The Minister for education, Naeem Akthar has called upon the civil society to contribute in bridging the trust deficit’ and razing the walls of distrust that have grown in the minds of the people. “I believe J&K has the distinction of being a bastion of multi-cultural, multi-religious political entity which is a miracle of the God” Naeem said in the backdrop of war, bloodshed and hatred prevailing around the world.He was addressing a gathering of civil society members including people from media, showbiz at the 6th Prof Sat Paul Sahni memorial lecture by famous media personality and Prof Ashok Ogra, Director Apeejay Institute of Mass Communication, New Delhi, Prof Ashok Ogra organized by J&K Regional Branch of Indian Institute of Public Administration (IIPA).In his lecture, Indian Story through Bollywood ‘Aaj Kal aur Aaj’, Prof Ogra gave a power point presentation on voyage of Indian films and the way these reflected the phases of Indian society in terms of social, political and economic changes.
BR Sharma, Chairman of IIPA J&K Regional Branch, eminent citizens of State including Dr SS Bleoria, Dr Ashok Bhan, Patron, IIPA, members of IIPA and civil society members were also present.Reacting to the areas of concern touched in the presentation, Naeem asserted that the Jammu Kashmir still enjoys the privilege of having a cosmopolitan society. “There is no place in the world like Jammu and Kashmir, no building like civil secretariat where the people of all religious faiths and ethnic extractions work together ” he said. “The challenge before us is now to preserve and strengthen this uniqueness” he asserted. He said people generally do not realize importance of this advantage in a given time adding “Like in Kashmir we had a cosmopolitan society in every sense. It was not realized then but is missed now”. He noted with concern that for past some time certain degree of distrust has crept in the hearts of the people which needs to be bridged.
“There is a challenge that we are slightly uninformed about each other and despite knowing each other for decades have started to judge each other on the basis of incidents and happenings taken place elsewhere”. He said as an education minister he felt the need and asked the policy makers that the new education policy should reflect and address this problem by including the social messages of all religions, which carry the general divine message of good and bad.There is a need to raze down the walls in our minds to save the bastion of humanity that is the ability of different people to live together, he said and hoped the civil society would guide the state in “As to how to spare the coming generations from the tragedy that we have lived”.