AGENCY
NEW DELHI: Government is working to ensure return of displaced Kashmiri Pandits to their “homeland” and issues like Article 370 would be addressed “at the right time”, Union Minister Mahesh Sharma on Sunday said.
“I know your expectation from the new government has increased…. And, I understand your pain and wish to be the carrier of your pain and be a link between you and your government and your prime minister,” Minister of State for Culture Mahesh Sharma said here.
The minister was addressing a gathering of Kashmiri Pandits at a function organised by NGO Panun Kashmir to mark the “Homeland Day” that commemorates the ‘Margdarshan Resolution’.
“We are also working on preserving the rich culture of Kashmir through tourism and working on issues concerning it…We are trying to look into the issues of increasing air connectivity and the Article 370…. And, we have received an indication that those issues would be addressed, and addressed at the right time,” he said.
Article 370 of Constitution provides for special status to Jammu and Kashmir. The BJP has always demanded abrogation of Article 370 but had refrained from making it a poll issue in the recent Jammu and KashmirAssembly election where it has emerged as second largest party after PDP.
Sharma, who is also Minister of State for Civil Aviation, said the government was also working on its mantra of “combating terrorism with tourism.”
“I do not understand your pain out of some pressure but by listening to the voice inside of me. And, I would like to maintain that link (between you and the government)…I have already hinted about that to our party chief Amit Shah and PM Modi and I can promise you that I will continue to exert pressure on that issue,” Sharma said.
He said that Pandits must not “lose the memory and pain in this heart” of having left their homes.
“As long as you do not go back to your homeland, that pain in your heart must remain,” he said.
“I think it is now or never. And, I am standing shoulder-to-shoulder with you in your ‘dharmyudh’ (fight for justice), yes I would call it your dharmyudh ,” he said.
On tourism potential of Jammu and Kashmir, he said, “We have the gods up there, Baba Amarnath and Mata Vaishno Devi and the path to Kailash Mansarovar goes through Jammu and Kashmir.
“I say of if we had another Baba Vishwanath or Baba Amarnath on the Aksai-Chin border, then China would not have been there and lakhs of pilgrims would have gone there,” he said.
Lakhs of Kashmiri Pandits had left Jammu and Kashmir, in an exodus in 1989 following outbreak of militancy and settled in different parts of India.
The day marks an initiative by displaced Kashmiri Pandits in Jammu where they had articulated comprehensively their geo-political aspirations after their forced mass exodus from the Valley.
