7 July 2008: When Amarnath Land Row Forced CM Azad To Resign, Polarised Jammu and Kashmir Politics

Former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad was forced to resign after the Amarnath Land Row. Azad headed the PDP-Congress coalition government in Jammu and Kashmir. Writes ETV Bharat's Mir Farhat.

Srinagar (Jammu and Kashmir): A yearly calendar of Jammu and Kashmir is dotted by many eventful and historical dates which have changed Kashmir’s dicey politics for bad or worse; buried the reputations of many stalwart politicians and left them tainted in public life.

July 7, 2008 was one of such date in Kashmir's controversial politics that left a veteran former Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad to resign from Chief Ministership over the Amarnath land row. Peoples Democratic Party which was in alliance with the Congress pulled out of the coalition government, five months before Azad could have completed his three-year term as CM.

The six-year coalition government between PDP and Congress was formed in 2002 with a majority of 44 legislators. PDP had 18 MLAs while Congress had 21. The rest of the support was provided by the independents and two CPM legislators. The Opposition National Conference had 24 members in the House. The erstwhile Jammu and Kashmir state Assembly then had 87 elected. Post delimitation after the abrogation of Article 370, the number of Assembly seats have been increased to 90.

As per the coalition dharma, PDP founder late Mufti Sayeed headed the government for the first three years (from 2002-2005) and Azad - the latter three years (2005-2008).

The trigger for the PDP’s pullout became Amarnath land row. The row erupted on May 26 in 2008 after the government allotted 40 hectares of forest land in Baltal in Sonmarg in Ganderbal district to Shri Amarnath Shrine Board (SASB). The Shrine Board runs the trust that manages the annual Amarnath Yatra.

The transfer of the land had triggered massive public unrest in the Kashmir valley. Azad had cancelled the land transfer but not before Kashmir had erupted into a protest wave which lasted for weeks. In Jammu, a counter-agitation was launched against the cancellation order.

National Conference vice president Omar Abdullah, who had lost the 2002 assembly elections against Qazi Afzal from Ganderbal, had then said: “Withdrawing from the government does not absolve the PDP of its mistakes. It was PDP ministers Muzaffar Baig and Qazi Afzal who had cleared the land deal.”

Afzal, who died a few years ago, was the forest minister under whose watch the forest land was transferred to the shrine board. His house in Ganderbal was torched by a mob as he bore the brunt of being the forest minister.

Reminiscing about the turn of events that happened on June 7, 2008, Congress Working Committee member Ghulam Ahmad Mir said that Azad was forced to resign on the floor of the House before the floor test. Mir, who was then a legislator, said that the then Governor N N Vohra had summoned a day’s session of assembly for the floor test in which Azad had to prove his majority, but he withdrew the confidence motion which was to be put to vote to prove his support in the house.

"The PDP’s withdrawal of support to Congress on June 29 in 2008 was its historic blunder as it ended a secular government and set the stage for communal politics, which ultimately led BJP to win 25 seats in Jammu in 2014," Mir told ETV Bharat.

PDP and BJP formed the government in 2014 but the government lasted for only over three years after BJP withdrew its support to Mehbooba Mufti, who was the Chief Minister.

Mir said the PDP's withdrawal of support in 2008 led to its destruction after 2018 as the BJP not only withdrew its support to Mehbooba Mufti but left it gasping its last breath after the abrogation of Article 370.

"Had PDP not made the blunder in 2008 by withdrawing support to a secular party, a communal force would not have reared its head in Jammu that ultimately ate up the PDP,” Mir said.

BJP had won two seats in the 2002 assembly polls, but in 2008 elections which were held after Amarnath land row, BJP won 11 seats in Jammu's Hindu belt.

Amarnath Land row: Polarisation of politics

A senior journalist in Kashmir, who had covered the row, said to quell the protests, Jammu and Kashmir Police and Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) used force and crowd-controlling ammunition in which many protesters were killed and dozens injured. He said that agitation which was sparked by the government's decision was then fuelled by calls by separatist leaders including late Syed Ali Geelani, banned JKLF chief Yasin Malik and Hurriyat Chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and others.

"The agitation laid the foundation of communal and regional divide between Jammu district and Kashmir valley," he claimed. While Kashmir saw agitation against the government over the land transfer, in Jammu Shri Amarnath Sangarsh Samiti (SASS) was formed to counter the Kashmir protests.

The Samiti was supported by the BJP and Jammu's traders. The Samiti called for an "economic blockade" of the valley. It blocked the Jammu-Srinagar highway in Jammu and Udhampur which disrupted the flow of all essential supplies including life-saving medicine and baby feed to Kashmir.

The separatists in Kashmir launched “Muzaffarabad chalo”, which was supported by PDP and fruit traders - a parallel agitation against the economic blockade, and demanded the opening of the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad road via Line of Control (LoC) in Uri in Baramulla district of Kashmir. Separatist leader and Peoples League chairman Sheikh Aziz was killed in Uri when police fired to disperse the marchers towards LoC.

Arun Joshi, a senior journalist based out of Jammu, said that the Amarnath land row led to the polarisation of politics between Jammu and Kashmir.

Joshi’s view is supported by the fact that 'secular' parties National Conference, Congress, and PDP have now been cornered in the Muslim majority Assembly segments of the Kashmir valley, Pir Panjal and Chenab regions, and BJP's support has expanded in Jammu, Kathua and Samba, which are Hindu majority districts.

This support was evident in the recent Parliament elections where BJP won two seats of Jammu and Udhampur while NC and Congress alliance won two seats of Srinagar and Anantnag-Rajouri.

"The row was the first such communally polarising incident in Jammu and Kashmir after 1947 whose after-effects are felt in every election held after 2008; be it Parliamentary or Assembly elections. All political parties are contesting elections on polarisation now," Joshi told ETV Bharat. He said the 2008 row refreshed the old wounds of 1947.