Srinagar: Hurriyat Conference (G) chairman Syed Ali Geelani on Sunday termed Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat’s statement calling for constitutional amendments to assimilate the Jammu and Kashmir with the rest of India as “unwise.”
In a statement issued here, the octogenarian leader denounced PDP-BJP coalition for their “unceasing attempts to pamper state’s political, cultural, economic and historical status.”
“RSS chief Mohan Bhagat and including all those affiliated with ruling parties both in state and New Delhi through their unwise statements are pleading and favoring complete integration of state with India,” Geelani said in a statement issued here.
“All these steps and their attempts illustrates that India does not want to resolve Kashmir issue through political means,” Geelani added.
He said that Kashmiris peaceful struggle for right self-determination has now passed on to third generation.
“We are quite confident that our youth, intellectuals, lawyers, writers, journalists, traders’ fraternity and people from all walks will play assigned role for their democratic and political rights,” he said.
He appealed Secretary General of United Nations, OIC and international community to find durable and early settlement of Kashmir issue. He also urged world leaders to take notice of the “appalling” situations in region and mounting tension between two nuclear powers and save humankind from going extinct.
Geelani also urged UN Human Rights Commission for their cognizance of rights abuses in state and asked to send a fact-finding mission to ascertain the ground realities.
“Jammu and Kashmir is the only place over globe, where people are traumatized and living in continuous pain and distress,” he said, adding, “People are pursuing their right to self-determination since past seventy years and for their conviction and commitment are subjected to extreme brutalities as their commitment with cause is annoying and irk authorities in New Delhi.”
In his address on Vijayadashmi, which is also the Hindutva organisation’s foundation day, in Nagpur, Bhagwat on Saturday said constitutional amendments were needed to fully integrate the state with the rest of India.
Bhagwat said Hindus who migrated to J&K from West Pakistan in 1947 were in a “miserable state for their decision to be in Bharat and remain as Hindus.”
He blamed constitutional provisions like Article 35(A) that empowers the state’s legislature to define Jammu and Kashmir residents and accord citizenship rights to them, for the “backward life” of these Hindu migrants.
“This is happening just because the discriminatory provisions in the state of Jammu and Kashmir that denied them the fundamental rights,” he said.
“Necessary Constitutional amendments will have to be made and old provisions will have to be changed. Then and then only, the residents of Jammu and Kashmir can be completely assimilated with rest of Bharat and their equal cooperation and share will be possible in the national progress.”
Bhagwat also spoke about Kashmiri Pandits, who migrated from the valley in early 1990s, saying their condition “remains as it is.”
He said that in J&K, the problem of refugees had not been resolved. Despite being the citizens of India, they still don’t have the basic facilities of education, employment and democratic rights, the RSS chief said.
“The problems of permanent residents of the state, who migrated from the Pakistan-occupied Kashmir in 1947, and the people, who were displaced from Kashmir Valley in the 1990s, remain as they are,” he said.
Conditions should be created so that they can lead a happy, dignified and secure life like other Indians, by ensuring them equal democratic rights, even while allowing them to remain firm and devoted to their religion and national identity, he said.
Though Bhagwat did not mention, but the RSS and the BJP have long demanded abrogation of the Article 370, which grants special status to Jammu and Kashmir.
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