Jammu, Dec 07: Ashwani Kumar Chrungoo, a senior BJP and Kashmiri Pandit leader, on Thursday welcomed the Lok Sabha’s approval to the J&K Reorganisation Amendment Bill 2023 which provides two nominated seats to the displaced people of Kashmir and one seat to the displaced people of Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir (PoJK) in the Legislative Assembly of J&K.
“It is a historical move that has proved the positive intent of the Government of India towards the displaced people of Kashmir and the PoJK. While it is the political recognition of the socio-cultural existence of the Kashmiri Pandits in J&K as the indigenous people, it also reiterates the concept that Kashmir is incomplete without Kashmiri Pandits,” Ashwani said in a statement.
Chrungoo, who is also a human rights defender and a columnist, has been spearheading the campaign for the political empowerment of the displaced community. He has also been writing about this issue extensively all along.
“We spearheaded the struggle like a mission and made sincere efforts to convince the Commission that the issue would test the intent of the Indian State towards the displaced community. It was the question of their socio-political existence in a state the foundations of which were laid by their forefathers in the past,” the statement said, adding, “The contributions of the Pandit community in the fields of literature, architecture, civilizational flow, medicine, philosophy, music, dance, law, politics, history writing, religion and sociology are well-recognised, profound and immense. It will be a worse tragedy than their unfortunate forced exodus if they are ignored in the final analysis, draft and report of the commission.”
The BJP leader further said that granting the displaced people a political representation is a “historic decision from an existential point of view”.
Chrungoo expressed his gratitude to the Delimitation Commission and the government of India, particularly Prime Minister Narendra Modi, for this historic decision. The inclusion of displaced people’s political representation is a testament to their historic contributions in various fields, and it addresses the existential concerns of the community, he added.
Highlighting the community’s past neglect, Chrungoo stressed that the current dispensation has given the displaced people the due rights they deserve, marking a significant departure from past practices.
