Early Times Report
JAMMU, Sept 28: The fall of Mehbooba Mufti-BJP government on June 19 and imposition of Governor's Rule in J&K has turned out to be a boon for hapless and abandoned Hindu-Sikh refugees from Pakistan. Reports suggest that "90 per cement refugees from Pakistan living in Jammu since 1947 have been issued identity cards and efforts are on to issue such cards to the remaining 10 per cent refugees.
The issuance of identity cards to the refugees is a significant confidence building measure as they would now obtain jobs under the Union Government. They were not considered eligible for Central Government jobs in the absence of such identity cards. The refugees have welcomed the move, coupled with a rider that though this was a step in the right direction, yet it didn't meet their 71-year-old demand. Their age-old demands include grant of all citizenship rights in J&K, including the right to job under J&K government, jobs in semi-government establishments in the state, right to property, right to education in higher educational institutions, right to vote in urban local bodies' elections, panchayat polls and assembly elections and right to bank loan.
The refugee leadership has said that their struggle to obtain all citizenship rights will continue and they will take recourse to all means to achieve their objective. "We will adopt agitational mode and we will also take legal route to obtain what is our legitimate due,'' refugee leader Labha Ram Gandhi has said. In fact, they have already knocked at the doors of the Supreme Court and urged it to remove from the Indian Constitution all provisions which denied them citizenship rights in J&K. Their case will be heard by the apex court on January 19, 2019. Refugees from Pakistan are angry more with the BJP than the Kashmir-based and Valley-centric parties like the NC, the PDP, the Congress and the CPI-M. Their grouse against the BJP is that the BJP had held a categorical commitment in 2014 through its Vision document that it, if returned to power, will grant them all the citizenship rights. "The BJP remained in power for more than three years, but did nothing whatsoever for us to keep their masters in Kashmir in a good humour," the refugee leaders have said, adding that "while the Narendra Modi government's attitude towards us was quite positive, the local BJP leadership failed us". "The local BJP leadership has disappointed us," they further said, adding that "we seek a dispensation that enables us to lead a dignified life as proud Indians in J&K". |
