SRINAGAR, Oct 3: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, who is scheduled to arrive in Kashmir tomorrow, has invited a group of the country’s corporate giants to accompany him to the valley where a 23-year-old violence is waning and economic activities are picking up.
The young Gandhi is scheduled to lay the foundation stone of a tunnel connecting the Kashmir valley with Ladakh region which remains disconnected in winters due to heavy snow.
Ratan Tata, Kumarmangalam Birla, Rajiv Bajaj and Deepak Parekh among others have been invited by the congress’ general secretary to travel with him and are expected to interact with students at the university of Kashmir.
Their visit is expected to give a track to employment opportunities in the region which is reeling under unemployment and private employment has just picked up after a systemic collapse during more than two decades of armed conflict.
Last week, President Pranab Mukherjee was in the valley to preside over the 18th convocation of the university. He addressed meritorious students who were to receive gold medals and doctorate degrees, but only after minute verifications by security agencies who carefully scanned their background to pre-empt any ‘protest indiscipline’.
“No problems are ever resolved by violence. It only aggravates the pain and the hurt on every side. The healing process must be nurtured with love, compassion and patience,” the President told a young audience and asked them not to “lose any more time (as) the whole world is rapidly transforming itself…”
“Let the dark days of violence and conflict be left behind. Let a new dawn emerge. It is the time to move ahead with faith in our collective future and confidence in the largest democracy in the world, where rule of law prevails,” Mukherjee said.
But no sooner had the President left Kashmir for New Delhi than the authorities abruptly blocked mobile internet services across the valley which has already been reeling under an unprecedented SMS ban for the past two years.
Although the government denies any such move, telecom companies say they have been intimated to block access to social networking sites like YouTube and Facebook.
Private cellular companies have also blocked GPRS facilities on the mobile telephones, which of-late was becoming an increasing part of modern life for the youth of Kashmir.
