1970s; Indira ji’s love for Shiva and Shakti is well known. Her interpretation of
Kashmir was not Islam, but the thousands of years of Advaita Shaivism and Shakti – the
fountainhead of Indian Hindu Sanskriti and heritage. She would visit Amarnath and a Shakti peeth
in Kashmir with deep devotion.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will also have to answer the nation for this talibanisation in
Jammu & Kashmir under his watch. On a recent visit to Saudi Arabia, First Lady Gursharan Kaur,
the Prime Minister’s wife, insisted on wearing her usual dress of sari and half-sleeve blouse. Will
she stand up this time too?

Will the Prime Minister, for he had said:

Deh shiva var mohe hai shubh karman te kabhun na daroon
na daroon ersoh jab chahe laroon, nishche kar apni jeet karoon
[O Siva, grant me the boon that I will never fear to do the right action
That I will not fear, will fight when I want, and with determination will be victorious]
- Guru Gobind Singh

Or do Indians have to look for Guru Teg Bahadur, Guru Gobind Singh, and Shivaji Maharaj.