Srinagar, capital city of J and K was developed as a nice city by Sheikh Abdullah, prime minister of the last king and later Chief Minister of the state.The last king and people wanted J and K to be in Pakistan and he prevailed over the king and people for merger of the state with India.He was a great nationalist.I had a chance meeting with this great leader once at New Delhi.He invited me to Srinagar.But,I could not make it in his lifetime.
But chances kept on coming and I passed it on to my junior colleagues. A decade ago NBT was to hold a Book Fair at Srinagar and being a senior officer I was asked to be in charge of that event.
On reaching Srinagar I saw a Gurudwara at Lal Chowk, heart of the city. I was aware that in 1990 Hindu Pandits fled from the valley but Sikhs remained with courage. I met the Chief of that Gurudwara with one of my colleagues.
It was Langar time. He invited us for lunch.
After lunch I met the Chief and asked him,’When Pandits fled from here why you did not go ?’
We are heroes,not beggars.Pandits are beggars-cowards. They are always after free sops. We told the extremists that if they kill one Sardar we will kill two Muslim Extremists.But Pandits fled to Jammu and some of them to Punjab and Delhi as government offered them many things free.’ He replied with courage.
Many Hindus became member of BJP in 1990 and got a lot of patronage. So opportunistic BJP was that they took part in the government a decade ago and helped in ruining the state by traders from Delhi who are close to their party and have donated a big amount to BJP.
Once Kashmiri people understood the ploy and caught the culprits red handed,BJP left the government and divided the state into two UTs.They also scrapped the basic law Article 370 on the basis of which J and K merged with India.
I am afraid,because of this opportunistic aggression of BJP and its trader sympathisers we may lose Kashmir forever.And on one day we may find Kashmir as another Bangladesh and one may require a Visa to visit Srinagar…
