OBSERVER BUREAU
SRINAGAR, APRIL 02
National Conference leader Sameer Kaul on Sunday alleged that the Kashmiri Pandits have lost their regional identity when the PDP formed an alliance with the BJP. “When the PDP-BJP government was formed, I had a shocking realisation that my community – Kashmiri Pandit community – was sold by (former chief minister and PDP founder) Mufti (Mohammad Sayeed) by taking it out of regional identity,” he told reporters here.
Kaul, who yesterday joined the NC, also said that he had opposed the BJP for its thinking and philosophy, and fought against the party from when he was in PDP for four years.
“But, I did not know that there was already an arrangement (between the PDP and the BJP) behind my back. It was a political arrangement,” he said, alleging it was a part of the PDP-BJP alliance to handover a part of Kashmiri society (Pandit community) to the BJP.
Kaul, who was the national spokesman of the PDP, said Kashmiri Pandit community lost their regional identity the moment they were “sold out” to the BJP by the PDP.
“They lost their home and hearth, and their political identity the moment they were sold out by the PDP to the BJP. They (Kashmiri Pandits) are now a part of the BJP agenda and for that the BJP has bought them in lieu of the few MLC seats,” he alleged.
He also said that the Agenda of Alliance (AoA) between the PDP and the BJP was a “misappropriation” of the separatists’ agenda.
“The AoA, with the BJP, was nothing but the Hurriyat’s agenda. They (PDP) stole Hurriyat’s food (agenda) from the plate and tried to eat themselves which was wrong. It was misappropriation of the Hurriyat agenda,” he claimed.
He said in the last 60 years, 25-27 per cent of space was created and preserved for Hurriyat so that they also indulge in their own politics in that space.
“They (Hurriyat) have every right as citizens of J-K to take forward their politics. They have every right to do politics in a non-violent way if they have differences with the country’s philosophy… this was done because they have their own politics like who is the bigger separatist leader, which is the real and stronger Hurriyat…there was politics in that as well.
“When separatists indulged in their politics, only then could you (PDP) have talked about governance, development and mainstream politics. But what you did is that when the government was formed, you said we will show you how to handle them. You took their plate, which PDP should not have done,” he said.
