Author: Ramesh Naidoo
Publication: Ovi Magazine
Date: July 23, 2008
URL: http://www.ovimagazine.com/art/3299
The unfortunate events in Jammu & Kashmir
regarding the transfer of land by the government to Shri Amarnath Shrine Board
call for each one's urgent attention and involvement.
What began as a simple effort to facilitate Amarnath pilgrims has suddenly
developed communal and political overtones. This is appalling when compared
to the facilities offered to the Haj and the Vaishno Devi pilgrims.
In an attempt to bring this to the attention of every responsible citizen
of India, we would like you to have the benefit of some facts stated below.
In keeping with public policy statements, the Government of India makes elaborate
arrangements for the welfare of Haj pilgrims and strives to improve the facilities
provided to them every year. That is how it should be. The Government of India,
and the ministry of external affairs in particular, deserves credit for providing
perhaps the best arrangements that any government makes for their Haj pilgrims.
For eg: As reported in a newspaper article, here are the facts about the facilities
provided to Haj pilgrims.
1. To begin with, the government provides an airfare subsidy to about 100,000
pilgrims selected by the Haj Committee of India who go for Haj annually. Pilgrims
pay only Rs 12,000 for their air travel. This figure has remained unchanged
for at least a decade or more. According to official figures, this subsidy
was Rs 280 crores in 2006, or about Rs 28,000 per pilgrim. Today, with rising
fuel prices, this figure would have gone up to Rs 350-400 crore. There is
also a seperate Haj Terminal at Delhi International Airport.
2. There is a separate Haj cell in the ministry of external affairs. The Haj
Committee of India has its own premises in Mumbai. Similarly the State Haj
Committees have their own premises in various other Indian cities. These facilities
have been built on land provided by the state governments.
3. Accommodation in Mecca and Medina is decided keeping in mind the need to
provide maximum convenience and comfort to the pilgrims. Typically, all accommodation
has lifts, telephones, running water, electricity and telephone at the minimum.
There is total computerisation of pilgrim location and movement.
4. For Haj 2007, a contingent of 115 doctors (including 63 specialists with
post-graduate degrees) and 141 nurses and other para-medical staff, 3 coordinators,
46 assistant Haj officers, 165 Haj assistants and 186 Khadimul Hujjaj were
sent from India on short-term deputation to Saudi Arabia. Special attention
is given to medical facilities for the pilgrims.
5. Some of the facilities provided by the government are: arrangements for
polio, meningitis and influenza vaccinations for pilgrims before departure;
a 75-bed hospital and 12 branch offices-cum-dispensaries in Mecca; a 15-bed
hospital and 6 branch offices-cum-dispensaries in Medina; three medical teams
at Jeddah airport to provide medical care round the clock to Haj pilgrims;
17 ambulances in Mecca and Medina; supply of medicines, medical supplies and
critical medical equipment from India. All this adds up to the total money
spent by the government to facilitate a hassle-free Haj pilgrimage each year
for tens of thousands of Muslims from India.
What is due to one community by logic and fair practice is due to another.
And yet in a discriminatory treatment lakhs of pilgrims who have been going
to Amarnath for years have been denied basic human facilities. The question
is what took them so long to consider these facilities and not whether or
not they should be provided.
There isn't any adequate medical and sanitary facilities for the pilgrims
of Amarnath Shrine. As the agitation continues, it has been reported that
a water bottle costing Rs 14 was sold at Rs 70. And a khacchar or a pony that
took pilgrims at the cost of Rs 1,500 charged an abominable Rs 10,000. Compare
this with the subsidies for Haj Pilgrims. Buses of pilgrims were also stoned
by unruly elements.
The whole agitation was started by the Peoples Democratic Party on the absurd
presumption that providing these basic facilities to the travelling pilgrims
will result in a changed "eco-cultural character" of the state.
Does this imply that Kashmir only has a "Muslim" character?
Kashmir originally and lawfully belongs to both Hindus and Muslims. Nevertheless,
4,00,000 Kashmiri Pandits were driven out of Kashmir and are living as refugees
and now even the very thought of Hindus settling in Kashmir is creating such
violent repercussions. Is this a sign of a secular, healthy, fair society?
Even if we were to presume that it has a Muslim character, how can travelling
pilgrims possibly change eco-cultural character of a place. Can there be a
likelihood of someone settling down at the height of 13,500 ft? There can
not be any possibility of Hindus settling down in the proposed land.
It is ironical that though the Hindus are being denied basic hospitable facilities
to enable their pilgrimage, the temporary, pre-fabricated shelters built by
the Amarnath Shrine Board were dismantled and sent for emergency relief operations
during the earthquake in Kashmir in October 2005. "About 60-70 pre-fab
shelters were sent to Uri and Tangdhar, where they housed thousands,"
a senior Government official is reported to have said. "The Amarnath
Board also sent pre-fab toilets. There was no objection from any political
party at that point."
For centuries pilgrims have been making the arduous trip to Amarnath cave
without any benefit from the state. They have to depend to private philanthropy
for food, accommodation and other facilities. It is shameful that people have
lived in torn taurpaulin tents. But a caring State in independent India can
and should do more.
Please also view online exhibition on exodus and selective killings of 4,00,000
Kashmiri Pandits from Kashmir. Click http://refugees-in-their-own-country.blogspot.com/
to view.