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| BJP messing up whole issue of national import | | KPs are the casualty | |
Early Times Report
JAMMU, Apr 12: The BJP, which is in power at the centre and sharing power in Jammu and Kashmir, has messed up the whole issue of return of the internally displaced Kashmiri Pandits to their original homeland.
And the result is that the Pandit organizations, which are based in Jammu and elsewhere in the country, have reiterated their demand that the Valley be bifurcated to set up a separate homeland for the displaced community. They have said they cannot live with those who turned them out of the Valley in early 1990.
"Panun Kashmir is the only alternative available," they have said, adding that "they are the victims and the government has to go by what they say about their return to Kashmir".
"If the Government of India is serious about the return of Pandits to the Valley, the community should be taken into confidence before issuing any statement on the subject. Pandits are the indigenous people of Kashmir and have 5,000 years of history.
They have every right to be settled in the Kashmir valley. For the last 25 years, the community has been living as refugees in its own country.
The controversy regarding their resettlement had exposed the psyche of separatists about the Kashmiri Pandit community.
We need security and a sense of security to go back to Kashmir, which is possible only with homeland," they have also said.
That the BJP has messed up the whole issue could be seen from the statements being issued by various BJP ministers.
Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh has been asserting that agreement has been reached with Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed on the settlement of Kashmiri Pandits in the Valley. "An agreement has been reached with Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed in this regard. Jammu and Kashmir government has initiated land acquisition process for their rehabilitation," he has been saying ever since he met with the Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister in Delhi. As late as on April 10, he claimed what he said after meeting with the state Chief Minister and he made this claim in Lucknow while talking to reporters. Rajnath Singh made this statement after Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister told the Assembly that his government was committed to bring displaced community back but ruled out setting up "Israel-type" separate clusters for their settlement. "We will not make separate clusters that Israel has set up. Neither we will make that (separate townships) nor they (Kashmiri Pandits) have desired to live in that," Mufti had said.
Ironically, his junior Kiren Rijiju contradicted Rajnath Singh He said no final decision has been taken on creating separate settlements for Kashmiri Pandits as the process of consultations for their return was still on. "I will not be able to spell out the details of the policy because nothing is finalized yet. The consultation process is going on and the government of Jammu and Kashmir and Ministry of Home Affairs, we all have to come together and take a call. It has to be in the interest of the state, interest of the people only. So, I cannot spell out till things are finally decided," Union Minister of State for Home Affairs, Kiren Rijiju told reporters in Srinagar on Friday, the day Rajnath Singh made the claim that the state government has already started the process of acquiring land in the Valley for the Kashmiri Pandits.
MoS in the PMO Jitendra Singh created further confusion by saying that in principle, their government and BJP are committed to dignified and secured return of Kashmiri Pandits to their place of origin. "The issue should be looked into on humanitarian ground. No one should do politics over it. They would go back if there is dignity and security in their return. Any person living outside his or her homeland would not feel comfortable…Return and rehabilitation of Pandits was a very sensitive issue and should be handled with care," he told reporters in New Delhi the same day. He created an impression that Rajnath Singh and others in the government were not handling the issue properly.
It appears the BJP ministers are making statements without doing enough home work. Their contradictory statements on the issue have not only complicated the issue but also emboldened the separatists to do what they have been doing in the Valley to ensure that no Kashmiri Pandit returned to Kashmir. |
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