Ankit Love, son of JKNPP founder Bhim Singh apologized to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on May 2 for taking part in an anti-government rally last year, which led to his being blacklisted by the High Commission. This is as he is awaiting the Indian government’s approval for his visa so he can return from London to attend his mother’s funeral.
Ankit Love (39), who apologized for hurling eggs and stones at the High Commission during the February 2022 protest, asked the prime minister to step in so that he could return and perform the last rites of his mother, Jay Mala (64).
Mala, a Supreme Court attorney, passed away on April 26. Love asked that her body be kept at the Government Medical College (GMC) hospital in Jammu until he could come to administer the final rites. This occurs at the same time as his kin are squabbling over who would lead the Jammu and Kashmir National Panthers Party (JKNPP), which has been in disarray since Bhim Singh’s passing on May 31, 2022.
Love was unable to attend the funeral of his mother. Love claims that he was put on India’s “blacklist” after being detained by British authorities on February 14, 2022, as a result of a demonstration outside the Indian High Commission in London. In an open letter to the Prime Minister on May 2, Love expressed his remorse and apology for the mistake he made by hurling eggs and stones at the High Commission.
“I, Ankit Love, son of late Prof Bhim Singh and late Adv Jay Mala, resident of the UK, hereby sincerely apologise for my mistake of pelting eggs and stones at the Indian High Commission in the UK, which I deeply and sincerely regret,” he wrote. He sought forgiveness and said that he urgently needed to visit the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir in India. He also said that some other people surrounding him had misled him, which had led to the mistake, for which he sincerely apologized.
“…I assure you that henceforth there will be no such act by me against my nation, which I love very much and am very much proud of,” Love wrote adding that his late father Bhim Singh had battled his entire life for the full annexation of Jammu and Kashmir with India.
He also added that he did not wish to move to Jammu permanently, and that the government could allow him to take his mother’s body from the mortuary “to Devak in Udhampur, under police cover, and once I perform her last rites, it can make me board the returning flight to UK”.
“My mother was a Goud Brahmin from UP’s Meerut, and she has all the right to have decent and respectful last rites performed for her as per the Hindu rituals that she believed in till her last breath. I, being her only son, want to perform it on the banks of the holy Devak river in Udhampur, which was her last wish,” he was quoted as saying.
Additionally, he urged Lt. Governor Manoj Sinha and Jammu District Magistrate Avny Lavasa to delay the postmortem and refrain from removing the body from the mortuary.
Two of Bhim Singh’s nephews, former lawmaker Balwant Singh Mankotia and former minister Harsh Dev Singh, both of the JKNPP, left the political party to join the Aam Aadmi Party just before his death. Mankotia, who had previously served as JKNPP president, then joined the BJP, but Harsh Dev recently joined the party again and said that he had been chosen as state party leader.
Vilaskhan Singh and another faction, however, were pulled together by Harsh Dev’s homecoming. The other faction was led by a well-known figure and close ally of Bhim Singh, P K Gangoo. Harsh Dev Singh’s assertion was refuted by Vilaskshan Singh and Gangoo. Although Gangoo serves as the party’s acting president, they claimed to be its leader.
Mala fell from the steps on the evening of April 25 while visiting at the home of her niece, Mrignayani Slathia, who is the sister of Vilakshan Singh, in Domana. The next day, she passed away at a hospital. On Love’s request, the body was moved to Vilakshan Singh’s home in Sidhra and then to the mortuary. Love, who serves as the JKNPP’s primary patron, asked his cousin Vilaskahan Singh to step down as party president on April 28.
“Vilakshan Singh’s first responsibility as president was to ensure the security and survival of Panthers Party (co-) founder Jay Mala, widow of Prof. Bhim Singh, who died last year on May 31. She was only 64, and had many more years to keep on living and fighting for the rights of the people of Jammu and Kashmir,” he had said.
Love further added that he believed that Vilakshan Singh had failed in his responsibilties and priorities towards organising Jay Mala’s better security, supervision and safe accommodation. This is despite the fact that her death on 26 April being an accident was recorded on CCTV.
He meanwhile had also denied rumours that Harsh Dev Singh was responsible for the delay in the cremation. “I am the only one who has requested to delay my mother’s cremation, and that her body be preserved in the mortuary,” he said, requesting for a postmortem in his presence.
Jay Mala fell from the steps on April 25 and then she was admitted to the Government Medical College Hospital where she breathed her last on April 26.
