Pandits make common cause with Sangh Parivar on Art 370
‘Why is BJP playing second fiddle to Kashmir parties?’
Ideologues of Sangh Parivar and representatives of Kashmiri Pandits gathered here on Monday to discuss the issue of Kashmir problem in the light of new political developments in Jammu and Kashmir, demanding that the supremacy of Indian Parliament could only be established in the state through abrogation of Article 370.
The seminar organised by a Sangh outfit ‘ We the Citizens’ also saw Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s detractors within the Parivar questioning the conditions on the basis of which the BJP agreed to form an alliance government with Peoples Democratic Party in the state.
Shiv Sena MP, Sanjay Raut, while calling for abrogation of Article 370 of the Constitution, said that it was the only way to resolve Kashmir problem. Despite Shiv Sena being an old ally of the BJP both at the Centre and in Maharashtra, wondered as to why the BJP agreed on alliance with the PDP on the latter’s terms.
Rashnik Kher, president, ‘Roots in Kashmir,’ and a Kashmiri Pandit activist said that high voting in the Assembly elections in Kashmir indicated that people wanted peace. He charged the political parties particularly PDP and National Conference with misinterpreting this mandate as per their political needs.
While agreeing to the need of BJP-PDP alliance, he said that though it was necessary but that did not mean that the BJP should have played a second fiddle. He wondered as to why the issue of Article 370 had altogether been ignored in the Common Minimum Programme.
However, RSS leader Sanjay Joshi, a known detractor of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who was to be a key speaker, was conspicuously absent from the seminar.
A stinging criticism of Modi came from Acharya Dharmendra, a front ranking radical Hindutva ideologue of Sangh Parivar. Questioning the basic modalities of the BJP-PDP tie up, he charged Modi with “appeasing” the minority community and bracketed him with former Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru.
Questioning the Modi government’s stand on the release of hardliner separatist Masarat Alam, he demanded that the government should come clear on it. “If they (Modi) claim that they were unaware about the development, then it reflects the government’s incompetence and if they knew about it then it is even more serious,” he commented.
Panthers Party chief Bhim Singh termed the alliance as born out of BJP-RSS combine’s ‘lust for power.’ He strongly demanded abrogation of Article 370. He touched upon various political and legal facets of the issue in support of his demand.
