In 1900, L Frank Baum wrote the novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and 39 years later, American Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer converted it into a wonderful musical fantasy film. The Wizard of Oz has remained a popular film with the children across cotenants defying the time space matrix. It tells the story of Dorothy who is lost in a magical world and befriends three characters: the Scarecrow, Tin Man, and Cowardly Lion. The straw-made scarecrow lacked head, the tin man a heart and the lion his courage. She takes them to the Wizard of Oz living in a make-believe world, a man himself lost to wilderness, who discovered that the trio had all the things they thought they were lacking. As the trio had replaced the Wizard if Oz, the film ends with Dorothy opening her eyes in her bedroom.
This film sounds relevant to Fayaz Bhat, who interestingly is nicknamed as Fayaz Teen because he once owned a tin-sheet shop in south Kashmir. He seemed to be all the three characters rolled into one. It was only after the BJPs official candidate Arif Majid Pampori – his wizard of Oz, resigned from the party’s basic membership that Fayaz Bhat got head, heart and courage to reveal himself.
It is interesting that Pampori backed off at the last moment. He was with BJP for five years, had risen to a “senior” position that he was given the mandate. Though everybody knows that BJP can never be a winning party in Kashmir, it was for the sake of the representation that BJP fielded Pampori. While Godhra could not help old-city’s Pampori to feel pained, it was his party’s manifesto that changed his mind. He opposed party’s idea of scrapping Article 370 that infuriated Pampori to put in his papers. But that is just the beginning of the story.
The real story got unveiled after BJP fielded Bhat in a few hours and made him to file papers within a few hours. Bhat has been creating news for the last few years in Srinagar and has been projecting himself to be the messiah of Kashmir. He has created many scandals while luring students to avail scholarships under PMSSS, an issue being investigated by the state police crime branch.
But the real interesting part of the story is the rise of this Tin Man, off late promoted by the Raj Bhawan, in Kashmir. His biodata released by his party suggest the man was VP Samaj Sudhar Committee Kashmir (1989-92), BJP founder member (1992), district president BJYM (1994-96), BJP district president (1996-97), president youth BJP (1998-99), and after many other things finally created the Peace Foundation. This is something people never knew. People also know what Bhat has hidden and why.
Another thing that was revealed is that Bhat is PhD in Sociology and this award has been showered upon him by Singhania University Rajasthan! Come Modi in 7-Race Course Road, Fayaz will teach peace at one of the seven universities in J&K!
– Bilal Handoo
