As politics around the film The Kashmir Files continues, minister of state (MoS) for the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) Dr Jitendra Singh slammed the opposition for its stand on it and on the issue of the Pandit exodus. The MP from Udhampur took on former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Mehbooba Mufti and the Congress on the issue while speaking exclusively to CNN-News18.
“Her father Mufti Mohammad Sayeed was the union home minister then. What did he do to stop the exodus?" Dr Singh said when asked about Mehbooba Mufti’s allegation that the Bharatiya Janata Party was only trying to weaponise the plight of the Kashmiri Pandits. “In 1989 when this mass exodus happened…have we forgotten who was home minister of India? It was Mufti Mohammad Sayeed. The question would arise…what was the home minister doing?" Dr Singh said.
He also suggested that the decision to release dreaded terrorists like Masood Azhar from jail to ensure the safety of Mufti Sayeed’s daughter Rubaiya could have played a role in the attack on Kashmiri Pandits. “…the other episode that happened around the same time was the kidnapping of Rubaiya Sayeed and then the release of Masood Azhar and other terrorists. Who would answer that? The home minister allowed most deadly terrorists to be released. Was that not contributing to this (Pandit exodus)?" the MoS asked.
Dr Singh also defended the then governor Jagmohan. Kerala Congress had tweeted that Jagmohan had facilitated the exodus of Pandits from the valley by providing transport. Dr Singh said the decision to provide buses was humane. “Those who say today that Jagmohan triggered that exodus either don’t wish to read or remember history, or find it convenient to forget. In the early 1990s also the Congress party had started this propaganda that Jagmohan had deliberately asked the KPs to move out of Kashmir valley and secure free plots in Jammu and Delhi. How could somebody be so insensitive to say that a person left his home by his free will?" he asked.
“Actually what happened was that they (KPs) were fleeing in panic. No force on earth could have held them back and they didn’t know where to go. So providing them transport or bus to ensure a safe journey itself was a huge challenge. Even the buses were blown off in the gunfire that happened. He was just ensuring a safe passage to those who were not ready to hold themselves back," Dr Singh added.
Kerala Congress and other opposition voices had alleged that the BJP’s support to The Kashmir Files was only to further its divisive and communal agenda. Dr Singh, however, rebutted the charge that his party had done nothing to rehabilitate the Pandits who became refugees in their own country. “When they came to Jammu, it was BJP stalwarts like LK Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi who struggled and took steps and finally ensured seats in educational institutions in Maharashtra and other places for the wards of the displaced people," said the minister.
Speaking about the plight of the Kashmiri Pandits, Dr Singh recalled how as a young doctor in Jammu, he had seen firsthand the pitiable condition of the homeless members of the community.
“The most agonising part of their first summer in Jammu and in Delhi in 1990 was witnessed by me and other medicos. They were not used to spending summers outside the Valley and we had a spate of heat strokes. I was there. As young medicos, we would literally pick up heat-struck KPs and put them on slabs of ice. The camps were not properly done up because they were erected in haste. They were in the most unhygienic conditions. Films were made by Doordarshan showing drains flowing outside the kitchen area. So that was the inhuman condition. But hats off, they have a remarkable instinct of survival; they came out of that struggle," he said.
The film found resonance on the floor of Parliament too where Nationalist Congress Party leader Supriya Sule asked what the government had done for the KPs in the past 7 years. “If a child is malnourished, the mother will feed him/her in 7 years and make him/her healthy," she said.
Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala tweeted, “What have you done for the rehabilitation of KPs in 8 years? When you could do nothing you started showing them films."
Dr Singh rebutted the charges. “They might have forgotten but we have an elephant’s memory. We have been struggling all this while to set the record straight," he said. “A film like The Kashmir Files or for that matter any other film should be welcomed for putting the record straight because for many years distortion of history has been allowed by many people."
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