Reacting sharply to RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat’s speech in Nagpur on eve of Dussehra where he had claimed that people of Jammu and Ladakh face discrimination at the hands of Kashmiris, AIP President and MLA Langate Er Rasheed has challenged him to prove the same on basis of facts and figures. In a statement issued to KNS, Er Rasheed said, “By batting for a particular region, RSS and other parties of Sang Parivar have been promoting regionalism and communalism and the basic purpose is to avoid resolution of Kashmir dispute and create confusion.Bhagwat must know that despite being just 27 per cent of total population of state, Hindu community has got proportionately beyond lines share in top rank bureaucracy and political establishment. Bhagwat should know that both heads of civil and police administration which include Chief Secretary and DGP, are from Jammu region and of Hindu community. Similarly from commissioner secretaries to district SPs, presence of Muslim officers has been reduced to nominal figures. Even a layman can draw the comparison between the overall development among three regions and it will take him not long to find that Kashmir lacks for behind in every field. However, the focus of all governments in Jammu region has been just two districts of Jammu province dominated by Hindu community and the main population of Pir-Panchal and Chenab Valley have been ignored and are being continuously deprived of their all rights.
The BJP government has recently announced IIT and IIM for Jammu but ignoring the main region of Kashmir.”Er Rasheed asked RSS chief to forget about giving citizenship rights to west Pakistani refugees and added that they will always remain refugees, unless they either go back to their native places or are settled elsewhere in India. He said, “It is a universal law that refugees in any part of the world have to go back to their native places, once situation is normal and the west Pakistani refugees should be sent to Pakistan and those Muslims forced to migrate from Jammu should be allowed to resettle in Jammu.” Er Rasheed also condemned Bhagwat for threatening Kashmiris of consequences if they don’t give up their resistance and asked Bhagwat not to forget that when Indian’s were fighting Britishers, J&K was an independent sovereign state. He said, “If Bhagwat truly believes that Gilgit Baltistan and Azad Kashmir are also integral part of India then why should he not support holding plebiscite in entire J&K so that people decide whether we are India’s integral part or Pakistan’s jugular vein.” (KNS)