Dear Editor,
An ancient Temple of the Goddess of Fire located at Khrew, close to Pampore in Kashmir Valley, has been razed to the ground. Mischief and sabotage cannot be ruled out for the simple reason that, ever since forced exodus of Pandits from the Valley since 1989-90, there has been a sinister design of encroaching, damaging and annexing Hindu places of worship there.
This is most dangerous at a time when the displaced community has lost confidence in the administration of Jammu and Kashmir and its ability to protect Hindu shrines in Kashmir. The trend needs to be reversed and arrested. The administrative and political silence over these incidents of vandalism by the State Government is intriguing.
The tragedy with Indian secularism is that its scope is limited and content meaningless. Its concern hovers only around safeguarding Muslim interests; beyond this, it has neither imagination nor concern. And this is perhaps the reason why nationalist forces within the country including Jammu and Kashmir are losing their battle against too many wrongs and misconceptions perpetrated over the years by the Congress. Will the secularist likes of Digvijaya Singh, Sitaram Yechury and others raise the issue of the destruction of Hindu shrines in Kashmir?
J. L Ganjoo
Delhi
