Srinagar: Home Minister Rajnath Singh, who has gone to Jammu and Kashmir with an “open mind” to find solutions to problems plaguing the state, was given an unusual but straightforward answer on Saturday – stop the negative propaganda against Kashmiris on television news if you want to end alienation.
Singh met several civil society members, including travel tour operators, hotel owners, shikhara wallas, at the Nehru guest house in Srinagar. Most of them had the same grudge that their business was suffering because some news channels television are painting a very negative picture of Kashmir, keeping tourists away.
House boat association member Abdul Khalid Wagnoo, said, “I told the home minister to put out an advisory and tell states that their people must come here as tourists and not believe the negative propaganda that some news channels are spreading.”
Rauf Tramboo, who runs an adventure sports business, also said he had requested the home minister to regulate TV news. “Electronic media broadcast is solely responsible for turning kashmiris against mainland India and vice versa,” he said.
“I have travelled all across India in 29 years of business and have friends all over. But today, my own friends in rest of India say ‘tum kashmiri bahut gande ho (You Kashmiris are very bad).' This is what national media has done,” he told CNN-News18 after the meeting.
The travel agents association also had the same message for the Home Minister. “Tourism is a peaceful activity and traders need the support of all other states. Media is creating a Us vs them divide. This must be stopped,” said Farooq A Kuthoo, an agent.
IG (law and order) Muneer Khan explained why the issue was getting so much traction in the civil society's meeting with Rajnath Singh. “Since 2014, when the floods came, this is the fourth summer when no tourists have come to Kashmir. All these delegates who depend on tourism are in dire straits,” he said.
The delegates also raised the issue of GST. Javed, representing hotel owners said we pleaded with the home ministers to save us from GST. “We are a poor state with very little economic activity. We are in even more trouble today because of GST," he said.
Rajnath Singh is on a four-day visit to Kashmir and is due to meet police and CRPF personnel in Anantnag on Sunday. He will hold a security review with the top security officers in Srinagar and also meet students before leaving for Jammu on Monday.
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