Tejinder Singh Sodhi

 

Jammu, September 10: Kashmir Square, the sole shopping mall in Jammu, was inaugurated with much fanfare. So much so, it was named after the scenic beauty of the Kashmir valley. But fearing a backlash due to the Amarnath land row, the owners of the shopping mall have changed its name from Kashmir Square to City Square.

 

The growing resentment among the Jammu residents against the Kashmiri people was reason enough for the owners to change its name.

 

“The people in Jammu were agitating against Kashmir and retaining the name as Kashmir Square would have proved costly to us. So we decided to remove Kashmir from the mall’s name”, one of the owners said.

 

Not only Kashmir Square, but a newly inaugurated lounge - Kashmir lounge - too got its name changed. Kashmir, is no longer prefixed in its name.

 

“Kashmir has become a symbol of autocracy over the Jammu region. People here no longer want Jammu to be represented with Kashmir”, an employee at the lounge, said.

 

Such is the simmering anger in Jammu against Kashmir that at many places, the name “Kashmir” is either being deleted, or is being replaced by any other name as people don’t want their business establishments to be represented with Kashmir.

 

The world-famous Kashmiri apple, too, has lost its sheen in Jammu, and is being sold as “Himachali” apple.

 

“This apple is from Kashmir, but when we tell our customers that the apple is from Kashmir, they refuse to buy it. So we decided to sell the apple as Himachali apple”, Pawan Kumar, a fruit-seller at the Jammu bus stand, said.

 

Pawan said: “We also destroyed the cartons in which the apples were packed so that customers did not know that the fruit had come from Kashmir”.

 

“We don’t want to be recognised with Kashmir as they denied us of our basic rights. They protested to snatch the land from the Amarnath Shrine Board, so we don’t want to be a part with them”, Rakesh Kumar, a postgraduate student, said.

 

[Tribune News Service ]

Posted on 11 Sep 2008 by Webmaster