BJP’s ‘Sankalp Patra’ or the manifesto for the upcoming Jammu and Kashmir assembly elections had many highlights — wiping out terrorism from the Valley, reconstructing Hindu temples and shrines, and regularising daily wagers working for the government among others.
But what stood out was the party addressing its core vote bank — the Kashmiri Pandits — by promising their ‘ghar wapsi’ via the Tika Lal Taploo Visthapit Samaj Punarvas Yojana (TLTVSPY), if and when they form the government — the first since the abrogation of Article 370 and 35A. But who is Tika Lal Taploo and why did the BJP name the scheme after him?
Taploo was the tallest Kashmiri Pandit leader, a career advocate and one of the early BJP leaders from the Valley who was assassinated in the tumultuous years of insurgency by militants of Yasin Malik’s Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF). Taploo was a pan-India figure in the truest sense who was born in Srinagar, received higher education in Punjab and Uttar Pradesh but came back to work where he belonged — Jammu and Kashmir.
“He was a tall leader of the Kashmiri Pandits. He went to jail many times in 1967 during our agitations and later during the Emergency. He went on to become the vice-president of BJP in the Valley but was gunned down like many Pandits,” recalls Utpal Kaul, the international coordinator of the Global Kashmiri Pandit Diaspora.
In the manifesto that Home Minister Amit Shah launched on Friday, BJP said: “This initiative will incorporate inputs from their representatives and the Welfare Board for the Displaced Community to protect, safeguard, and defend the rights of the displaced Kashmiri Pandit”. Along with Taploo’s association with the BJP, his deep roots with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) make him the ideal choice for the BJP to name a scheme for the return of the Pandits.
At a time when the BJP was in its nascent stage, Taploo’s personal charisma outshined that of the BJP, at least in J&K. After a failed assassination bid on him at Chinkral Mohalla on September 12, 1989, the militants were successful a couple of days later. As Taploo was walked up to the J&K High Court, the BJP leader was attacked by three militants firing eight rounds from close quarters, marking the beginning of a long and painful era of killings of Kashmiri Pandits. The violence soon escalated, resulting in the exodus of nearly 97 per cent of the Kashmiri Pandit community from Kashmir Valley in the next few years.
Till this day, September 14 is widely observed as Martyrdom Day by the community. By naming the scheme after him, the BJP has smartly touched a raw nerve of many Kashmiri Pandits who reside in Jammu and form a bulk of the voters in that region.
“We are happy and thankful that such a scheme for the Pandits is being thought of by the BJP and that it has been named after Tika Lal Taploo,” Kaul told News18.
Such was his aura that from BJP veteran Lal Krishna Advani to influential Pracharks like Kidar Nath Sahni, who would later go on to become Governor of Sikkim and Goa, attended his funeral. The respect he still commands among Kashmiri Pandits can be gauged by the fact that his assassination was dramatised in a recent Bollywood movie ‘The Kashmir Files’.
But will it electorally help the BJP in the 43 assembly constituencies that fall under Jammu Division where Kashmiri Pandits hold sway in many seats? In the days to come, the party will mount a social media campaign along with door-to-door visits to drive home the point, say sources.
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