Javid Hassan Baig’s Call for a Thriving Baramulla in a Vibrant India
By Lt. Gen R S Reen (Retd)
I am not given to emotional outbursts on social media, but when I read the recent Facebook posts of Javid Hassan Baig, MLA Baramulla something stirred deep within me. For thirty-eight years I wore the olive green across the country, and not once was I posted in Baramulla. But for even a day have I not thought of it as anything but home. To this day it remains both my area of responsibility and my home.
I have seen this town in its darkest nights and its hopeful dawns. A sitting MLA from Baramulla speaks not in the tired language of grievance but in the vocabulary of aspiration, ambition, and ownership of India, one feels compelled to stand up and salute.
Javid Hassan Baig did not write of “demands from Delhi.” He speaks of what Baramulla can contribute to India and what India can help Baramulla become.
Baramulla that leads in education, tourism, horticulture, startups, sports, and culture. A Baramulla whose youth do not have to migrate for jobs but create jobs. Women lead enterprises and whose children study in institutions that rival the best in the country. Most importantly, as a distant dream but as a present possibility—provided we choose unity over division, development over disruption, and pride over victimhood.
I liked that post. I shared it. And today I write this article because liking and sharing is not enough. This vision needs amplification, ownership, and collective action. Let me tell you why this vision moved a soldier.
First, it is rooted in realism. Baramulla is blessed by geography and cursed by history. The Jhelum flows through it like a silver vein. The apple orchards are among the finest in the world. Wular Lake, the largest freshwater lake in Asia, sits in its lap. The road to Muzaffarabad and the ancient Silk Route pass through it. Then Gulmarg. We know it.
Yet for decades, the narrative around Baramulla has been one of terror, curfews, and unemployment. Javid Hassan Baig refuses to let that remain the narrative. He insists that the same soil that once saw gun blazing forgot world-class apples, adventure tourism, and IT startups. That is not naivety; that is courage.
Second, it is a vision that heals. For too long, the politics of Kashmir has been about who can shout the loudest against India. The result? Alienation, bloodshed, and stagnation.
Javid Hassan Baig has turned the lens around. He asks: What can we do for India? How can Baramulla become the jewel in the crown of a rising nation?
That single shift—from grievance to contribution—is the most powerful antidote to separatism. It tells the youth: You are not victims; you are stakeholders.
Third, it is a vision that respects diversity while celebrating unity. Javed Beigh does not ask anyone to surrender identity. He wants Kashmiri Pandits to return to their ancestral homes in Baramulla not as refugees but as co-owners of a shared future.
Gujjars, Bakarwals, Paharis and Kashmiris to see themselves as threads of the same fabric. Sikhs of Baramulla to take pride in the fact that Guru Hargobind Sahib Ji spent time in this district. This is not forced assimilation; this is confident pluralism—the kind India has always embodied and the kind the new Jammu & Kashmir must perfect.
Let no one dismiss this as electoral rhetoric. We have watched Javid Hassan Baig on the ground. He has pushed for the Delhi-Katra-Baramulla railway link, for newer smart degree colleges with IA solutions, for cold storages in major apple villages, for the revival of the historic Baramulla-Uri-Muzaffarabad road under confidence-building measures.
He stood with the Army when terrorists tried to derail peace, and he has stood with the people when they demanded justice. This is not a man reading from a script; this is a leader writing a new chapter.
To the youth of Baramulla, I say: The stone in your hand can break a window, or it can become the foundation of a startup hub. Choose. The choice you make today will decide whether your children remember you as destroyers or builders.
To the mothers of Baramulla, I say: You have buried too many sons. Now raise daughters who will run companies and sons who will represent India in the Olympics. The same hands that once wrapped white shrouds can now wrap export-quality apples that will reach London, Dubai and Singapore bearing the label “Produce of Baramulla, India.”
To the elders I say: Tell the young ones the stories of 1947 when Baramulla stood against tribal raiders backed by Pakistan and saved Kashmir for India. Tell them how Sherwani of Baramulla gave his life shouting “Hindustan Zindabad” so that the tricolour could fly another day. Tell them that courage is in our blood. Tell them that choosing India is not betrayal of faith or identity—it is fulfilment of both.
To the businessmen of Srinagar, Jammu and Delhi I say: Invest in Baramulla. The land is fertile, the people are talented, and peace is finally taking root. The returns will not just be financial; they will be historic.
To my brother officers still serving in the Valley I say: Protect this new narrative as fiercely as you protect the borders. The enemy now fires not just bullets but despair. Counter it with development, with dignity, with visible change.
To the Kashmiri Pandits I say: Come home. Baramulla awaits you—not as guests, but as family. The Masjid, Mandir and the Gurdwara can stand side by side again, as they always did before hatred was injected into paradise.
And to the Government of India, I say: This is the moment. Pour resources into Baramulla as if it were your own child. Build the Baramulla Ring Road. Connect Baramulla to Poonch. Establish a campus of International Relations and Policy planning, good governance, and economics in the district.
Make the district horticulture capital of Asia. Turn Wular into an international bird sanctuary and eco-tourism hub. Pattan a logistic hub. Declare Baramulla the gateway for trade from Mainland India to Central Asia. Do it boldly, do it fast, do it visibly.
Let every Pakistani handler across the LoC see that the people of Baramulla have chosen progress over propaganda. I began with a Facebook like. I end with a soldier’s pledge.
This is not just the future of Baramulla. This is the future of India. Let us make Baramulla the pride of Jammu & Kashmir and the envy of those who wish us ill. The apple is ripening. The time to pluck it—and share its sweetness with the world—is now.
