Remarking that the situation in Kashmir was getting out of hand with the rise in killings of Kashmiri Pandits and attacks on the Hindu community, Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut on Sunday lashed out at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government at the Centre for busily promoting films rather than heeding to the plight of the Valley’s Kashmiri Pandits.
The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) – the Sena’s ally in Maharashtra – too, hit out at the BJP-ruled Centre for not making “concrete efforts to rehabilitate Kashmiri Pandits in their homeland.”
“Kashmir is burning once again. It is red with blood. The situation there is getting out of hand, but New Delhi’s prominent leaders are busy promoting films, be it The Kashmir Files or Samrat Prithviraj. Is this the government’s job? Why aren’t they listening to the anger of the Kashmiri Pandits,” asked Mr. Raut.
‘Militants also targeting Muslims in security forces’
He said that not just the Hindu community, but Muslims serving in the security forces, too, were being targeted by militants.
“At least 17-20 of our Muslim brothers serving in our country’s security forces have been killed in the last few months. Muslim policemen of all ranks – from havildar to Superintendent of Police from Srinagar to Pulwama – have been attacked by terrorists. Thousands of Kashmiri Pandits have again begun an exodus from the Valley, but the BJP at the Centre is busy finding shivlings under the Gyanvapi mosque or the Taj Mahal,” Mr. Raut said, remarking that the Centre’s claims of successful surgical strikes against militants had proven hollow with the rise in terrorist attacks in the Valley.
Given the tussle over ‘Hindutva’ in Maharashtra between the ruling Sena and the BJP, Mr. Raut said that Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray had expressed grave concern over the deteriorating situation in Kashmir and said that Maharashtra would stand by the Kashmiri Pandits and their families through thick and thin.
On Saturday, Mr. Thackeray, in a statement, said that Maharashtra would not leave the Kashmiri Pandits in the lurch.
Hitting out at the BJP, the Sena’s estranged former ally, Mr. Thackeray further said that the Kashmiri Pandits were promised a ‘homecoming’ by the Narendra Modi government, but had only faced violence since their return to the Valley.
“Kashmiri Pandits were shown the dream of ‘ghar vapasi’ (resettlement in the Valley), but they are being targeted and killed. The exodus of the Pandits is shocking,” the CM said.
Meanwhile, NCP spokesperson Mahesh Tapase exhorted the BJP to get over its allegedly divisive politics of caste and religion while remarking that Maharashtra was the only State which had offered safe passage to the displaced Kashmiri Pandits while the BJP had only played with their sentiments.
