Srinagar, Mar 10: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) spokesperson Girdhari Lal Raina on Monday condemned the statement of Jammu and Kashmir Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) President Tariq Hameed Karra made in the J&K Legislative Assembly.
Raina in a statement issued here said, “PCC Chief was referring to the Kashmiri Pandit community during his speech on the proposed budget for the financial year 2025-26. His comments on voting and votes of the Displaced Community of Kashmiri Pandits were full of ignorance and mischief.”
He said Karra also indirectly referred to ‘Kashmir Files’ movies. This clearly shows that his visible concern for the Displaced Community was cosmetic and superficial and aimed to achieve political objectives, Raina said
“How can the president of Congress party be so ignorant about the votes of the Displaced Community,” the BJP spokesperson said, adding that the Kashmiri Pandits from the very beginning of displacement continued to be ordinarily voters of their native territorial constituencies in Kashmir.
Raina, a former MLC, said the election Commission of India had devised a special mechanism for voting of the Displaced Community in 1996 because the community was not able to exercise their Right to Franchise at their native place nor had it abandoned the resolve to return back to the place of origin.
The only reform that ECI took recently was to plug loopholes and allow the displaced voters to cast their votes in person at designated polling stations, he said, adding that it was done to eliminate scope for manipulation and reduce the burden of filling M-Forms every time elections were held.
“More than ignorance, it seems to mischievous statement aimed to cut the limited connection of the community with their homeland,” Raina said.
He asked the J&K Congress Chief to support the community’s demand for one place settlement and collection of scattered votes of the Displaced Community at one place and a high-powered commission to look into the reasons for displacement. “Till then, the statement will be meaningless,” he said, adding that the community will continue its struggle to “expose real culprits”.
