Last Tuesday I went to see a friend after a  month’s disconnect. Sipping into the spirit of my friend’s hospitality, our conversation narrowed down from family and friends to the current burning subject — ‘Operation Sindoor.’

My friend asked if I had read an article by Veena S. Rao, a retired IAS Officer (who retired as Secretary to Government of India, Ministry for the Development of the North Eastern Region), titled “Muzaffarabad: The house that burned, the nation that endured.” I said, No. He said it was published in Monday’s Deccan Herald and I must read it. I said I will, as he poured another spirit enhancer. I kept my word. So here I am reflecting on her recollection of her early days in an undivided British India and her own home and hearth in Muzaffarabad, the present capital of PoK.

I have met Veena Rao in early 1980s when she was the Deputy Commissioner (DC) of Kodagu. I was the President of a self-proclaimed do-gooder organisation known as Kodagu Original Inhabitants’ Protection Committee. R. Gundu Rao was the Chief Minister and the local original inhabitants had problems with law and order and encroachment of land by the immigrants encouraged by the Congress Party activists.

The Committee had organised its annual public meeting at the Madikeri Town Hall. Permission was obtained from the authorities — the DC and the Police — but the previous day of the meeting our local activists were to be arrested. The targeted ones went underground. I got the message that Police were looking for me and was advised not to go to Madikeri and cancel the meeting. The local Congress party had asked the DC to withdraw the permission.

However, l went in the afternoon, checked in to the Valley View Hotel and met our activists. They had even arranged two elephants for the procession before converging at the Town Hall. The atmosphere was tense and uncertain.

It was then I went and met Kodagu DC Veena Rao, draped in saree. She heard me out and then asked me to meet the SP, which I did. I was   asked to take personal responsibility for the peaceful procession and conduct of the meeting. I agreed.

Two leading Opposition Party Kodava politicians too came and addressed the packed Town Hall. Thanks to DC Veena Rao.

In retrospect, I would say if there was a man in her place as DC, he would have taken an adverse decision and that would have been cause for law and order situation. Thank you Madam.

At that time I did not know her Kashmir connection. It is only now after reading the article I learnt of her Kashmiri roots.

For those who were in favour of the hurriedly made Partition of the country (yielding to Muhammad Ali Jinnah’s view that for Muslims their religion (Islam) is the Nation), the Hindus, Buddhists, Jains, Sikhs and Christians became irrelevant. The Congress leaders, to whom the British handed over the power, chose to be a Secular country, with a huge number of Muslims remaining in India as minority.

In an electoral democracy, this led to appeasement of minority by the Congress while caste-ridden Hindu majority became irrelevant. No wonder, Kashmir became an albatross around the neck of truncated India. Also, no wonder Pahalgam happened. Fortuitously for India, this time ‘Operation Sindoor’ also happened. Veena Rao’s article also happened because of ‘Operation Sindoor.’

I remember Kuldeep Nayar, well-known Journalist and Indian High Commissioner to UK, who managed to escape to India from Pakistan following Partition, writing in his book:

“One day when Jinnah was in Lahore, Iftikhar-ud-Din, Pakistan’s Rehabilitation Minister and Mazhar Ali Khan, Editor of The Pakistan Times, flew him (Jinnah) in a Dakota over divided Punjab. When he saw streams of people pouring into Pakistan or fleeing it, he struck his hand on the forehead and said despairingly: ‘What have I done?’”

Yes, Jinnah has blood on his hands.  All the five Rivers of Punjab cannot wash it.

The opening para of Veena Rao’s article encapsulates the violence Hindus were subjected to and the trauma they underwent soon as India was divided. Let me quote:  

“Over the past few days, television channels have repeatedly shown a house destroyed in Muzaffarabad. I called my elder brother and asked, ‘Hope that was not our house.’ He replied, ‘No, ours was burnt way back in October 1947’.”         

The burning continues even to this day. On 22nd April 2025 it was killing in Kashmir, which is why ‘Operation Sindoor.’   

But who will tell India that ceasefire decision has always been a curse to India? Those who do not learn from the past are doomed to perish, it is said. May be, the present ceasefire is like the calm before the storm.

Madam Veena Rao, you have concluded your article rather poignantly and in despair:

“Life has done full circle. The attacks on Muzaffarabad and Gari Hatian (Veena Rao’s mother’s village), which I heard as a child, I hear again in my evening years.”

I understand your pain. But, have faith in Modi. He will cease to be a “ceasefire” Prime Minister like his predecessors and get back to you your, and ours too, beloved Muzaffarabad and Gari Hatian.

Modi Hai Toh Mumkin Hai.

e-mail: [email protected]