“He is from Kashi,” quipped a beaming Home Minister Amit Shah as he referred to his dinner mate on Monday — CRPF constable Deepak Kumar who belongs to Varanasi, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s constituency.
Constable Deepak Kumar has been with the CRPF for the last seven years. He has tackled terror encounters and various other law and order challenges but never been so overwhelmed as he was on Monday. “It is an unbelievable experience for me,” he told News18 as he shared the dinner table with Shah and Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha.
Was Kashi the reason he got a chance to share the table with the home minister? Kumar and his colleagues insisted it all happened by chance. “He suddenly came and sat on our table,” Indian Army Jawan Veerendra Kumar said.
Shah had ‘bada khana’ with jawans of Indian Army, CRPF, ITBP, BSF and SSB at Lethpora CRPF camp on Tuesday. Addressing the gathering, he said this interaction was the highest point of his three-day visit to Jammu and Kashmir.
“I wanted to come here and meet all of you; understand your experiences, difficulties and your spirit to defend the country. So I came here,” Shah said while addressing the gathering of para military and military personnel.
Deepak Kumar from CRPF, Nagraj from BSF, Anil Kapri from ITBP and Veerendra Kumar from 50RR of Indian Army shared the table with Shah and L-G Sinha. When News18 asked them about their dinner-time conversation, all four said it was an experience of a lifetime. “He asked me about my current posting, facilities that I get at work, my family back home,” Kapri said.
About 500 other personnel from various forces, DGs of BSF, CRPF, JKP, Union Home Secretary, Director IB, Commander of 16 Corps and other senior officials all were present at the ‘bada khana’. The dinner was seen as an attempt to boost the morale of the forces and also send a message to the terror groups. Lethpora CRPF camp is a few metres away from the site of the Pulwama terror attack where 40 CRPF jawans were martyred.
Minutes before the home minister reached Lethpora, local media reported a blast in Kakapora, Pulwama. It was speculated as a grenade blast but Kashmir Police later denied it.
Shah, after reaching the camp, praised the paramilitary forces for their role in ensuring peace in Kashmir post abrogation of Article 370. “When Article 370 and 35A were removed, there was a lot of speculation about a possible reaction. There were also apprehension about a blood bath. But it was the alertness and role played by paramilitary forces that not a single bullet was fired,” he said.
Shah spent the night at the Lethpora camp. He laid a wreath at the martyrs’ memorial on Tuesday morning before flying back to Delhi.
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