Neha
JAMMU, Feb 17: The Pradesh Youth Congress (PYC) has decided to launch an agitation to make the State Government address the refugees' issues, including the demand of refugees from West Pakistan seeking citizenship rights. It is a different matter that in 2007 the Ghulam Nabi Azad-led coalition Government had rejected the private member's bill on the refugee issue on the floor of the Assembly. All the Kashmir-based legislators, without any exception, and all the Congress legislators, without any exception, had in no time defeated the said private member's bill. It happened in Jammu.
Any way, it is a positive development that the PYC has decided to take up the refugee issue. "The main demand would be onetime settlement of all refugees, including compensation for the property which they left at the time of displacement, constitution of a Welfare and Advisory Board for Refugees, formulation of an Apex body of refugees, reservations across the country in the technical institution as in the case of Kashmiri migrants and the domicile status for West Pakistan refugees. The PYC is ready to lead the agitation for the rights of refugees of 1947, 1965, 1971 and the refugees from West Pakistan...Refugees are the displaced citizens who were forced to leave their homes and now they are being denied their basic rights from last more than 50 years," a PYC leader on Sunday said, and added that the PYC will also fight for "domicile status for West Pakistan refugees".
This was not the first occasion that the Congress aired views in support of the refugee's demands. It had aired similar views umpteen times in the past, but did nothing concrete to persuade the men at the helm to mitigate the difficulties of the refugees. These hapless refugees do deserve a better treatment. They moved heaven and earth innumerable times since 1947 and met all those who mattered, but nothing came out of their efforts. On the contrary, the parties like the Congress and the National Conference repeatedly misled, hoodwinked and exploited these refugees and got their votes, but left them high and dry after coming to power.
Again, elections are approaching. And again, efforts are being made by the parties like the Congress to create an impression that they are with these refugees. But it is difficult to say that the Congress would come up to their expectation by doing something concrete for them. It has to reckon with the National Conference, which, everyone knows, will leave no stone unturned to defeat the demands of all the refugees in general and refugees from West Pakistan in particular. The National Conference and similar other political parties, especially Kashmir-based parties, are vehemently opposed to the demand seeking citizenship rights for the refugees from West Pakistan. Indeed, there are some well-meaning persons in the Congress who are for the refugees, but the major hurdle is the Kashmiri ruling class and its supporters in Jammu who are highly communal in their approach and who can go to any extent to defeat the poor refugees whose leadership has also betrayed them on occasions by flirting with the ruling class for promoting their own interests. It is for the refugees to see through the game plan of the political parties and conduct themselves in a way that leaves the authorities with no other option but to concede their reasonable and democratic demands. It would not be out of place to mention here that the successive Governments in the State have consistently violated the human rights of the refugees whose number is no less than 1.5 million. |
