One needs to question the propriety of official promotion of the Amarnath yatra, for the pilgrimage now involves the movement of over 5,00,000 pilgrims in an ecologically fragile area. The Indian government views the yearning for moksha (salvation) that takes so many devotees to the challenging heights of Kashmir as “afitting gesture of solidarity with our, valiant soldiers†, elevating the pilgrimage to a patriotic enterprise. A bigger mess seems to be in the making even as secular concerns go unheeded.
by Gautam Navlakha