Golf Diplomacy: More Bogeys Than Birdies As Regional Parties Fear Centre's Assault On J&K's Special Status

Chairing a meeting of officials of the Kashmir Golf Cub (KGC) at the civil ­secretariat in Srinagar, J&K chief secretary B.V.R. Subrahmanyam sounded quite like a socialist orator trying to wax eloquent on the growing divide between the rich and the poor. The top bureaucrat바카라�s discourse, according to an official privy to the meeting, had references to palatial bungalows along the road to the airport, driving home the point about the rich getting richer and the poor being left with no avenues. Confessing that he has never played golf, Subrahmanyam declared that the 52-acre golf course would now be open to anybody who joins the club by paying a nominal membership fee of Rs 100. He also announced the setting up of a golf academy for beginners.

Coming on the heels of the governor-led state administration바카라�s tirade against corruption, the KGC move was hailed as a step against the local elites by many like former IAS officer Shah Faesal, who is seen as a new entrant in Kashmir바카라�s political scene dominated by the People바카라�s Democratic Party (PDP) and the National Conference (NC). 바카라�Golf-for-all should be linked with the JK Bank clean-up,바카라� says Faesal. 바카라�The decision was taken ­because the golf course had been ­created mainly with the JK Bank바카라�s corporate social responsibility funds. As the JK Bank is a public institution, opening the golf course to commoners should be seen as a course correction.바카라�

However, even a week after the ­announcement, there was no communication from the government to the KGC on how to provide membership to people. One of the oldest clubs in India and dating back to 1886, the KGC located on M.A. Road in Srinagar바카라�s Lal Chowk area has been closed since suffering extensive ­damage due to the floods in Sept­ember 2014. The J&K Bank revived the club by spending around Rs 40 crore. With membership fee of Rs 20,000 and Rs 40,000, it has 540 ­members, of whom only 150 are active.

Pointing out contradictions in government policies, many in the Valley also link the KGC move with other ­orders such as making the national highway out of bounds for Kashmiris during the movement of army convoys and the Amarnath yatra. The highway ban has become a source of anger among all sections of locals. Kashm­iris are not allowed to move on the highway for hours when army convoys or yatra vehicles are on the move. Several locals have been beaten up by government forces on the highway in the past two months. The most ­affected are truckers.

바카라�The traffic police don바카라�t allow Kashmir-bound trucks to move, which then remain stranded on the road for over a week,바카라� says Goods Transport Companies Association president M.S. Ronga. 바카라�They don바카라�t realise that the trucks carry perishable items, medicine and livestock. It takes over 10 days for a truck to reach Srinagar from Jammu due to the highway ban. This has crippled Kashmir바카라�s economy.바카라�

While the government clarifies nothing about the highway ban and des­cribes it as mere two-hour restriction, Ronga says the government is confused. 바카라�We talked to the IGP (Traffic) and the governor바카라�s advisor, and it looks like they don바카라�t have a clue,바카라� he says. The government바카라�s cluelessness is, in fact, a constant refrain these days. Since the order to open the KGC to the public, several other orders have come up creating panic in the Valley. First, the Centre approved the deployment of an additional 100 companies of paramilitary forces바카라�50 of the Central Reserve Police Force, 30 of the Sashastra Seema Bal, and 10 each of the Border Security Force and the Indo-Tibetan Border Police.

This was followed by a letter from a Railway Protection Force (RPF) officer in Budgam asking employees to stock rations for at least four months, drinking water for seven days and keep the fuel tanks of vehicles full as there was a 바카라�forecast of deteriorating situation바카라� in Kashmir. The order also asked the RPF not to engage with any mob.

And then came a J&K Police order seeking minute details of mosques across the Valley. 바카라�Provide details of your mosques and their managements falling under your jurisdictions,바카라� the order read. These orders created a situation that seemed like a repeat of the week leading up to the cross-LoC attack of February 26 on Balakot, when hospital rooftops had been painted with red cross signs ­indicating a war-like crisis.

Next in line was a statement by Governor Satya Pal Malik dismissing the orders as 바카라�fake바카라� and mere ­rumours. But the damage is done. 바카라�The CBI must be asked to investigate these fake orders and their origin,바카라� asked former CM Omar Abdullah. It is widely believed in Kashmir that the orders are real and the government could be moving to remove Article 35A or Article 370, or it is going to ­divide J&K into three parts and present it as a 바카라�solution바카라� to the Kashmir issue within the first 100 days of Narendra Modi바카라�s second term as PM. Many suspect that the government is preparing for large-scale killings in the Valley. The orders and the panic they generated not just relegated the government바카라�s developmental schemes such as 바카라�Back to Village바카라� to the backburner, but also took the sheen off its golf-for-all policy.

The mainstream regional parties have been the most vocal against the government바카라�s orders, while BJP leaders, inc­luding MoS in the PMO, Jitendra Singh, is describing them as corrupt. The reg­ional parties say they are being targeted so that they would be unable to raise their voice when the government tries to get rid of J&K바카라�s special status. Officials of the J&K administration, however, argue that NC and PDP leaders have looted the state. 바카라�If you check their assets before they were in the power and after they were in power, you would realise what they have done to the state,바카라� says a senior official.

Faesal says corruption has been the defining feature of all previous regimes in J&K. 바카라�The day of reckoning had to come. Those who have nothing to fear should welcome this scrutiny instead of raising the false bogey of political manipulation by the central government,바카라� he adds. But Anantnag MP Hasnain Masoodi tells Outlook that his party, the NC, is under the scanner as it raises issues relating to the identity of Jammu and Kashmir. 바카라�Forces inimical to Kashmir, its special status and its identity are not happy with our party,바카라� says Masoodi, adding that a key component of the Centre바카라�s game plan is to encourage the fragmentation of political forces in Kashmir and make a dent on the NC바카라�s claim to being a representative of the aspirations of people in J&K. 바카라�Once a political platform is fragmented, such forces would be easier to manoeuvre and have the opportunity to align with political forces of their choice. Creating new parties is an effort aimed at pushing the genuine parties to the periphery before an assault on the special status.바카라�

Arguing that the mainstream parties have been the only parties doing ­constitutional politics in J&K, while the separatists engage in agitations, former minister and PDP leader Naeem Akhtar says, 바카라�Now they have a problem with mainstream politics and parties. They have pushed them to an ICU (intensive care unit) that has no ventilator.바카라�

Last Sunday, after the PDP observed its foundation day, many of its leaders were sitting in silence in a room at the party office. Earlier, PDP president and former CM Mehbooba Mufti had in her address warned of dire consequences if J&K바카라�s special status is taken away. Some of the party leaders say the Centre is trying hard to keep the new generation away from mainstream politics. 바카라�They are out to ­alienate everyone here바카라�the local ­administration, the police and the ­regional mainstream politicians,바카라� says PDP leader Ashraf Mir, adding that corruption charges without ­investigation is a bogey to pin down the mainstream politicians and justify an assault on the special status.

It is widely believed that the Centre is out to play 바카라�some game바카라� in Kashmir as the BJP thinks the first year of the Modi government바카라�s second term is the best time to make changes in the restive region and make an impact. Since the entire local leadership, ­including the separatists, have been silenced, the BJP believes the time is ripe to make an attempt. But the past one week has shown that the Kashmir turf is not so easy. The game of golf can go to any side and the risks are huge despite the central government바카라�s security preparations.

By Naseer Ganai in Srinagar