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‘Meri fat-ti thi wo kisko bataoon?’ Sushilkumar Shinde inadvertently admits even as Home Minister he was scared of visiting Lal Chowk during Congress rule

Sushil Kumar Shinde was appointed as India's Home minister by the then prime minister Manmohan Singh in 2012. He had succeeded P Chidambaram as the Union Home Minister. During his Kashmir visit, the Congress leader also did shopping at Srinagar's Lal Chowk. Back then, he was accompanied by erstwhile J&K state’s Chief Minister Omar Abdullah. 

On Tuesday (10th September), former UPA Union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde revealed that he was “scared” when he visited Srinagar’s Lal Chowk despite being the country’s Home Minister. The senior Congress leader noted that while the public lauded the Home Minister for not being fearful, he couldn’t tell anyone that he was scared in Lal Chowk.     

Notably, he made these remarks during the launch of his memoir ‘Five Decades in Politics’. Recalling his 2012 visit to the Kashmir valley, Shinde said, “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.”

He added, “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.”

While he claimed that he made the statement just to make people laugh, the Former UPA Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde inadvertently admitted that during the Congress-led UPA era, the fear of terrorism in the valley was such that even the country’s Home Minister was scared of visiting Srinagar’s Lal Chowk. Strikingly, up until recently under the Modi government, Lal Chowk was said to be the stronghold of separatist leaders like Yasin Malik and Pakistan-sponsored terrorists with open displays of Nationalist, Pro-India sentiments including waving the National flag attracting terror threats. 

It is pertinent to note that Sushil Kumar Shinde was appointed as India’s Home minister by the then prime minister Manmohan Singh in 2012. He had succeeded P Chidambaram as the Union Home Minister. During his Kashmir visit, the Congress leader also did shopping at Srinagar’s Lal Chowk. Back then, he was accompanied by erstwhile J&K state’s Chief Minister Omar Abdullah. 

Sharing his remarks, the Bharatiya Janata Party took a dig at the Congress party and contrasted the developments in the Kashmir valley under the UPA era vis-a-vis Modi government. According to them, while even the Union Home Minister was scared to visit Lal Chowk in the Congress era, conditions improved so much under the Modi government that Rahul Gandhi smoothly did the Bharat Jodo Yatra in Kashmir.

Several netizens also slammed the Congress party for its stance on terrorism. Some lambasted the Congress leader pointing out that he was reportedly the one who coined the saffron terror term.

Some of them even shared BJP leaders including Narendra Modi’s 1992 Ekta Yatra under the leadership of Dr Mulrli Manohar Joshi to unfurl the Indian flag Tricolour at the Lal Chowk despite open threats from terrorists. Back then, BJP leader Modi delivered a speech stating that the success of the Ekta Yatra had rattled the terrorists. 

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OpIndia Staff
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