Every year the annual ritual of pelting stones at ‘Pathron Ka Mela’ is held a day after Diwali in Himachal village of Dhami where two groups–one representing the erstwhile royal family of Dhami and the other commoners from Jamogi–pelt stones at each other. The pelting stops when a person starts bleeding after being hit. His blood is offered to Goddess Kali as ‘Tilak’. This time the pelting ended in 20 minutes and the blood of one of the Jamogi resident was offered to the goddess. The pelting begins after the deity arrives at Dhami village from the Nara Singh and Kali Devi temple in the Dhami Palace. On the other hand Kashmir Valley saw an unending stone pelting for over 90-day and so many have bled the ‘ritual’ did not stop. Over thousands have injured in the stone pelting and many security men injured. The ‘street ritual’ has kept the Kashmir Valley boiling for over three months and separatists confined in their safe enclosures continue to keep the turmoil. One should ask the perpetrators of this violence what have they achieved and what made them to call off the agitation so silently and unceremoniously. This stone throwing has been going on because of the soft stand taken by the Union government. It is doubtful ever these people involved in such actions would be penalized. This everyone knows and that could be the main reason that there is no fear about the consequences and not that they are more ‘patriotic’ than security men and other people. Same is the case with some of the government employees who masterminded the unrest. Though some of them have been identified and arrested hardly would be any action on them. Political compulsion leading to immunity is there and any one involving in such vandalisation knows that there will always be a way out.
