This is not an isolated story of a random lane but a template that has been institutionalised across the troubled region. In every lane adjoining an arterial road, evening brings at least 50 'friendly' protestors for the ritual eyeball-to-eyeball confrontation with the military.
For them, it is no longer an issue of the use of land for two months in the year for the comfort of Amarnath pilgrims – Jammu’s pride is on the line.
Talk to protestors, and they recount their story. Move a few lanes over, talk to another group, and you get the same story, almost verbatim. Either they have been impeccably tutored, or many minds have begun thinking alike. This is their story:
The People's Democratic Party was in the coalition when the move to divert land for providing yatris with temporary facilities was taken. Then, with an eye to the elections around the corner, it withdrew support to the government and protested the diversion of land. The minority government, also wanting to gain political mileage in the Valley, withdrew the order. But the separatists hijacked the issue, saying that this was a ploy to settle Hindus in the Valley, though the land is within the forest, and is uninhabitable.
That is the casus belli, as Jammu-ites recount it. If the initial problem was triggered by local politicians in the Valley, in Jammu too it was politics that triggered the backlash and has since kept it burning, with the Bharatiya Janata Party backing the initial protests. Locals say the party has been forced to soften its stand after the all-party meet that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh convened on Thursday.
While both the Shri Amarnath Sangharsh Samiti and the BJP maintain the issue is not communal, observers say there was an effort to give it a communal tinge in the Jammu region.
"Badly-phrased terms like 'Quit Jammu' and 'economic blockade of the Valley' were definitely used by some sections of the political spectrum. Thankfully, they have toned down their rhetoric," Arun Joshi, a veteran journalist from Jammu working for Hindustan Times, said.
While care has been taken to keep the issue from becoming overtly communal, some say the current scenario, pitching Jammu against Kashmir, could prove to be very difficult to solve.
"When the people in Jammu see the administration standing as mute spectators while separatists hoist the Pakistani flag, and the same administration clamping curfews and using force against people who are carrying the Indian flag, there is bound to be unrest. The people in Jammu want the anti-national sentiment to be reversed," Joshi said.
Image: CRPF personnel stand guard in Srinagar.
Also read: Unrest continues in Kashmir
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