news details |
|
|
| Blame Cong for miserable plight of refugees | | Insensitive Government | | Neha
JAMMU, Feb 28: We term India as secular state. Unfortunately, it is not. At least, Jammu and Kashmir State just cannot be termed as secular by any yardstick. It is a religious dispensation of sorts that has been reigning supreme in the state since 1947 with New Delhi and the Congress party giving unqualified and unflinching support to the ruling elite in the state. The very fact that the refugees from West Pakistan, all non-Muslims, do not enjoy any citizenship right in the state even after 65 years of independence is a classical example of fake secularism that is being practiced in the state.
Yesterday, the BJP MLAs sought the support of the ruling coalition in favour of their demand seeking citizenship rights for these abandoned refugees, but with no result. "It is unfortunate that none of resolutions, particularly the one pertaining to the violation of human rights of the West Pakistan refugees has been admitted by the assembly secretariat," BJP MLA Jugal Kishore Sharma said in the assembly during the question hour. "I had also moved a resolution for the closure of the Custodian Department but the same was also not entertained by the assembly secretariat," he also said and subsequently walked out of the House registering his emphatic protest against the government. He was joined by all the three remaining BJP MLAs and the lone JSM MLA. They staged walk out raising such slogans as "Refugeeon Ke Saath Insaf Karo", "Refugeeon Ko Unka Haq Do", "Jammu Virodhi Sarkar Hai Hai", "this is a major human rights violation", and "why injustice with the refugees?" They all asked the Chair to explain as to why these resolutions were dropped despite the fact that they dealt with very important human issues".
That the NC-Congress coalition would not entertain any resolution on the citizenship rights of the refugees from West Pakistan was a foregone conclusion. And, this, notwithstanding the fact that they had only a few days ago threatened to protest outside the Parliament to draw the attention of the authorities to their miserable plight so that their problems and hardships are redressed and mitigated. These refugees have been, everyone is aware, struggling very hard in Jammu and Kashmir and New Delhi since 1947 to obtain citizenship rights in the state so that they could also lead a dignified life, but with no result. (They migrated to Jammu in the wake of the country's communal partition to save their life, dignity and culture. The religious bigots and champions of the two--nation concept were after them. These minority Hindus had two options: persecution and conversion or migration; they obviously exercised the second option and migrated to Jammu. Some also migrated to other parts of India and became full-fledged Indian citizens.)
It needs to be emphasised that all the Kashmir-based and Valley-centric parties, including the NC, and the so-called secular and democratic Congress have been opposing tooth and nail the refugees' demand on the grounds that the grant of citizenship rights to them would change the demography of Jammu province and empower it to return to the assembly more MLAs and that such a step would also erode the special status the state has been enjoying since 1950 under the separatist, communal and anti-democratic Article 370 of the Indian Constitution - Article incorporated in the constitution much to the chagrin of the people of Jammu and Ladakh and sections of Kashmiri society, including Kashmiri Hindus.
It may appear unbelievable, but it is a hard fact that the Jammu and Kashmir Government did grant citizenship rights to the Muslim refugees from the Xinjiang Province of China and Tibet. It not only granted citizenship rights to these Muslim refugees but also settled them in the Eidgah area of Srinagar, stronghold of Mirwaiz Umar Farooq.
It is important to note that many Uyghur Muslims had migrated to Kashmir from Xinjiang province of China in 1952 to escape the wrath of the Communists. The Uyghur Muslims were concentrated in and around Urumqi, capital city of northwestern Xinjiang province. They were angry with the Chinese Communist regime because it was changing the demographic profile of the area by settling Hans with a view to checking the rise of religious fundamentalism in the area. Beijing has been keeping a strict vigil on Urmuqi as well as the border town of Kashghar, which is located close to the Pakistan-occupied-Jammu and Kashmir (POJK). Even today this restive province is witnessing large scale violence and terrorist activities and nearly 200 people have been killed and large numbers injured in riots by Uyghurs protesting over the growing settlement of Hans. The areas have also witnessed periodic violent attacks staged by the separatist East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM). To contain the separatist violence, the Chinese are using the Snow Leopard force (SLF) against them. The SLF is China's best known anti-terrorism unit in the strategic Urmuqi and Kashghar areas.
However, the real issue is not the grant of citizenship rights to the Uyghur Muslims and their settlement in Kashmir, as also the grant of citizenship rights to the Muslim families who migrated from Tibet to Kashmir in the wake of the Chinese annexation of the Buddhist Tibet and their settlement, again, in the Eidgah area of Srinagar. The real issue is the ruling elite's double-standards and the manner in which it denied, and continue to deny, the Hindu refugees from West Pakistan their citizenship rights. The grant of citizenship rights to Uyghurs and Tibetan Muslims and their settlement in Kashmir should expose the Jammu and Kashmir Government and the political parties like the NC and the Congress as well as Indian political leadership and establish that they have two yardsticks, one for the Muslim refugees and another for the Hindu refugees. This could happen only in India.
It must remain a matter of shame for those who masquerade as "secularists and democrats" but make humiliating distinctions between the Hindu refugees from West Pakistan, part of undivided British India, and Muslim refugees from foreign countries, including China and Tibet, now under the illegal occupation of Beijing.
Will the authorities listen to the woes of the hapless Hindu refugees? Will they treat them in the manner they treated Muslim refugees from Xinjiang and Tibet by granting them all the citizenship rights, including the right to education, right to immovable property, right to service under the state government, right to vote in the assembly and local-bodies' elections, right to bank loan and right to higher education, including technical and professional education? The answer is a big NO. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
