Jammu, Sept 11 (KNS): Senior BJP and Kashmiri Pandit leader, Ashwani Kumar Chrungoo on Saturday said that Rahul Gandhi's KP references during his two-day tour of Jammu are a cold comfort for the Kashmiri Pandits, who have all along been the victims of the Congress's appeasement policy in Jammu and Kashmir.
He was reacting to the statements made by the vice-president of Congress and MP, Rahul Gandhi during his visit to Jammu recently.
"First of all it needs to be clarified that the Kashmiri Pandits have no surnames like 'gandhi'. A fake narrative that Gandhis are Kashmiri Pandits is rejected ab initio. Secondly, it was the Kashmir policy of the Congress party under Nehru and Gandhis which is recognised as the progenitor of the Kashmir problem right from 1947. Kashmiri Pandits were the worst victims of the Congress's Kashmir policy", Chrungoo said in a statement, issued to Kashmir News Service (KNS).
He said that in 1989-90, when terrorism overwhelmed the socio-political scenario in the Kashmir valley, there was a coalition government of National Conference and Congress in the J&K state under the leadership of Farooq Abdullah.
“Genocide, ethnic cleansing and mass exodus of the Kashmiri Pandits took place during the same period in 1989-90. Congress is equally responsible for what was done to the Kashmiri Pandits in Jammu and Kashmir.”
He said that even after the forced mass exodus of the KP community, Congress in league with its the then associates played politics with the Kashmiri Pandits and made unsuccessful attempts to blame Jagmohan for the mass exodus.
“The party did never come to the rescue of the Pandit community during its struggle in exile. The fact of the matter is that it was RSS, BJP, Shiv Sena and VHP which overwhelmingly helped the cause of the Pandits in exile, about whom Rahul Gandhi always speaks so bad publicly, and his Jammu diatribes are the latest example.”
Chringoo said that after paying visit and abesience at Mata Vaishno Devi by Rahul Gandhi, it is time for the Congress leadership to do some soul-searching and recognise its failures on J&K situation as to where it went wrong in the past.
“Mere rehetorics are not going to bring any solace to the people of Jammu and Kashmir and especially the displaced KPs,” he said. (KNS)