NEW YORK: Scores of young displaced Kashmiri Hindu children led a huge demonstration organized by Overseas Friends of Bharatiya Janata Party (OFBJP) outside the Indian Embassy in Washington DC on Oct 2, to protest the Government of India’s Kashmir policy and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s recent proposal of granting autonomy to Kashmir.
The children expressed anguish at the continued neglect of their legitimate aspirations of dwelling in the land of their forefathers. These children born to parents who were hounded out of Kashmir by fundamentalist Islamic terrorists about 20 years ago, vociferously condemned the deprivation of their cultural roots, civilizational heritage, traditional practices and rituals, and 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 Government of India’s soft-attitude and appeasement policies towards Kashmiri Muslim secessionists and terrorists operating in the Kashmir valley.
The gathering of over 500 protestors rejected Prime Minister 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 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 Indian Ambassador to US expressing concern over the recent escalation of separatist violence in Kashmir and the incompetent response by the Indian government.
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. 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 recent evidences have clearly shown that the “stone pelters” and arsonists in the valley were encouraged by forces inimical to the unity of India.
Many demonstrators said that it is a war that Indian government needs to finish once for all. 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.
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.
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.
India Post News Service
