Displaced Kashmiri Hindu children led a huge demonstration in Washington

OFBJP-USA leads a huge rally in Washington DC, to protest Indian Government’s Kashmir Policy and Human Rights Violations against Kashmiri Pandits

 

Scores of young displaced Kashmiri Hindu children led a huge demonstration organized by Overseas Friends of Bharatiya Janata Party (OFBJP) outside Indian Embassy in Washington DC on October 2, 2010 to protest the Government of India’s Kashmir policy and PM Dr. Manmohan Singh’s recent proposal of granting autonomy to Kashmir. The children expressed their deep anguish at the continued neglect of their legitimate aspirations of dwelling in the land of their forefathers. These children born to the parents who were ruthlessly hounded out of Kashmir by the fundamentalist Islamic terrorists about 20 years ago, vociferously condemned the deprivation of their cultural roots, civilizational heritage, traditional practices and rituals; right to live in their ancestral homeland. 

The demonstration supported and attended by a large number of Indian community groups and displaced Kashmiri Hindus strongly resented and protested Government of India’s soft-attitude and appeasement policies towards Kashmiri Muslim secessionists and terrorists operating in the Kashmir valley. A huge gathering of over 500 protestors rejected Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh’s overtures to grant more autonomy to the state of Jammu & Kashmir and termed it as a dangerous step towards the eventual balkanization of India. The demonstrators displayed the placards urging the Indian government to save displaced Kashmiri Hindus from extinction and condemned its apathy towards the ethnic minority now living as refugees in their own country. The demonstrators later presented a memorandum to the Hon’ble Indian Ambassador to US expressing concern over the recent escalation of separatist violence in Kashmir and the abject incompetent response by the Indian government.

The demonstration highlighted the “soft ethnic” cleansing processes adopted by Indian government wherein nationalist and patriotic voices are choked and censored while insurgent forces are given concession after concession. It highlighted the official Indian figures that indicate a whopping Rs. 94,409 Cr having been transferred to the state of Jammu & Kashmir during the last twenty years of strife there. This constitutes around 12% of total grants disbursed to the federal governments by the center.

Dr Adapa Prasad, OFBJP-USA President, cautioned Indian government that the continuation of the government’s appeasement policies towards Kashmiri Muslim separatists is encouraging them to push their agenda of Talbanization of Kashmir which is slowly but surely extending its tentacles across the whole of India. He said that while it is a sound policy to win hearts and minds of common people of Kashmir, Indian government needs to use all its might to crush the secessionist forces and their anti-national agenda.  Dr. Surendra Kaul, OFBJP-USA Chair of Kashmir Cell said that the recent evidences have clearly shown that the “stone pelters” and arsonists in the valley were encouraged by forces inimical to the unity of India and the very same forces actually plan to have a certain number of killings every day. Many demonstrators said that it is a war that Indian government needs to finish once for all. India and Indians who believe in the sovereign nation of India and its sacred constitution need to be protected at every cost. They urged the government of India to abrogate article 370 of the Indian constitution as it had created a barrier to the total integration of the state with rest of India.

The demonstration also demanded that Government of India secures full constitutional rights of Kashmiri minorities guaranteed by the Indian Constitution. It also demanded that the minuscule minority of Kashmiri Hindus still living in the valley be provided the much needed security so that there is no repeat of  Nadimarg or Sangrampora massacres.

OFBJP demanded that Kashmiri Pandit community be declared as Internally Displaced People (IDP) and the use of the insulting term ‘Migrants’ for this forcibly exiled community must be removed from all records and communications pertaining to this community. Shri Jayesh Patel, OFBJP-USA President Elect demanded to restore Kashmiri Hindus’ political and economic rights that would give them equal status rather than a second class citizenship in their native land of Kashmir. Shri R. P. Singh, OFBJP-USA Vice President strongly urged the government of India to carve out a separate union territory for displaced Kashmiri Hindus in the north east of Kashmir.

OFBJP demanded setting up of a ‘Commission of Enquiry’ to establish the causes that led to the selective and targeted killings of Kashmiri Hindus and their subsequent forced exile from the Kashmir valley.

The protest rally was also attended by members of Indo-American Kashmir Forum (IAKF), a political advocacy group fighting for the fundamental rights of Kashmiri Hindus. Members of Association of Indian American Communities also participated in the rally.

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