Chand Ji Bhat
Pandit Tika Lal Taploo was a lion amongst men in Kashmir. I do not remember there was any other person who had gained this title. He was born in 1930 and did his Post and Law graduation from Aligarh Muslim University. In the beginning, he was refused to admission but he launched an agitation against the university authorities, and compelled them to give admission, and completed his studies there in 1958.
In the year 1967, a Muslim employee abducted a Hindu girl in Srinagar. In response to it Hindus started demonstrating against the callous attitude of the police and the administrative authorities. Among many prominent persons Pt Tika Lal Taploo also condemned the brutalities perpetuated by police on demonstrators. Pt. Tika Lal Taploo excelled his activities under the banner of Bhartiya Jan Sangh. He contested Parliament and Assembly elections but lost Habba Kadal Assembly seat in 1972 by a margin of only few hundred votes while Congress candidate lost deposit.
He was very popular among people due to his deeds. How one can forget his discipline in the party rank and file by his instinctively obeying the instructions of one who was younger in age and far less experienced in life and work. He was a great orator and could keep his audience spell bound by his logic and a special emphatic way of delivering his words.
There would hardly be an issue pertaining to the political, social and economical discrimination against any seek of people, over which Pt Tika Lal Taploo may not have raised his voice to let it reach the higher authority and administration. Uncertainties, failures in life did not ever deter him from the path of fight against the autocratic attitude of state. Tears of suffering people irrespective of caste would move him. He was a skilled and gifted lawyer, but never did he use his skill for commercial gains. He always tried to plead the cases of poor without any charges. Material gains had very less influence on his temperament. Dedication in the services of nation and fearlessness imbibed by him in RSS Shakha remained with him all through his life.
Pt Tika Lal Taploo was a politician and rose to the high office of Vice President of Pradesh Bhartiya Janta Party. He was a fearless, transparent, honest and an upright politician. He was a “Nationalist’’ so could never compromise on the question of “Bharat’’ and Kashmir being an integral part of it.
He was quick to denounce the bomb blast in a mosque in Chinkral Mohalla where he lived. He was selected as the first target amongst lacs of Kashmiri Pandits and was brutally gunned down by the terrorists on September 13, 1989.
He was given a tearful farewell. Thousands of Kashmiri Hindus accompanied his funeral procession. The Kashmiri Hindu organizations had given a call for a bandh that day. The Hindu shops’ schools and office-establishment were closed. As the mortal remains of Lala Ji on his last journey wound its way through the streets of Srinagar some miscreants of JKLF tried to disrupt the procession by pelting stones on the procession. They however failed in their attempt to disrupt the procession. The Muslim community in general was also grief stricken but choose to stay quite because of the gun culture just unleashed in Srinagar. Among others Kedar Nath Sahni and L K Advani also accompanied his funeral.
We lost our great leader an iron man ‘Pt Tika Lal Taploo’’. His killers have not been arrested yet, but enjoying freedom. How pity ?
(The author is District President Bhartiya Janata Party)
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