BJP censures Tariq Karra for ignorance laden mischievous statement on Pandits: GL Raina
JAMMU, March 10: Former MLC and spokesperson of BJP Girdhari Lal Raina has strongly condemned statement of Jammu and Kashmir Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) president Tariq Hameed Karra made in the legislative Assembly.
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. Tariq Karra also referred to ‘Kashmir Files’ movies albeit indirectly. This clearly shows that his visible concern for Displaced Community was cosmetic and superficial aimed to achieve political objectives, GL Raina said
Wondering how the president of Congress party can be so ignorant about the votes of the Displaced Community, Ex-MLC recalled that the Kashmiri Pandits from the very beginning of displacement continued to be ordinarily voters of their native territorial constituencies in Kashmir.
GL Raina remembered that 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. 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, GL Raina feared.
Asking PCCI president to support community 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, GL Raina stressed till than the statement will be meaningless. The community will continue its struggle to expose real culprits, he added.
