K.S. Ramkumar, Arab News
The 60 percent turnout of voters in the first phase of civic elections held in Jammu & Kashmir on Saturday is "yet another evidence" of the waning support to militancy in the state. The other evidence is the figure of nearly one million tourists visiting the state last year and heavy bookings from visitors for 2005. "Sixty percent turnout at the state's civic elections is better than the average in the national parliamentary election. People have been feeling neglected and isolated and lagging behind the rest of the country due to militancy, and the civic election turnout should be serve as the right message to whatever militants remaining in the state. They are keen to have their share of globalization and industrialization," India's federal Urban Development and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad who led a 36-member Haj goodwill delegation, told reporters at Hotel Trident shortly before his return home. Hinting that there was already a perceptible change in the troubled Kashmir's tourist industry, Azad said some tourist infrastructure was still in tact, although part of it was destroyed during the past 15-year militancy.
"Honey, I just can't decide. Where should we go this year? A cruise? Or Kashmir?"
"Oh, Herb! It's so hard to decide!" |
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