Finally, giving up Tapasya (heat of energy or penance), which he had been ‘doing’ wearing t-shirt, during the Congress’s ongoing Bharat Jodo Yatra, Rahul Gandhi is again in his worldly form, attired in hooded Chester jacket to beat Kathua’s January cold. Good at least, for his health. Had this transformation dawned a day earlier, Uncle Farooq Abdullah would have gifted a Karakuli, like he gave to his father Rajiv Gandhi during 1986 Rajiv-Farooq Accord, the beginning of Kashmir’s misfortune. The ill-advised and the ill-conceived accord led Jammu and Kashmir to a disaster; it has been in, for over three decades now.
Rahul Gandhi must be living in a Utopian world. He is talking about binding India with those breaking its 5000 year old ethos. Beginning his sojourn after seeking ‘blessings’ of the controversial pastor Geooge Ponnaiah, a chronic Hindu basher, in Kanyakumari, Rahul is concluding the yatra in the company of Farooq Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti. What a climax?
The so-called proponents of Bharat Jodo, the Gandhi-Abdullah-Mufti trio owe answers to the nation for their misadventure on Kashmir. They have made known their opposition to the emotional integration of Jammu and Kashmir with the rest of the country by repealing Article 370. It will be interesting to watch Mehbooba Mufti becoming the foot-soldier during the proposed hoisting of tricolor in Srinagar at the culmination of the so-called yatra. Public memory is afresh to her threats, “Any tinkering with the article (Article 370) won’t be acceptable. I won’t hesitate in saying that nobody will even carry the corpse of the National Flag in Kashmir (if the article is scrapped). Let me make it very clear” (Kashmir Observer: July 28, 2017). Her bête noire turned ally in the Peoples’ Alliance for Gupkar Delegation (PAGD), Farooq Abdullah had wished that with China’s support Article 370 will be restored (Hindustan Times October 12, 2020). Does Rahul Gandhi think that his fellow dynasts will stand for Bharat Jodo, who created all obstacles in return of Kashmiri Pandits back to the Valley; who remained mute spectators to the killing of Ranjit Singh of Rajouri, a salesman at wine shop in Baramulla in grenade attack on May 17, 2022 and a Jammu-based teacher Rajni Bala from the reserved category in Kulgam district on May 30, 2022, not to speak of KPs and non-locals. What did this so-called mainstream National Conference and the PDP say to the proposal of raising transit accommodation for the Prime Minister Package KP employees in the Valley? In one voice, they said that no one will support “ghettoisation” of Pandits in segregated camps. They boasted high moral grandstanding that Pandits are welcome to settle in their original places of dwellings but did to the contrary during their governments in vacating encroachments of their immovable properties. The political establishment of Kashmir has always opposed the return of KPs. They will do it on any pretext.
While turning Kashmir ‘out of bounds’ for Sanatanis, the so-called Kashmiri mainstream leaders with the support of their Jammu-based factotums made huge inroads in the Temple City, after cleverly eulogizing the Dogra hospitality in the 1990s. The praises sprouting from Muftis and Abdullahs had a toxic effect on Jammuites, who became facilitators, one way or the other, in mushroom growth of colonies and mosques. Number of mosques grew by about nine-fold from three in just one year before hitting a century in the years to come, according to the Chairman of NGO Ikkjut Jammu Advocate Ankur Sharma in a presser on February 17. 2020. And, what happened to the temples across the Valley post 1990? Not to speak of any new temple coming up, the Valley witnessed vandalisation of thousands of worship places, according to the displaced temples and shrines activists. However, relying on the official figures, 208 temples suffered damages till 2012. Jammu and Kashmir Government told the Legislative Assembly in a written reply on October 4, 2012, that 208 temples in the then state suffered damages during past “two decades of terrorism with Srinagar witnessing highest number of acts of vandalism. “Of the 438 temples in the Valley, 208 had been damaged over the years,” stated the government, adding that 57 temples were damaged in Srinagar, followed by south Kashmir’s Anantnag district where 56 temples suffered damage. Advocate Sharma said that dubious NGOs, who receive funds from Islamic countries, helped Muslims buy property in Hindu dominated localities. As a consequence, a ring of Muslim colonies has been formed around Jammu. The Waqf Board has also been accused of illegally capturing lands from poor people. Advocate Sharma said that thousands of Kanals of land from the poor people of Jammu have been illegally captured by the Waqf and then allotted to people from ‘Samuday Vishesh’. He also said that 100,000 residential accommodations have been constructed for Muslims around Jammu since 1990.
This is how Rahul Gandhi’s newly acquired allies have been binding India for the past over three decades. (To be continued)
