Excelsior Correspondent
Srinagar, Sept 20: Major differences today surfaced between coalition partners People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) over Rohingyas Muslims’ presence in the country after former distanced itself from deportation demand made by one of its legislators Vikramaditya Singh and instead sympathized with the Myanmar migrants, saying it is a human issue and should be treated humanely.
While opposing the demand of deportation of Rohingyas, senior PDP leader and Education Minister Syed Altaf Bukhari said that the statement of Vikramaditya Singh could be his personal views and doesn’t reflect party’s stand. The PDP legislator from Jammu had yesterday demanded that the Rohingyas living in Jammu should be deported immediately “as they have links with militant outfits and pose threat to internal security of the State and country”.
“As far as the statement from our MLC (Vikramaditya Singh) which has come from Jammu is concerned — I have read that — it could be his personal view and doesn’t fall in line with party stand,” Bukhari told reporters here when asked about PDP’s stand after Singh’s statement.
He asserted that the issue of Rohingyas Muslims is a human issue and Kashmiri people stand with them. “I don’t think anyone other than Kashmiris know how to stand for those who have been thrown out from their homes. We Kashmiris, be it Kashmiri Muslims or Pandits, have shown that we stand for each other and no one other than us holds that amount of sympathy which we have for the Rohingyas,” the PDP-BJP Cabinet Minister said.
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