'I was scared': Ex-home minister Shinde recalls visits to J&K; BJP reacts

New Delhi: Former Union home minister Sushilkumar Shinde on Tuesday revealed he was scared while visiting Lal Chowk in Jammu and Kashmir during his ministerial stint.
At the launch of his memoir ‘Five Decades in Politics’, Shinde recalled his visit to the Valley in 2012.
“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."
“That advice gave me publicity and people thought that here is a Home Minister who goes there without any fear, lekin meri fat'tithi wo kiskobataoon? (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,” the former Maharashtra chief minister was quoted by ANI as saying.
Shinde was appointed as India's home minister by then prime minister Manmohan Singh in 2012.
cceeded P Chidambaram as the Union home minister in 2012. During his visit, the Congress leader shopped at Srinagar's Lal Chowk. He also stopped at a Kashmir arts showroom in the J&K capital to shop for his family. Then chief minister Omar Abdullah also accompanied the Union minister.
Shinde also visited the Clock Tower in Srinagar during his visit. The Clock Tower, also known as ‘Ghanta Ghar’, was built in 1978 at the request of former chief minister Sheikh Abdullah. When protests erupted in the Kashmir Valley during 2008 and 2010, there were occasions when the Pakistani flag was raised atop the tower.
Shinde's tenure as the home minister saw the trials and executions of 26/11 Mumbai attacker Ajmal Kasab and Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru and the 2012 Delhi gangrape case.
Bharatiya Janata Party spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla said in an X post,"UPA era Home Minister Sushil Shinde admits he was scared of going to J&K “They told me to go Kashmir and do Photo-op at Dal lake for me and UPA's Public image as Home Minister of India. But I was scared." Today Rahul Gandhi was comfortably seen doing Bharat Jodo Yatra & snow fight in Kasmir! But NC & Congress want to take back J&K back to days of terror !"