Ambassador Deepak Vohra's Lecture on Kashmir: The Journey Resumes

Ambassador Deepak Vohra’s lecture at IILM Kashmir: The Journey Resumes

As part of the Critical Thinking, Reading and Writing Career Course at IILM, a lecture of Ambassador Deepak Vohra, currently the Special Advisor to the Prime Minister of India, was organised for the students to apprise them about the Kashmir issue that has been dominating the news and people’s thoughts since August 2019 when the special status granted to Kashmir in the Indian Constitution was revoked. Ambassador Deepak Vohra, an Indian diplomat, served as Secretary in the Ministry of External Affairs. He was the Ambassador of India to Poland and is now Special Advisor to the Prime Minister of India, Lesotho and Guinea-Bissau. In 2012 he was Advisor to the Government of South Sudan. During his service in the Indian Foreign Service, he served in France, Tunisia, United States, Chad, Cameroon, Papua New Guinea, Spain, Armenia, Sudan and Poland. In 1995 he was Deputy High Commissioner in Kuala Lumpur. Prior to his role in Diplomacy, he was a news reader in Doordarshan and an officer on special duty to the Technology Advisor to the Prime Minister of India. Ambassador Vohra has also worked with Sulabh International and has been a part of United Nations assignments in Africa. An Alumnus of why India was partitioned. He also spoke about the role of the various leaders such as Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, Mr Mohammad Ali Jinnah and Governor Mountbatten in the partition of India. He explained to the students the difficulties faced by people during partition of India and how people were forced to migrate to either India or Pakistan leaving behind everything that was familiar. He St. Stephen’s College, Delhi, St. Columba’s School, National Defence College (India) and University of Paris, Ambassador Deepak Vohra has a special interest in the Kashmir issue and he inaugurated The Apati War Memorial at Kargil. Lecture of Ambassador Deepak Vohra Ambassador Vohra began his lecture with the history of India during the British rule and explained the importance of Kashmir due to its geographical location. He took the students on a historical journey of India during the British rule through a series of rare pictures of that era bringing out the stark inequality between the lives of the British who ruled and the Indians who were the subjugated lot and exposed the sheer unfairness and greed of the British. Ambassador Vohra touched upon India’s freedom movement and explained in great detail how and

Ambassador Deepak Vohra interacting with the students

Ambassador Vohra has the audience spellbound with his oratory skills and deep knowledge

showed several disturbing pictures of partition that impacted the students and made them think. He told the students a sweet tale of a young army officer who was on duty during partition who fell in love with a young woman who was migrating from Pakistan to India and how he pursued her and finally married her. At the end of this beautiful tale of love he revealed that the young officer and the lovely young woman were his parents that made the students burst into an involuntary applause of delight. Ambassador Vohra explained in detail the history of the partition and the circumstances under which Kashmir attained special status in the Indian Constitution. He explained some of the poor decisions made in history that have had long term impact in the relations of India and Pakistan especially vis a vis Kashmir. He spoke about the several decades of issues arising in India as a result of the decisions made at the time of India gaining independence and how they need to be solved. Finally, he ended the lecture by talking about the recent revoking of the special status given to Kashmir explaining the details of article 370 that was very informative for the audience. He finally ended by saying, “Welcome back Kashmir. The journey resumes.” Ambassador Vohra’s dynamic lecture with his forceful and powerful delivery left the audience spellbound who gave him a standing ovation. The students and some of the faculty during the interactive session asked him several relevant and interesting questions that resulted in a robust and lively discussion where students expressed their opinions and asked him probing questions. Ambassador Deepak Vohra’s lecture was insightful, informative and full of hope about India infusing a sentiment of patriotism among the students.