Amarnath Yatra: BJP govt in Gujarat takes a U-turn

Within days after issuing a circular in connection with the Amarnath Yatra, Vijay Rupani led BJP government in Gujarat on Saturday cancelled the circular saying that it was to avoid any misinterpretations.

The state government on March 16 issued a circular mentioning the Do's and Don'ts for the pilgrims and tour operators from Gujarat.

Among several other guidelines, it also mentioned that the conductor, bus driver and the pilgrims should keep a bullet proof jacket.

Last year, seven pilgrims were killed and several others were injured when a bus from Gujarat was attacked by terrorists in the Valley.

The mention of bullet proof jackets resulted in a controversy and the opposition Congress lapped up the opportunity. A section of media reported and the tour operators were wondering as to how would that be possible.

The circular had not mentioned from where the bullet proof jackets had to be procured and how much it would cost. Nonetheless, it was clear with the tour operators that per person cost would go up by a few thousand rupees in the event of making the bullet proof jackets available.

While cancelling the circular, minister of state for home Pradeepsinh Jadeja said that the Modi government at the Centre and the Gujarat government were committed to provide security to Amarnath pilgrims.

He promised that the state government would provide protection to Amarnath Yatris going from Gujarat. However, there was no mention of how it would be done.

Gujarat Congress spokesperson Manish Doshi said that the circular showed that the central government headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi was not capable of providing security to the Hindus. “This is the same Prime Minister, who before winning Lok Sabha elections, had categorically said that they would get 10 heads of the neighbours in response to one head of an Indian soldier,” said Doshi.

In the circular, the state government had given several instructions to the tour operators. The instructions included following the route given by the Jammu and Kashmir government, not stopping on the road, having details of all the pilgrims, condition of the bus, fitness of the driver and age limit of the pilgrims.

Last year when the bus was attacked, the driver had not followed a route and had even stopped the bus at a place where he was not supposed to.

Interestingly, there were two circular that did rounds in the social media. In one of the circulars there was no mention of the bullet proof jacket and in another circular there was a mention about it.