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| Names of over 1 lakh Kashmiri Hindus deleted from voters' lists | | Genocide continues | | Early Times Report
jammu, Sept 6: It was during the PDP-Congress rule that the internally-displaced Kashmiri Hindus living in Jammu since January 1990 were given the right to vote in the local-self-governing institutions in Jammu province, including the Jammu Municipal Corporation. It happened in 2005. Bulk of them had then voted for the BJP. One Kashmiri Hindu candidate had also won and entered the Jammu municipal Corporation. The grant of voting right to the Jammu-based Kashmiri Hindus was considered by them as "a confidence-building measure".
However, the Mehbooba Mufti-led PDP-BJP coalition government in one fine morning deleted the names of over 1 lakh Kashmiri Hindu voters from the voters' lists in Jammu. That it happened at a time when the BJP was part of the coalition government had just shocked the Kashmiri Hindu refugee community, with all the more angry Kashmiri Hindus bemoaning that "genocide is continuing" and "they are being considered worse than the brutes".
It is a different matter that the BJP has been expressing its concern over the deletion of Kashmiri Hindu names from the voters' lists. Only BJP has the temerity to do so.
Convinced that there are elements in the establishment and political parties who are causing a grievous injury to their rights and interests, some top Kashmiri Hindu leaders belonging to Panun Kashmir, including Dr Agnishekhar and Kuldip Raina, have urged the concerned authorities to reverse their "undemocratic decision" so that they could also exercise their right to franchise and participate in the grass-root level democratic processes. They have also warned that the decision, if not reversed, would further alienate the internally-displaced Kashmiri Hindus.
The worst aspect of the whole situation has been that none of the political parties has spoken for the aggrieved Kashmiri Hindu community, thus creating an impression that they have nothing to do with them and that Kashmiri Hindus have to fend for themselves.
Now that the political parties in Jammu and Kashmir have abandoned them, it is time for New Delhi to intervene and urge the newly-appointed Governor, Satya Pal Malik, to order the election authorities to undo the grave wrong. It is a must. Not only The internally-displaced Kashmiri Hindus, the nearly 3 lakh hindu-Sikh refugees from Pakistan and 1000s of members of the Valmiki Samaja living in Jammu since decades also do not have the right to vote in the panchayat and municipal elections. They also deserve a special attention.
It would be only in the fitness of things and in the interest of democracy if the New Delhi issued necessary orders that re-include the names of the Kashmiri Hindus in the votyers' lists but also granted voting right to the refugees from Pakistan and Valmiki Samaj. |
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