Not many people knew Chunni Lal, a resident of the border village of Makwal in Jammu district, until home minister Amit Shah visited the BSF border outpost late Sunday evening and happened to sit at his house for tea.
Shah became the second home minister in the Modi government to visit the Makwal post on the Indo-Pak International Border after Rajnath Singh who inaugurated the integrated smart fencing equipment to keep a check on the cross-border infiltration.
A sleepy village sitting next to the Indo-Pak border, Makwal used to get its share of publicity only during the ceasefire violations when the BSF and Pakistan rangers used to exchange mortars.
As the home minister was leaving the border outpost after being briefed by the senior BSF officials about the measures put in place by the force to check cross-border infiltration, Shah stopped at the nearby village to have a look at the community bunkers being built for the civilian population of the area.
The sudden halt in the village surprised everybody. Shah went inside one of the bunkers and was briefed by the local administration about the steps being taken to safeguard civilian life and property in the event of renewed hostilities between the border guarding force of both the countries.
Peeping from the gate of his modest house was Chunni Lal who along with his family were watching the home minister as the police had instructed the family to not open the gate. “I was just watching from the gate when the home minister saw me. He asked for my permission to come inside. I told him that he is more than welcome to come inside,” an excited Chunni Lal tells CNN News18.
Lal said he offered Shah a chair to sit, however, he refused and instead said he would prefer sitting on a charpoy (traditional cot made of jute). “He told me he would like to sit on a charpoy as it has been too long…,” Lal said.
Lal says the home minister asked him to sit next to him on the cot and started asking about his profession, “he asked me what I was doing, I told him that I am a daily wage employee and my son works as a conductor.”
When the minister asked Lal if he had cattle at home, Lal said he has a buffalo, which two litres of milk. “Then the home minister asked us to make a cup of tea for him, first he asked for a glass of water and then tea”.
Lal says Shah also took his mobile number and saved his own number in his phone and asked him to call “anytime” if he needs to speak to him.
“He was soft-spoken and humble, he made my entire family feel at ease,” Lal said.
Chunni has been receiving calls from relatives ever since Amit Shah visited his house, and people have been seeing him with boxes of sweets to congratulate him.
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