Editors Mail

Dr B N Sharga  

Dear Sir,

I read your editorial 'Divided We Fall' in the September issue of Koshur Samachar with keen interest. It is really most unfortunate to learn that an organisation like Panun Kashmir, due to sharp differences in its leadership over the approach to certain vital issues concerning the community has now become non-functional and its leadership was forced to suspend the publication of its widely circulated news magazine 'The Kashmir Sentinel'.

According to reliable information pouring in from Jammu, the rank and file of Panun Kashmir, instead of fighting unitedly for a common cause to safeguard the interests of the Kashmiri Pandit community, is on the contrary now busy in fighting in their own camps, perhaps to capture the leadership of this organisation without caring to understand that in this power game to gain superiority over others, they are making themselves a laughing stock.

Quite recently I received a letter from the President of Hindu Devasthan Suraksha Samiti based in Jammu, the contents of which were very shocking. It was mentioned in the letter that some self-styled leaders of our community were selling the application forms of the Maharashtra Government of employment and admission of Kashmiri migrant boys and girls in that state at an exorbitant price varying from Rs. 340 to Rs. 600 per form, when the actual price fixed by the Government of Maharashtra for the said Form is only Rs. 10/-. There is great resentment in a large section of Kashmiri Pandit migrants living in Jammu over this style of functioning of certain leaders of our community who are exploiting human misery to mint quick money.

It would not be out of place to mention here that about a few years back some self-styled leaders of the community came from Delhi to Lucknow and had collected huge amounts of money as donation to provide relief to Kashmiri Pandit migrant families living in tents in Jammu and Delhi. Later on, I was told that instead of providing relief to the needy for whom the money was actually collected, it was diverted for constructing the large temple complex of Mata Khir Bhawani in Loni in Ghaziabad district of Uttar Pradesh. Now, according to latest information, even the construction of this proposed temple has been stopped.

I do not understand why the construction of a duplicate temple of Mata Khir Bhawani was taken up at all at a place like Loni and what would have been its historical and spiritual importance after its completion, at such a huge cost, when hundreds of migrants have died in camps for want of medicine and other basic needs for human survival.

I personally feel that we should now remain vigilant and keep a constant eye on the activities of such dubious persons who are damaging the cause of the community.

Yours sincerely,

Dr B.N. Sharga

President

Kashmiri Association, Lucknow

October 7, 1996

DISCLAIMER:                                               

The views expressed in the Article above are Author’s personal views and kashmiribhatta.in is not in any way responsible for the opinions expressed in the above article.                                                                     

Courtesy:   Koshur Samachar, November, 1996