news details |
|
|
| Congress, not NC responsible for miserable plight of WP refugees | | Crocodile Tears | | Rustam
Jammu, Dec 20: Some Congress leaders from Jammu, including MP Jammu-Poonch parliamentary constituency, met the Union Home Minister and Prime Minister on December 18 and 19, respectively, in New Delhi and urged them to recognize the fundamental right of the 1947 refugees from West Pakistan (mostly those belonging to depressed classes) to exercise all normal civil and political rights which are available to all the Indians across the country. They, in fact, shed crocodile tears by pretending that they really meant what they told the Prime Minister, who himself is a refugee from Pakistan, and the Home Minister, who himself belongs to the Scheduled Caste community. They only played a game aimed at hoodwinking and misleading the suffering and hapless West Pakistan refugees. It is not difficult to guess who could be behind what these Congress leaders did in New Delhi to fool the refugees from West Pakistan, who have been moving heaven and earth ever since their migration to Jammu and other parts of Jammu province in 1947 in the aftermath of the communal partition of India to obtain normal fundamental rights. It could obviously the one who is eligible to get the votes of these suffering refugees. Remember, these refugees are not entitled to vote either in the assembly elections or in the local bodies' elections in Jammu & Kashmir. These refugees are entitled to vote only in the Lok Sabha elections. There is no need to elucidate the point to pinpoint who motivated other Congress leaders, including the one who defected from the BSP in 2002 to become minister in the PDP-led coalition government and who wants mandate from the Vijaypur assembly constituency, to come to New Delhi and serve the cause of the one who wants mandate for the Lok Sabha election for the third time in a row and garner refugee votes. Refugees constitute a substantial chunk of electorate in the Lok Sabha constituency.
Did these Jammu-based Congress leaders really mean what they told the Prime Minister and the Home Minister? The answer cannot be in the affirmative. In fact, the answer should be a big NO. For, they knew it full well that the Congress-dominated UPA Government would not concede the demand they put forth. They also knew that it was the same Congress that ruled the country for almost half a century but which did nothing whatsoever to mitigate the hardships of the refugees from West Pakistan under pressure from the Kashmiri communalists, who held the view that the grant of citizenship rights to the refugees from West Pakistan would not only change the demographic landscape of the state and increase the representation if Jammu province in the Legislative Assembly but would also "erode the special status the state enjoys under Article 370 of the Indian Constitution". But more than that, they also knew it full well that the Congress, which directly ruled Jammu & Kashmir from 1965 to 1975 and between November 2, 2005 and July 7, 2008, had also not conceded the demand of the struggling refugees from West Pakistan seeking normal civil and political rights, notwithstanding the fact that the earlier dispensations under NC leaders Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah and Bakshi Ghulam Mohammad had granted full citizenship rights to the migrants from China and Tibet and settled them in the Eidgah area of Srinagar, presently the stronghold of APHC chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, who is currently on a visit to Pakistan. Anyone can go to Srinagar and visit this area to see these refugees from foreign countries exercising equal rights with the Kashmiri whose leadership is bitterly opposed to the demand seeking similar rights for the refugees from West Pakistan who, like the migrants from China and Tibet, migrated to the state to escapes their persecution and physical liquidation as well as their religion and culture. The fact of the matter is that the Congress "leaders" met the Prime Minister and the Home Minister only to tell the poor refugees that they are with them.
As for the attitude of the Kashmiri leadership towards these refugees, it, as said, is bitterly opposed to the demand seeking citizen rights for the refugees from West Pakistan. Only on December 15, NC leader and MP Mehboob Beg opposed the demand on the floor of the Lok Sabha and told law-makers that "Indian citizenship does not confer the title of State Subject on an individual. The State Subject status was granted to the residents of J&K by Maharaja Hari Singh on the demand of Kashmiri Pandits. Now this has to be preserved and saved to preserve the Muslim majority status of the State and its uniqueness and special identity." He made these perverted comments while speaking on the private member's resolution, which read: "Persons migrated from Pakistan to India and settled in various parts of the country: this House urges upon the Government to take steps to grant them citizenship and formulate action plan to extend them facilities as are available to other citizens of the country".
What was the reaction of the Congress and the BJP to what Beg shamelessly said? The Congress law-makers kept their mouth shut. It was some BJP law-makers who interrupted Beg and accused him (read Kashmiri leaders) of hounding out of Kashmir Kashmiri Hindus. "You have made Kashmiri Pandits refugees in their own homeland," they said while taking on the communalist of communalists Beg. Instead of appreciating the BJP and taking cognizance of the human problem, Beg crossed all the lines saying "rather than granting the West Pakistan refugees Indian citizenship, the Government of India should take up this issue in the UN and other international fora and make sure that all minorities are safe in their own countries". Remember, the Lok Sabha rejected the private member's resolution, despite the fact that it was the Congress which was at the helm and which, if so liked, would have ensured adoption of what could be termed as a vague resolution. The resolution, it needs to be underlined, did not demand citizenship rights at once; it only urged the Union Government to take steps in that direction.
The truth, in short, is that the refugees from West Pakistan have been suffering more because of the politics the Congress party has been played since 1947 to keep the Kashmiri leadership on its right side. As for these refugees, they also needed to be blamed for the miserable plight they have been leading because they have all along put all of their eggs in the Congress' basket. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
