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| Uyghur, Tibetan Muslims were granted citizenship rights | | Refugees cause | | Early Times Report
JAMMU, Oct 17: The RSS has come out openly in favour of the refugees from Pakistan, all Hindus and mostly Dalits. It says that they have been putting up in Jammu since 1947 after they quit Pakistan to save their lives at the hands of the Pakistani butchers and they must be granted citizenship rights so that they could also lead a dignified life in the state and enjoy all the rights which the people of the state enjoy under the Jammu and Kashmir Constitution.
The refugees from Pakistan are citizens of India but not citizens of the state. They do exercise the right to participate in the general elections but they are debarred from participating in the assembly, panchayat and municipal elections. Besides, they do not have the right to own immovable property in the state. Not do they could get any government job. Not just this, the refugees from Pakistan are also not entitled to enjoy bank loan facilities and they also don't have the right to higher and technical education.
The stand of the Kashmiri leadership is that the grant of citizenship rights to the refugees from Pakistan would mean dilution of the state's special status and change the Muslim-majority character of the state.
According to official estimate, 5,764 West Pakistan refugee families are living in Jammu, but the unofficial figures say the number is quite higher.
They had high hopes when the BJP became part of the state government in 2015 and their hope had stemmed from the BJP's vision document which had clearly said that the BJP shall grant citizenship rights to them if it was vote to power. However, in June this year, Revenue, Relief and Rehabilitation Minister Syed Basharat Bukhari stated on the floor of the state legislature that "the J&K government had no plan to give permanent citizenship to the refugees from West Pakistan though they were the citizens of the country".
The demand of the refugees is genuine and constitutional. Even otherwise, they can't be denied citizenship rights. For, Sheikh Abdullah had granted citizenship rights to Uyghur Muslims from China in 1952 and Bakshi Ghulam Mohammad to Tibetan Muslims in 1959 and settled them in the area near Jamia Masjid in Srinagar. There can't be two set of rules - one for the Hindu refugees and another for Muslim refugees. One can only hope and pray that the RSS would play its role and refugees would get their rights. If the RSS puts its foot down, the state government would have no other alternative but to concede the demand. |
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