SRINAGAR: With only a week or so left to the rolling out of the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad bus, the civil administration, Army, police and other official agencies are involved in an arrangement that would ensure it to be a grand and gorgeous affair.

Various mainstream political groups particularly the ruling People’s Democratic Party are leaving no stone unturned to make political capital out of the event, much to the consternation of critics.

The latest to register the protest over what he alleged is political jugglery is Sajad Gani Lone, the younger son of late Abdul Gani Lone, who also claims to be his “real and legitimate” political heir. “It (bus service) is the first step towards the complete psychological integration of the two sides of Kashmir,” and cautioned the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh not to convert it into a farce.

Mr Sajad is of the firm belief that the bus service is not a product of visionary statesmanship of the Indian and Pakistani leadership but a product of “a heroic and defiant struggle of the people of Kashmir.”

He said, “It is a sacrificial product not a ceremonial product” and questioned the wisdom behind the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s decision to flag the bus off here on April 7.

Apparently taking a dig at Chief Minister Mufti Muhammad Sayeed, and his supporters in the ruling coalition, Mr Sajad said, “Converting it into a theatre with the ever servile section of Kashmiri leadership as the actors is tantamount to humiliating the sacrifices.” He insisted that the right to flag the bus off or board it lies with the “heirs of the martyrs, not those people who have been a part of the annihilation process of the Kashmiris.”

He added, “The bus service has the right psychological content to set the stage for realistic reconciliation.” Mr Sajad made a passionate appeal to the prime minister and others “not to make it impotent by pandering to political impotent section of leadership keen to thrive on the sacrifices in which they have no role.”

Meanwhile, the Srinagar government is waiting for the response from Islamabad to the proposal of carrying the state heads of all the mainstream parties on the first bus to Muzaffarabad. Ms Mehbooba Mufti and Mr Omar Abdullah are among the politicians who have filed their papers.—By arrangement with AsianAge/ Delhi