New Delhi: Sixty foreign delegates arrived in Jammu & Kashmir to participate in the third G20 Tourism Working Group meeting in Srinagar beginning Monday. But this is not the first time the Union territory is playing host to high-profile foreign visitors.
Over the years, Jammu & Kashmir has seen many prominent guests — from Soviet leaders Nikolai Bulganin and Nikita Khrushchev to lead guitarist of The Beatles, George Harrison.
Other famous visitors include former US ambassadors to India Timothy J Roemer and Frank Wisner, actress Joan Fontaine, former US vice-president and businessman Nelson Rockefeller, Imam of Mecca Sheikh al-Salaya, and a group of 18 Pakistani journalists.
India has faced criticism over its decision to hold the G20 meeting in the Union territory where Article 370, which granted special autonomous status to Jammu & Kashmir, was abrogated on 5 August, 2019.
The meeting — the first major international event to have been held in the region since the abrogation — is being held amid tight security, with intelligence agencies, the armed forces and the police on high alert to counter any terror threat. China, Turkey, Oman, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia have chosen to skip the event.
Here’s a look at prominent foreign visitors J&K has hosted in the past:
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Nikita Khrushchev & Nikolai Bulganin
In late 1955, Soviet leader Nikolai Bulganin and former Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Nikita Khrushchev made their first official visit to India since the country’s independence in 1947 — also the year when Jammu & Kashmir became a part of India.
Bulganin and Khrushchev visited Srinagar in 1955, where then Prime Minister of Jammu & Kashmir, Bakshi Ghulam Mohammad, had organised a festival in their honour called ‘Jashn-e-Kashmir’. The visit was seen as a political message, highlighting the USSR’s support to India on Kashmir.
One of the most famed images from the visit is of Mohammad feeding goshtaba, a famed Kashmiri dish of meatballs, to Khrushchev.
After his return, the Soviet leader began vetoing resolutions on Kashmir in favour of India in the United Nations.
George Harrison
Another interesting and prominent visitor to Jammu & Kashmir was George Harrison.
Being an ardent fan of sitarist Pandit Ravi Shankar, Harrison visited India in 1966 with his wife — first landing in Mumbai for a six-week trip — to take lessons from the sitar virtuoso.
After being mobbed by fans, the duo decided to take solace in Kashmir and retreated into the famous houseboats on Dal Lake.
The lines “And the time will come when you see we’re all one/And life flows on within you and without you”, from the iconic Beatles song Within You Without You part of the band’s album ‘Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band’, believed to have been inspired by Harrison’s time in Srinagar, are considered a tribute to Pandit Ravi Shankar.
Timothy J Roemer
Roemer landed in Kashmir in 2011 on a two-day visit, during which he met then Jammu & Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah as well as people from various walks of life and discussed ways to restore permanent peace in the region.
“The US ambassador evinced keen interest in the new initiatives put in place by the Omar (Abdullah)-led government for speedy and equitable development in all the regions and subregions of the state, and for restoration of permanent peace and political stability in the state,” the US embassy stated, following the visit.
Roemer also met with officials of the Lakes and Waterways Development Authority, discussing efforts to improve the quality of water in Dal Lake, one of the key tourist attractions in the region.
Roemer restricted his engagements to meeting children and non-political NGOs in the region. Following the custom for foreign diplomats, he ignored meeting separatist leaders or those from any other political party, including the main opposition Jammu and Kashmir People’s Democratic Party.
Pakistani journalists
In October 2004, in a first historic visit in 57 years, a group of 18 senior journalists from Pakistan visited Jammu, Srinagar and New Delhi on the invitation of the Indian chapter of the South Asian Free Media Association (SAFMA).
They met several leaders across the political spectrum in the region, from then chief minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed to leaders of various political parties, local journalists, and others.
The interaction was meant to “reduce distances and create the right atmosphere for improvement of relations”, Sayeed had said.
Other delegates
Since the abrogation of Article 370 in 2019, the central government has organised numerous delegate visits to Jammu & Kashmir.
From 2020 onwards, at least three groups of diplomats have visited the Valley.
The first of these visits was in January 2020, when ambassadors from 15 nations including the US, Norway and South Korea visited Kashmir and interacted with politicians, local leaders and journalists, among others.
A second delegation visited Srinagar the following month, after which travel restrictions were imposed due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
In February 2021, a third delegation, composed of 24 foreign envoys, including EU ambassador Ugo Astuto, French envoy Emmanuel Lenain, Italian envoy Vincenzo de Luca, among others, visited Jammu & Kashmir.
Amid tight security, the envoys met local residents and witnessed public outreach initiatives and people-centric schemes being implemented by the government.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
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