Every time, he gets an opportunity, J&K’s former governor, S K Sinha does talk about Kashmir. His latest was from Aligarh where he was reported to have said that half of J&K police are sympathizers of militants. It was the turn of state police chief, Ashok Prasad to react saying the allegation was baseless. “J&K Police is an entirely dedicated and committed force”, Prasad said.

Lt Gen (retd) S K Sinha

The second most controversial governor of Jammu and Kashmir after Jagmohan, S K Sinha held all levels of active command in the Army from a platoon to a field Army. He commanded a battalion in Ladakh, Manipur, Assam, Jammu and Punjab. Sinha sought premature retirement from Army in 1983 on being denied the seat of India’s Army Chief.
Before being shifted to J&K as the nominal head of the state, Sinha triggered many controversies in the volatile north eastern state. In Srinagar, he landed in bigger controversy when Sinha managed to transfer 100 kanals of forest land to Shri Amarnathji Shrine Board (SASB) as its chairman. Since the transfer of the land took place in a hush-hush manner and the designs of the idea was creating a nearly-autonomous region in the mountains on either side of the Hindu shrine, it brought commoners on roads. It triggered such a crisis that J&K was literally burning for most of 2008 summer with a lot of casualties in Kashmir. The land row divided state on communal lines but eventually helped Kashmir struggle to manage a major transition from violence to non-violence and proved a watershed development in the valley’s contemporary history. Eventually Sinha was shifted out and replaced by N N Vohra. In J&K, Sinha has cultivated some officers who were like minded. Some of them faced a serious credibility crisis and were shifted out once the Ghulam Nabi Azad led coalition government lost numbers to stay in power.

But Sinha has never stopped talking about Kashmir. While in Srinagar Raj Bhawan, he would engage his guests in his battles of 1947 when he was part of the overall operations. Once he left Kashmir, he is talking about how the government of India is deliberately alienating Kashmir.

Very close to right wing groups including Bhartiya Janta Party, Sinha has been accusing Delhi of scoring “self goals” in J&K but not learning any lessons. He always advocated a tough stand against the separatist voices of Kashmir. A very vocal advocate of continuation of Armed Forces Special Powers Act AFSPA, which gives sweeping powers and immunity to soldiers, Sinha says it is need of the hour.

2 COMMENTS

  1. Campaign South Asian Democratic Union invites your endorsement to our Memorandum to SAARC Heads of States.

    If you support such initiative I’ll fwd. the Memorandum for your endorsement.

    Regards,
    Dhirendra Sharma, Convenor,Campaign SAARC UNion. Dehradun.

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