Manmohan

New Delhi, Aug. 4: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has called an all-party meeting on August 6 to discuss the Jammu violence and find a consensus solution to the Amarnath land row.

The Centre is worried the trouble could spark a chain reaction engulfing Punjab and Himachal Pradesh, ruled by the BJP and an ally, ahead of the Jammu and Kashmir polls due before November.

Sources said the Centre’s priority is to remove the road blockades so that traders and farmers, suffering losses of Rs 20 crore a day in Jammu and Rs 30-40 crore in the Valley, can take their produce out of the state. The meeting may also discuss a possible election schedule and assess if voting can be held if the trouble continues.

The announcement of the all-party meeting came on a day Union home secretary Madhukar Gupta and defence secretary Vijay Singh rushed to Jammu, according to PTI.

Congress sources said Manmohan Singh could appeal to BJP leaders not to do or say anything to stoke the violence. However, the sources didn’t appear hopeful about the outcome, given the perception that the BJP would lend its muscle to Shri Amarnath Sangharsh Samiti, spearheading the agitation against the cancellation of the land allotment to the Amarnath board.

The Congress isn’t sure how the People’s Democratic Party — its partner in the last J&K coalition — and the National Conference (NC) would respond at the meeting. The leaders of the two Valley-based parties haven’t been able to step into Jammu.

It is felt that the NC’s Omar Abdullah, who warmed Congress hearts with his trust-vote advocacy of the nuke deal, will factor the polarisation over the Amarnath row into his calculations. The same could be true of the PDP, seen by some in the Congress as the “real culprit” behind the land dispute.

One Congress leader seemed resigned to the worst. “We are sunk in Jammu and the Valley. In one, it is advantage BJP and in the other, it’s advantage NC.”

Last night, Sonia Gandhi met her senior Congress colleagues and then spoke to BJP president Rajnath Singh. The talks came amid fears that BJP and Shiv Sena supporters could attack Kashmiri farmers’ vehicles in Punjab, ruled by the Akali Dal-BJP combine.

The Prime Minister is said to have spoken to Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal about the concerns.