Congress leader Sushilkumar Shinde revealed on Tuesday that he was actually afraid during his visit to Lal Chowk in Jammu and Kashmir while serving as the Union Home Minister. During the launch of his memoir “Five Decades in Politics”, Shinde reminisced about his trip to the Valley in 2012.
“Before I became the Home Minister, I visited him (educationist Vijay Dhar). I used to ask him for advice. He advised me to not roam around but to visit Lal Chowk (in Srinagar), meet people and go around Dal Lake.”
“That advice gave me publicity and people thought that here is a Home Minister who goes there without any fear, lekin meri fat’ti thi wo kisko bataoon? (but who do I tell that I was scared?) I told you this just to make you laugh, but an ex-Policeman can’t speak like this,” the former Maharashtra chief minister was quoted by ANI as saying.
Shinde was appointed as the Home Minister by then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in 2012, taking over from P Chidambaram. During his visit to Srinagar, Shinde shopped at Lal Chowk and even visited a Kashmir arts showroom to buy items for his family. He was joined by then Chief Minister Omar Abdullah during the trip.
Shinde also made a stop at the Clock Tower, locally known as ‘Ghanta Ghar’. This structure, built in 1978 on the request of former chief minister Sheikh Abdullah, gained prominence during the protests of 2008 and 2010 in Kashmir, where the Pakistani flag was occasionally raised atop the tower.
Shinde’s tenure as Home Minister was marked by several major events, including the trials and executions of 26/11 Mumbai attacker Ajmal Kasab and Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru, and the 2012 Delhi gangrape case.
In response to Shinde’s revelations, Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan contrasted the situation in Jammu & Kashmir during the UPA era with the current state. He wrote on X, “In contrast, Jammu & Kashmir witnessed the return of democracy and a new era of peace and progress under the Modi Govt. Only PM @narendramodi ji’s iron-willed leadership can fulfil the promise of full statehood to J&K as well as realise aspirations of people. Congress and its ally JKNC will again bring back the darks days of terror, stone pelting and militancy.”
BJP spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla also commented on X, “UPA era Home Minister Sushil Shinde admits he was scared of going to J&K. Today Rahul Gandhi was comfortably seen doing Bharat Jodo Yatra & snow fight in Kashmir! But NC & Congress want to take back J&K back to days of terror!”
