KL NEWS NETWORK
SRINAGAR
Reacting sharply to RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat’s speech in Nagpur on eve of Dussehra where he said that the people of Jammu and Ladakh face discrimination at the hands of Kashmiris, MLA Langate Er Rashid on Wednesday challenged him to prove the same on basis of facts and figures.
In a statement issued this afternoon, Rashid said, “by batting for a particular region, RSS and other parties of Sangh Parivar have been promoting regionalism and communalism and the basic purpose is to avoid resolution of Kashmir dispute and create confusion.”
“Mr Bhagwat must know that despite being just 27 per cent of total population of state, Hindu community has got proportionately beyond lines share in top rank bureaucracy and political establishment. Mr Bhagwat should know that both heads of civil and police administration which include Chief Secretary and DGP, are from Jammu region and of Hindu community. Similarly, from commissioner secretaries to district SPs, presence of Muslim officers has been reduced to nominal figures. Even a layman can draw the comparison between the overall development among three regions and it will take him not long to find that Kashmir lacks for behind in every field,” the MLA Langate said, adding, “however, the focus of all governments in Jammu region has been just two districts of Jammu province dominated by Hindu community and the main population of Pir-Panchal and Chenab Valley have been ignored and are being continuously deprived of their all rights.”
Rashid said that the BJP government has recently announced IIT and IIM for Jammu but ignoring the main region of Kashmir.
He asked RSS chief to forget about giving citizenship rights to West Pakistani refugees. “They will always remain refugees, unless they either go back to their native places or are settled elsewhere in India.”
“It is a universal law that refugees in any part of the world have to go back to their native places, once situation is normal and the west Pakistani refugees should be sent to Pakistan and those Muslims forced to migrate from Jammu should be allowed to resettle in Jammu,” Rashid added.
Condemning Bhagwat for “threatening” Kashmiris of consequences if they don’t give up their resistance, Rashid asked Bhagwat not to forget that when Indians were fighting Britishers J&K was an independent sovereign state.
He said, “If Bhagwat truly believes that Gilgit Baltistan and Azad Kashmir are also integral part of India then why should he not support holding plebiscite in entire J&K so that people decide whether we are India’s integral part or Pakistan’s jugular vein.”
Meanwhile, MLA Kulgam Mohammad Yousuf Tarigami while reacting to the speech of RSS chief said that Mohan Bhagwat’s speech at Nagpur on Tuesday is essentially aimed at dividing the people on communal lines.
“Since RSS leaders are prisoners of their regressive ideology, they cannot appreciate the ground realities of J&K and cannot, as such be expected to have an impartial, balanced and not to speak of ‘sympathetic’ approach towards the on-going unfortunate developments in J&K,” he said in a statement issued this afternoon.
“Despite this mind-set, one could have expected from Mr Bhagwat a little concern for the killing, blinding and maiming of number of unarmed people including school going children in Kashmir. The total disruption of normal life and the ensuring suffering of the masses have completely escaped his sight and mind. He has talked about the cross border refuges and pleaded for the redressal of their grievances,” the Communist lawmaker said adding, “It is the refugees of Pakistan mainland who face problems. It is surely a humanitarian issue but there are constitutional constraints in conferring the state citizenship’ on these refugees.”
“He has also talked about the continuing discrimination with Jammu and Ladakh regions of J&K. Ironically, he has forgotten that it is the RSS lead BJP which rules at the centre and is part of the coalition government in the state. One fails to understand who is discriminating whom?” Tarigami said.
