New Delhi: Parliamentarians across party lines on Friday approved a resolution that directs the Centre and the Jammu & Kashmir government to take immediate steps for rehabilitation and welfare of displaced Kashmiri pandits.
The private members resolution on displaced Kashmiri Pandits in Lok Sabha brought together different parties which unanimously pushed for their early return to the Valley while voicing concern over their pitiable conditions even 25 years after their migration due to terror.
Members from parties like the BJD, BJP and Trinamool Congress unanimously condemned the pro-Pakistan elements for bringing about “ethnic cleansing” of minority Hindus from Kashmir Valley and asserted that the government should take strong steps to counter such attempts.
The members, while participating in the debate on the resolution ‘Immediate Steps for Rehabilitation and Welfare of Displaced Persons from Kashmir’, also sent out a message to Pakistan, saying the fate of Jammu and Kashmir is non-negotiable as it is an “example” of how a Muslim-majority state can be a part of India.
BJP MP Nishikant Dubey proposed and initiated the debate on March 20 earlier this year in the Lok Sabha. This is an extension of a 1994 resolution. It is now up to the Central government and Jammu & Kashmir state to carry it forward. The onus lies with both the Centre and the state and more particularly the centre, he told Bloomberg TV India.
Those who came in 1947 are still considered as refugees. They cast their votes in Parliamentary elections but are deprived of their voting rights in the Jammu & Kashmir Assembly elections, he added.
A resolution was unanimously adopted later by the Lok Sabha. Congress members were not present as they were boycotting the House demanding an apology from BJP MP Virendra Singh for certain remarks against Rahul Gandhi.
During the debate on Kashmiri Pandits, there were demands that the government should withdraw security to separatist leaders while making efforts to identify “saner” elements in the majority Muslim community of Kashmir for consultations to facilitate return of the displaced people to “Kashmiriyat”.
However, members were divided over Article 370 which grants special status to Jammu and Kashmir, with those from the BJP pushing for scrapping it while some others cautioning against such a step.
Participating in the debate, B Mahtab of BJD described as “criminal” the fact that Kashmiri Pandits were forced to leave the Valley because of terrorism beginning 1990 and only one family has returned despite the successive governments making plans and spending lot of money.
Noting that over 62,000 families had been displaced as per the government data, he said their return to “larger Kashmiriyat” is a “strategic imperative” for which conditions should be created, like changing the “Wahabi” mindset among the majority community there.
He said the return of Kashmiri Pandits will be opposed by pro-Pakistan elements and therefore the central government should intervene directly to ensure that the displaced people are rehabilitated at places where they lived.
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