Rahul Gandhi appears at Lal Chowk; sips tea at makeshift stall

Srinagar: Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi on Friday took everyone by surprise by suddenly appearing at Srinagar’s historic Lal Chowk (Red Square) where he spent some time sipping tea at a makeshift tea stall.

Rahul, who is on a 3-day visit of Jammu and Kashmir, after addressing party workers at the headquarters of J&K PCC along nearby Moulana Azad Road relocated to Lal Chowk. After asking his cavalcade to stop there, he walked to the tea stall and asked the ‘chaiwalla’ to make tea for him, witnesses said. Much to the awe of onlookers, he sat on a bench and began sipping tea. His security detail and senior Congress men accompanying him looked worried. Before leaving, he handed over Rs 200 to the vendor and said “shukriya”.

The vendor told reporters who rushed to the spot that he was surprised to see Rahul ordering his cavalcade to stop and then walking towards him. “He sat on the bench before telling me, ‘Make tea for me,” the vendor was quoted as saying by ‘Kashmir Life’ reporter.

Lal Chowk is the nerve centre of Srinagar often used for political articulation during past nearly seven decades besides being the business hub of Jammu and Kashmir’s summer capital. It was after the tribal militia from Pakistan invaded Kashmir in 1947 autumn that National Conference (NC) leadership named Srinagar’s central square as Lal Chowk. Previously, it would be called Palladium Chowk for its close proximity to the Valley’s one of the oldest cinema houses Palladium.

It was at Lal Chowk that Kashmir’s legendary leader Sheikh Muhammad Abdullah after joining hands with Rahul’s great grandfather Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru pledged “Tu man shodi, man tu shudam (You are in me, I’m in you).” During the heyday of militancy, Lal Chowk’s face was mutilated several times due to fires set off by fire fights between militants and security forces.