Team News Riveting
Srinagar, December 13
A boat carrying journalists capsized earlier today in Srinagar’s Dal Lake while they were covering a BJP rally.
Since it was a BJP event, the opposition parties besides “misguided” Kashmiri youths did not miss the opportunity to make mockery. All the journalists, reported to be four in number, were immediately rescued even as camera persons with equipment swimming to shore could be seen in the videos that went viral.
According to eyewitnesses, the shikara carrying media persons capsized near Ghat no. 17 adjacent to Chaar Chinary just as it was about to reach the bank of the Dal Lake in Srinagar. The incident took place towards the last leg of the rally.
The ‘shikara rally’ for DDC elections was led by MoS (Finance) Anurag Thakur. He is the BJP’s in-charge for the DDC elections in J&K. Local leaders, including Sofi Yousuf and Altaf Thakur were also present.
Locals, along with J&K Police and State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) personnel rushed to the spot and rescued the media persons.
On Sunday, polling began for the 6th phase of DDC (District Development Council) election being held in J&K for 31 seats. Besides these, voting is also on for 334 Panch and 77 Sarpanch seats. The 8-phase elections started from 28th November and will conclude on 19th December.
These are the first major elections in the region after abrogation of Article 370 in the erstwhile state of J&K which made J&K an integral part of India without any riders attached. These polls are crucial for the Peoples’ Alliance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD), a group of mostly regional political parties, the BJP and the newly formed Apni Party.
BJP’s opponents tried to gain political mileage and mocked at the incident in which scribes had a miraculous escape.
J&K PDP spokesperson Najmu Saqib tweeted that ‘imported’ lotuses do not grow in ‘our’ Dal Lake, thereby trying to show that Kashmir is not a part of India.
National Conference spokesperson Sarah Hayat Shah sarcastically called it “water jihad”. Some wrote, “Anti-national Dal Lake.” A twitter user described it as “Dal Lake’s befitting reply to the BJP.”
