Tuesday, May 2, 2023

Why is the BJP lacking in sincerity when it comes to the Kashmiri Pandits?

The BJP has misused the tragedy of the Kashmiri Pandits to wrongly stoke generalised hatred for Muslims everywhere but not do much for the Kashmiri Pandits, even betraying them by making promises and not keeping them. Panun Kashmir is supposedly the most right-wing Kashmiri Pandit group, and their leader has talked of how the Modi sarkar has done nothing for the community and has lied taking credit for UPA initiatives for their community, a sentiment echoed by a Kashmiri Pandit leader who was, until not too long ago, a spokesman of the BJP, and many other Kashmiri Pandits as well, as you can see here, here, here and here. Indeed, the Congress did much for them, like giving them permanent structures to live in, as you can see here and here), even if far from perfect (indeed, most governments in India have had a poor track record in terms of quality of homes for people, irrespective of religion or region, displaced by violence or even infrastructure projects) as opposed to the makeshift tents they lived in when they were displaced in the BJP-backed VP Singh government's tenure, and the Congress also gave the Kashmiri Pandits income tax exemptions shortly after the exodus in the early 1990s. The question is - why is the BJP lacking in sincerity when it comes to the Kashmiri Pandits? It's because any sense of closure will not give the BJP a chance at playing its politics of communal polarisation, misusing the slogan of "what about the Kashmiri Pandits?" to trivialise or undermine the gravity of hate crimes against innocent Muslims across India. 


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