Much ado about Sheikh Abdullah’s house

There is much ado in J&K over a house situated in the Capital’s Kotla Lane next to Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg. There has been talk in the capital that 3 Kotla lane, the house where Sheikh Abdullah was supposedly put under house arrest after the 1965 Indo-Pak war is now going to be handed over to the central government by the J & K CM Ghulam Nabi Azad in lieu of Azad's former residence in South Avenue lane. The controversy surrounding the house has in fact now acquired political tones and everybody has their own version.

One of the versions doing the rounds is that the move to hand over the state property has hurt the sentiments of Kashmiris, who are now demanding that the house be converted into a memorial for the Sheikh. Says Mehmooba Mufti, "There was talk of handing over the house to the central government even during the time when my father was CM, but at that time we decided against it. Currently it is difficult to say anything on the issue as there is not enough information regarding the historical authenticity of the house."

But culture czars and historians in the Capital have raised a demand to retain it as part of J & K's heritage. Says art afficionado Rajiv Sethi, "We have to respect the sentiments of the Kashmiri people. It is a historical house and afterall Sheikh was not called sher-e-Kashmir for nothing." Sethi however adds, that instead using the house as yet another dead building, "We should have a commemorative plaque at the house like the ones that abound in England, so that the building becomes a living entity."