like his predecessor Omar Abdullah, Jammu & Kashmir Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed has refused to set foot in Hari Niwas — an elite property built by last Dogra king Hari Singh for his wife Maharani Tara Devi. Reason — the palace is believed to be jinxed. Instead, Mufti has decided to promote the palace as an elite wedding destination.
“The Government will soon promote the majestic Hari Niwas as an elite wedding destination in the summer capital,” Mufti told the national heads of tour and travel associations in New Delhi on Sunday. An official of the Hospitality and Protocol department that owns the multi-billion property told The Pioneer that they would outsource the sprawling estate to earn major revenues and attract high-end visitors to Kashmir.
Interestingly, the palace was declared as “Permanent Chief Minister’s residence by Ghulam Nabi Azad. He was the only the CM in the post-partition era to refurbish the property and enter it. But the jinx returned when he had to prematurely resign on July 7, 2008 following the Amarnath land row.
Superstitious people linked Azad’s fall to the myth that the palace was haunted. It is said that a “jyotshi had told Maharaja Hari Singh not to build the palace at the place on Gupkar Road as it was the abode of Shiksha Devi, the goddess of evil”. The feudal ruler ignored the warning and tried to build the palace for his wife Maharani Tara Devi. However, the events of 1947 proved inauspicious and forced the Dogra ruler to pack his belongings from Kashmir. His dream of living in the new palace never realised.
After Azad’s departure, Omar Abdullah flatly refused to use the building as his official residence. He preferred another property close to his father’s residence on the same Gupkar Road. The spruced up Hari Niwas was designated as State Guest House and the murky and mysterious history continued to haunt it.
In the mid 1990s, when the insurgency was at its peak in Kashmir valley, this Palace meant death and torture. Many Kashmiris locals narrate horrifying tales of torture inside this building and the one in the vicinity known as Fair View Guest House — Mufti’s official residence since 2006. Fair View was codemned as Papa-2, a notorious torture centre. A PDP legislator told The Pioneer that he too has been tortured inside the building in early 1990s.
The officials of Department of Archives and Archeology say that the Hari Niwas was purchased by Kashmir Hotel limited for Rs43 lakh in 1980s. They had a plan to convert the building into a hotel, but the plan failed to materialise. The Government later purchased the building again, and it was used by the CID department after 1985.
During Farooq Abdullah’s tenure (1996-2002), a proposal was mooted to convert the building into a Museum. However, it did not materialise until Azad spent around Rs 10 crore to convert it into Chief Minister’s residence. In the sprawling building built over 70 kanals (nine hectares) of land, there are three Presidential suites, VVIP guest house and scores of bedrooms.
Azad had set up a waiting hall, a Cabinet room, a dining hall and a lobby on the complex. An official, who served in the building during Azad’s tenure, said that the then Chief Minister never faced any problem in the Palace. “If he (Azad) had completed his tenure, the jinx would have evaporated,” he said.
The official of the Hospitality Protocol department said that no hotel in J&K is of a standard to host the President of India or any other important dignitary except Hari Niwas. “Hari Niwas has been renovated in a manner that any State guests can stay here and they would not find it lacking in facilities or prestige,” he said.
Tourism promoters say that Kashmir can become a choice for hosting high-end weddings. In 2008, a Delhi-based business family spent around Rs 100 crore to perform wedding in a premier 5-Star hotel. The guests arrived in chartered flights and spend four days in the plush hotel in the lap of Zabarwan hills on the banks of famed Dal lake. “The outsourced Hari Niwas Palace can attract many such rich families to make their weddings memorable,” Abdur Rashid, a tour-operator said.