Our Country Has Left Us Alone, CM Mehbooba Tells TAAI Delegates

by Tahir Bhat

Srinagar: Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti on Tuesday regretted that India has left Jammu and Kashmir alone. She was speaking to a huge gathering of TAAI members whose 64^th convention she inaugurated in SKICC.

Chief Minister and her cabinet colleagues at TAAI inaugural function

“Our situation is not hidden from anybody,” Mehbooba said in her speech. “But our problem is that our country has left us alone.”

Admitting that the state was going through a difficult phase, the Chief Minister said the biggest problem the government is facing is tackling the security situation.

The situation, Mehbooba said, can be tackled in various ways and methods. “But we are using a bullet for bullet only,” she insisted. “And bullets lead to wounds and injury.”

“Guns are used to inflict wounds and (but) there has to be somebody who will help balm these wounds,” Mufti said. “It needs healing touch and the government cannot do it, alone. It can be done by the people of our country.”

Insisting that TAAI has the capacity to partner in the healing touch, Mufti recalled her father saying that every tourist footfall in Kashmir is “an investment in peace”. She said TAAI was called to manage this handholding, to put the balm on these wounds.

TAAI Convention: Mehbooba Mufti's Speech

Chief Minister Ms Mehbooba Mufti delivered an emotional speech after throwing open the TAAI Convention – the first since 1987, at SKICC in Srinagar. She asked delegates to contribute in peace by sending visitors to Kashmir that is caught in a difficult situation

Posted by Kashmir Life on Tuesday, March 27, 2018

“A soldier fights on the border or the militancy is fighting for peace in his own way,” the Chief Minister said. “But there is a lot of alienation and the crown of the country has lost its sheen for some time. It needs to be treated by you.” She said when the visitor arrives in Kashmir; it is an investment in peace.

The Chief Minister said that people in Kashmir are warm but, at the same time, they are bruised for no fault of theirs. “The country was divided and they had no role in it,” she said. “But when bullets are fired, it is on the borders of the state and not in Gujarat, Punjab or other places and when militants are infiltrated, it is in Jammu and Kashmir and when bullets fly, they hit the people of the state.”

Mehbooba said that the TV has created an impression that Jammu and Kashmir are unsafe. “You are sitting here and there could be an encounter somewhere far away but then our visitors here will get phone calls asking them if they are in the same Kashmir that Republic TV, Times Now, News X is showing,” Mehbooba said. “They are creating an impression that as if Kashmir is burning which is untrue.”

Offering the rare distinction of the state, Mehbooba said that Jammu and Kashmir is the only place in India where “women are safe”. She asked them to get their families to Kashmir so that they are able to persuade others to come to Srinagar. She termed the people of Kashmir as Waqt Kay Sataye and Taqdeer Kay Maray.

Chief Minister described tourism as the best means of people to people dialogue adding that every effort in this regard would be an investment in peace. She said tourism helps build bridges among people which ultimately leads to minimizing alienation or misgivings about each other. Mehbooba was emotional in describing the state and status of Kashmir and it was responded by the audience by standing ovation.

The three-day TAAI convention is being held at Srinagar after a gap of 31 years. The last TAAI convention was held here in 1987. She asked TAAI members to clear the negative perceptions about Jammu & Kashmir in their respective markets.

The Chief Minister said every region of the State offers a unique attraction to tourists of every kind. She said she has asked the Department to devise packages for every segment-youth, old, newlywed, nature lovers, conservation activists, students of society so that its multidimensional facet is explored properly.

“My father used to say that people tell us that if you do good deeds, you will land in heaven,” Mehbooba said. “But he would say, he did not know if this Jannat (Kashmir) was more beautiful than the Jannat in the hereafter.”

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