It seems the detention of the so called political prisoners at the Srinagar’s Centaur Hotel has cost the public exchequer, if not the fortune itself, but a good chunk of it. According to reports, the Indian Tourism Development Corporation (ITDC) has footed a bill of Rs 2.65 crores with the newly formed union territory’s home department as boarding and lodging charges of Kashmir’s mainstream leaders at their scenic hotel located on the banks of Dal Lake. At least 34 detainees including former state ministers, lawmakers and members of virtually every mainstream political formation in Kashmir are presently languishing in the hotel that was declared as a subsidiary jail after August 5 when the central government scrapped provisions of the Article 370 while announcing plans for bifurcation of the erstwhile state into two union territories. Among the detainees are two former chief ministers and a sitting member of parliament. While the ITDC is charging Rs 5000 per room per day, the JK UT administration has hinted that it was willing to pay not more than Rs 800. Now, with winter setting in, it is emerging that the living conditions are not good for these prisoners at the hotel and plans are afoot to move them to a different location. The name of one property in the highly garrisoned Badami Bagh cantonment area is doing rounds but nothing has been officially announced so far. What is certain, however, is that the detention of these leaders is going to prolong. Already authorities have announced three month extension of Public Safety Act under which several leaders, including Member of Parliament Srinagar and National Conference patron Dr Farooq Abdullah, has been booked. One can only hope that these detainees are not meted the same treatment with which they ‘governed’ the lives of people of Jammu and Kashmir over the last three decades. Given that no breakthrough in their rehabilitation in JK’s new political arrangement seems to be forthcoming, the standoff is going to prolong. The idea of granting the status of hill state to Jammu and Kashmir floated by a former MP from north Kashmir hasn’t apparently got much traction with the mainstream parties. But goalposts seem to be shifting. The scaling down in the National Conference’s ‘rhetoric’ from ‘protection of JK’s special status’ as envisioned in the party’s autonomy document, to ‘restoration of statehood’ (as recently demanded by the party’s Jammu leadership) offers some clue. Is there an opening on the horizon?
It seems the detention of the so called political prisoners at the Srinagar’s Centaur Hotel has cost the public exchequer, if not the fortune itself, but a good chunk of it. According to reports, the Indian Tourism Development Corporation (ITDC) has footed a bill of Rs 2.65 crores with the newly formed union territory’s home department as boarding and lodging charges of Kashmir’s mainstream leaders at their scenic hotel located on the banks of Dal Lake. At least 34 detainees including former state ministers, lawmakers and members of virtually every mainstream political formation in Kashmir are presently languishing in the hotel that was declared as a subsidiary jail after August 5 when the central government scrapped provisions of the Article 370 while announcing plans for bifurcation of the erstwhile state into two union territories. Among the detainees are two former chief ministers and a sitting member of parliament. While the ITDC is charging Rs 5000 per room per day, the JK UT administration has hinted that it was willing to pay not more than Rs 800. Now, with winter setting in, it is emerging that the living conditions are not good for these prisoners at the hotel and plans are afoot to move them to a different location. The name of one property in the highly garrisoned Badami Bagh cantonment area is doing rounds but nothing has been officially announced so far. What is certain, however, is that the detention of these leaders is going to prolong. Already authorities have announced three month extension of Public Safety Act under which several leaders, including Member of Parliament Srinagar and National Conference patron Dr Farooq Abdullah, has been booked. One can only hope that these detainees are not meted the same treatment with which they ‘governed’ the lives of people of Jammu and Kashmir over the last three decades. Given that no breakthrough in their rehabilitation in JK’s new political arrangement seems to be forthcoming, the standoff is going to prolong. The idea of granting the status of hill state to Jammu and Kashmir floated by a former MP from north Kashmir hasn’t apparently got much traction with the mainstream parties. But goalposts seem to be shifting. The scaling down in the National Conference’s ‘rhetoric’ from ‘protection of JK’s special status’ as envisioned in the party’s autonomy document, to ‘restoration of statehood’ (as recently demanded by the party’s Jammu leadership) offers some clue. Is there an opening on the horizon?
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