J&K to provide security to Gulmarg New Year's Eve event after Separatist diktat
Srinagar: Jammu and Kashmir government has decided to provide security cover to a New Year’s Eve musical and comedy show in ski-resort of Gulmarg after a rightwing separatist leader issued a diktat asking people to stay away from it as it was “an onslaught on Islamic ideology of the Valley’s people”.
“Gulmarg is a secured destination visited by thousands of domestic and outside tourists throughout the year without facing any nuisance. Yet we have offered security cover to the event in question to make it hassle-free,” said a police officer here on condition of anonymity.
BJP which rules the State with Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) and likeminded groups have sharply reacted to a statement issued by all-women Dukhtaran-e-Millat (daughters of the faith) chief, Sayeda Aasiya Andrabi, that the planned New Year celebrations at Gulmarg were part of RSS’s plan to export ‘lewd culture’ into Kashmir. BJP’s MLA Ravinder Raina, who also heads the party’s youth wing in the State, while reacting to Ms. Andrabi’s statement said, “I’m now going to Kashmir to celebrate New Year eve. Let me see who dares to stop me.” The PDP is maintaining silence on the issue.
Ms. Andrabi had on Saturday castigated a local event group for organising a cultural programme at Gulmarg on December 31. “This program is being sponsored by a few Urdu and English dailies and TV channels. In this programme shameless Bollywood actors have been invited to perform,” she said adding that the event being branded as an exemplary show of Kashmiryat is actually an attempt to counter the Islamic ideology of Kashmiris. “The real culture of Kashmir is related to Islam and it has no place to celebrate events like New Year’s Eve. These events can be important for any culture but they don't have any connection with Islam,” she asserted.
The Dukhtaran chief also alleged that such events are being organised in Kashmir under the agenda devised by RSS “to thrust shameless and lewd culture upon Kashmir.” She also said, “This program is not a Parwaaz of Kashmir as it has been named but the Parwaaz (flight) of a vulture which is always destined towards filth.” She asked the people of the Valley to remain away from such programmes asserting, “On one hand, our youth are laying down their lives for Islam and, on the other hand, these shameless programmes are being held here. We should refrain from playing into the hands of RSS and their local agents.”
The event management concern ‘Kashmiriyat’ has strongly denied the charge that it is being held at the behest of RSS. “We’re local Kashmiris, very much part and parcel of this society. We’re not RSS agents,” said Imraan Bhat who heads ‘Kashmiriyat’. He added that even the J&K government is not part of the event, which, he said, would be a sincere attempt on part of ‘Kashmiriyat’ to promote the Valley’s music, rich culture and tourism.
