When European MPs would discuss tourism partnership in Kashmir

Tribune News Service

Jammu, February 11

There were times when ambassadors and law-makers of the European Union (EU) would visit Kashmir to talk about the tourism potential of the Valley and seek building of mutual partnerships, as normalcy made a sense of its own then.

Tomorrow, when envoys from nearly two dozen countries, including those representing the EU, would arrive in Kashmir, they would be made to see normalcy moving up step-by-step after the relaxation of various degrees of the August 5, 2019, “big bang” when the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir was stripped off Article 370, and the fear of massive protests led to a lockdown that the world saw through the prism of western media.

But there were times when normalcy spoke for itself owing to the ground situation and the efforts of the men who knew the world and Kashmir like the back of their hand.

Recalling one such visit by the MEPs in June 2004, the then Director-General of Tourism, Salim Beg, told The Tribune that the then co-chairman of the India-European Union, NN Vohra, who also was the interlocutor on Kashmir had brought a group of 27 MEPs to Kashmir. “Their (MEP’s) focus was to calibrate tourism potential and seek partnership in its promotion in their respective countries.”

Beg, while giving a vivid account of the visit, said the MEPs, “went all over”. They went to Gulmarg, Dal Lake and also to the shrine of Khanklah-e-Moula in downtown Kashmir. Those were times when normalcy defined Kashmir.

In June 2004, Vohra had brought 27 MEPs in his capacity as the co-chairman of the India-European Union Round Table. Vohra quit the post after he was appointed the Governor of Jammu and Kashmir in June 2008 and remained in the post for more than 10 years (2008-2018).

For three days (June 17 to 20), the MEPs were in Kashmir. Vohra was the founder of the (India-EU) co-chair in 2001. He was invited to this task by the then Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, who trusted him a lot. Vajpayee had also appointed Vohra as interlocutor on Kashmir in 2003. It was within days after he had made a historic call for friendship to Pakistan from the soil of Kashmir, still embedded in the history of the two countries as a turning point in that era.

In June 2004, when 27 MEPs visited Kashmir, Mufti Mohammad Sayeed was the Chief Minister of J&K, and a natural normalcy had started replacing guns and grenades.

The visiting MEPs had discussed the matters with the then Governor Gen SK Sinha and the Chief Minister. They also held discussion about the tourism potential and partnerships. The MEPs bought classic items of the Kashmiri handicrafts that were put on display for them – the Emporium building had burnt because of short-circuiting – worth more than Rs 1 crore in a matter of two hours. The CM had agreed to ship the furniture items that they had bought to their respective places.

On June 19, 2004 afternoon, when the MEPs held a no-holds barred press conference on the lawns of Grand Palace Hotel, they said that they viewed and recognised Kashmir like any other place of India, Mumbai or Delhi.

Join Whatsapp Channel of The Tribune for latest updates.