Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Apr 2: All State Kashmiri Pandit Conference (ASKPC) termed it an insult to their democratic rights and mockery of democracy to make Kashmiri Pandits to exercise their franchise for the contesting candidates of their constituencies when in exile and mainly for those so called main stream political parties who facilitated exodus of the community and hounded them out of their homes and hearths.
ASKPC president, Advocate Ravinder Raina, while addressing a meeting of his organization and its unit heads here, today said it is strange that community has entered into 30th year of exile and is scattered in different parts of country and aboard but at the same time Government is making it a party to the electoral process of the State which in no way has any impact on the community in respect to development viz a viz road, water employment, electricity etc. He said community wanted to know in what way an elected parliamentarian could be helpful to a voter in exile.
Dr.T.K.Bhat, general secretary, ASKPC said that ASKPC wanted an answer from National political parties, so called mainstream political parties of the State and civil society of Kashmir the way Kashmiri Pandits living in exile have been asked to exercise their voting rights for the candidates who have never been their well wishers and not allowed the community to return to their homes and hearths with honour and dignity.
He said that every nationalist citizen of the country knows that Kashmiri Pandits sacrificed themselves for the national cause to keep National Flag high in the Valley but alas same community which is living as refugees in their own country is being asked to use their voting rights just to fill the Constitutional obligations. ASKPC asked the nation shall Kashmiri Pandit community vote in favour of candidates who openly says Pakistan Zindabad in their election rallies or shall it vote to the candidates who say that if Article 370 and 35A is slightly tampered the relationship with rest of India will get ceased at that very moment or shall we vote to that national party who doubts the integrity and action of our security forces and give indirect support to the separatists or should Kashmiri Pandit vote to a party with whom they had high hopes and expectations, but that too dashed our hopes and ignored it on all fronts?
Other, who showed the same concern and expressed their seriousness were R.K.Wangnoo senior vice president, Veena Gurtoo Women Wing president ASKPC, Ravi Raina its youth president, P.L.Pandita (Shangroo), Ashok Dhar, S.K.Raina, B.L.Handoo, Ravinder Raina etc.
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