From the Presidents Desk

 

Dear community members,

Happy year 2020 to you, your family members, kin and well- wishers.

My organisation, Kashmiri Samiti Delhi, wholeheartedly, supports the Modi Government's action in passing the Bilis which resulted in the promulgation of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act. It provides succour to those unfortunate people, who were opposed to the partition of the country but were forced to live a life of discrimination, violence and dishonour for seven decades and more.

The CAA provides priority and facilitation to the prosecuted persons, seeking refuge in India. It is not against Muslims, as is being argued by vote-bank-seeking politicians. The existing laws, in India, are capable enough to grant citizenship to Muslims, also, from any country of the world. The only condition they have to fulfil is that the person must have stayed in India for 11 years. CCA provides solace to persecuted minorities of Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangla Desh, who experienced torture and second-class citizenship for three-fourths of a century Sixty-eight lakh calls have come in support the act. A few of these are repeat The verified ones, which are not repeat, number more than 52 72 lakhs.

Some Pak Hindus and Sikhs, who have been forced to flee their country, talked to us. They said that they were not allowed to cremate the bodies of their dead ones. Many such bodies were forcibly taken away and placed in graves in accordance with Muslim religious customs. The non-Muslims were, also, not allowed to observe their religious festivals and auspicious occasions on the plea that only the rule of the Mustafaa prevails in Pakistan. This meant that only Muslim religious days could be celebrated or observed.

The act makes provision that agents provocateurs, like that of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, do not secure citizenship rights in our country. The Modi Government has been helping the Muslim community, in the manner, few governments on our globe do. It was during NDA-1 that computers made their entry, for the first time, into Muslim madrasas. As a result students of such institutions are seen crying The Quran-e-Sharif in one hand and a computer in another Such students remain faithful to their religion and, also, earn a descent livelihood. In a similar way, the Modi Government put an end to triple talaq. It was such a brave act that no earlier government had the courage to do.

The Government's another welcome initiative is to introduce the National Register of Citizens. It is aimed at finding whether a person, living in India, is a legal citizen. This issue has attained importance because a large number of persons from outside countries have infiltrated into India. Many of them are criminals. After committing heinous crimes, in India, they go to their country.

The Indian investigating agencies fail to trace them or take action against them. No country, including that of the richest United States, can afford to accommodate illegal immigrants permanently.

India has, always, welcomed persecuted minorities of other countries. When Catholics were persecuted in Europe, India opened its doors and allowed them to settle in this country As a result, one of the prominent immediate followers of Jesus Christ Saint Thomas, set up his missionary centre in India. When Parsis were persecuted in Iran, they came to India and were received with open arms. They proved to be patriotic Indians. As a result, they produced some top-class players, industrialists and scientists. When Jews were being killed in the western half of the world, many of them settled in India. They have said many a time that this is the only country in the world where non-Hindus, too, can live in peace and attain prosperity.

KSD has, all along, supported the judicious and courageous steps taken by the Modi Government. At the same time, my mind, today, goes to the fateful day of January 19, 1990, when my community was driven out of the valley. KSD observes January 19 as the Holocaust Day. The day is the most disastrous one for KPs for the last century. It is a strange happening in which lakhs of Kashmiris were made to flee and, yet, 40,000 Burmese Rohingyas were accommodated in the Jammu region by the former J&K Government. Not a tear was dropped, nor a sigh heaved over the misfortune of the KP community. This unfortunate community could not voice its grievances for seven decades and more, as there was no listener. Both the State and the Central Governments gave it a cold shoulder.

Some opposition parties are currently shouting from house tops that Muslims, from other countries, too, should be allowed to settle in India. Nobody is talking about the KP community members, who are patriotic Indian citizens, yet running from pillar to post, to secure redress of their justified demand, which is that they be provided a homeland in the valley where the provisions of the Indian Constitution are followed in letter and spirit.

I appeal Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah to ponder over the problems of the KP community seriously and provide them some a region in the valley where they can live in peace and with equal social and legal rights as enjoyed by the members of the majority community of that area.

DISCLAIMER: 

The views expressed in the Article above are Sumeer Chrungoo  personal views and kashmiribhatta.in is not in any way responsible for the opinions expressed in the above article. The article belongs to its respective owner or owners and this site does not claim any right over it. Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act of 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing."

Courtesy:- Sumeer Chrungoo  and Koshur Samachar 2020, January