The recent closure of Srinagar Airport for runway extension termed unnecessary by the Civil Aviation Authorities and the tussle regarding the commissioning of the Instrument Landing System have raised the basic question regarding the status of the Srinagar Airport. In all this wrangling it has been made amply clear that only the writ of the Air Force runs on it. The civilian side owns only the terminal building and an apron to park the aircraft. All other operations are controlled by the Air Force. Well, with the background history of the Srinagar Airport right from the first landing of Army in 1947, one can understand the right of the Air Force to claim its ownership but what is most puzzling and annoying is calling it an “International” Airport!

There are no international flights operating from this what we may call an Airfield. One of the factors responsible for the extreme alienation of Kashmiris has been the lackadaisical and half hearted attitude of the Central Government in regard to some prestigious development projects. It has been observed that such projects are started with great fanfare and massive publicity and then these slowly fade out. There is a long list of such ventures which if completed and genuinely run, could have made a huge difference to the thinking of the people. There seems to be a lobby working both within Kashmir and in Delhi which is always bent upon scuttling these confidence building projects.

They have been continuously working from 1947 itself in creating a gulf between Kashmiri Muslims and Delhi. In Delhi they preach that all Kashmiri Muslims are foreign agents and anti-Indian and they should never be trusted even if they swear by the Indian constitution! In Kashmir, they have been preaching that India should not be trusted as it is bent upon annihilating Kashmiri Muslims and would ultimately drive them out or liquidate them. As far as they themselves are concerned, they are making the best of both the opportunities. The ultimate weapon to scuttle a project or leave it half way is the ever green “National Interest” or “National Security”! The members of this lobby are spread all over.

They are in every government department, organisation, and agency. They have a very long reach and are bent upon keeping Kashmiri Muslims under their thumb! There have been many projects such as the Software Development Park, Watch Factory, Juice Concentrate Plant, roads connecting Kishtwar and Poonch to Kashmir Valley which have been either abandoned, or left half-complete or even put on a very slow pace because they are in the long term interests of Kashmiris! The declaration of Srinagar Airport as International Airport is a typical example of the machinations of this lobby which cannot reconcile to Kashmir opening up directly to the outside world!

It was 35 years back that late Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah had dreamt of opening up Kashmir to outside world. He was keen to hold international conferences in Kashmir as part of his drive to promote and develop tourism as an important economic activity. He started work on an international conference centre with a five star hotel. At the same time Government of India was approached for declaring Srinagar as an international airport to allow foreign tourists direct access to Kashmir. While the conference centre and the hotel were completed and commissioned yet these could not be made fully functional because of inordinate delay in declaring Srinagar Airport as International Airport.

The reason was the ever green security threat and the apprehension that opening up Kashmir directly to foreigners may cause embarrassment during off and on upheavals here! During the intervening period much smaller airports like Amritsar and Guwahatti were declared international and direct flights to many foreign destinations were started from these airports. Vajpayee-Musharraf détente resulted in a number of confidence building measures such as cross LOC travel and trade. It was during this atmosphere of reconciliation that the Union Cabinet declared Srinagar as an International Airport. An amount of rupees 80 crores were sanctioned to modify the present terminal building to handle international flights.

The work proceeded at a very slow pace and was finally completed in three years or so and a weekly flight was started to Dubai. For reasons best known to Air India, they started a labour class flight by their subsidiary Air India Express! Normally, for opening Kashmir to Gulf Tourists and even Europeans passing through Gulf, they should have started a normal flight with business class seats also. For reasons best known to them they did not do so? Moreover, the flight was started suddenly without any ground work regarding issue of visas, making of travel and stay arrangements, or even fixing of General Sales Agents etc. The people who took the flights were always complaining of cramped space, unsatisfactory cabin service and so on.

Most of the people usually Kashmiris working in the Gulf, who took the flight did it under compulsion as it gave them direct access to their home town! A group of Greek tourists who were motivated by their travel agent to get this connecting flight to Kashmir very much regretted their decision. A number of top Golfers wanted to come to try the Kashmir’s prestigious Golf Course but could not do so as there was no business class. Ultimately, the flight was discontinued for want of sufficient load. Another reason not disclosed officially was supposed to be the refusal of Pakistan to allow over flights originating from Kashmir which increased the flying time. If this had been true, the Government should have come out openly so that the Kashmiris could know who is their real sympathiser?

The whole episode was really tragic. From the very start it appeared that the flight has been started just for propaganda and it would be discontinued on any excuse. In fact, feelers were given out by various politicians that direct flights would be started to Jeddah, Singapore, and even Koolab, Tajikistan where Kashmir’s most revered saint Mir Syed Ali Hamadani popularly known as Shah-i-Hamadan is buried. However, nothing of the sort happened and we lost the solitary flight to Dubai. The airport had another interesting tussle regarding its naming. Some local mainstream politicians wanted it to be named after the patron saint of Kashmir Sheikh Noor-ud-Din Wali also known as Nund Reshi or Sheikh-ul-Alam. They wanted it to be called Sheikh-ul-Alam International Airport.

However, this was not agreed to. Umpteen Airports in the country are named after different personalities but Kashmir’s Sufi Saint was not tolerable to the anti-Kashmiri lobby! There are many other woes which starkly point out that the airport is not at all in civilian hands. As such its genuine conversion into an International Airport may never happen. If the Central Government was really sincere and honest they would immediately restart a regular flight to Dubai and also to some other short haul destinations. In case the official carrier feels it is not economically viable, they could allow private carriers who have shown lot of interest in the past to operate these flights. In the alternative, it would be fair and just to stop calling it an International Airport!