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22. J.K. Hindu exiles eulogise Thackeray

Indian Express
New Delhi, 25 September 1996
22. J.K. Hindu exiles eulogise Thackeray
BY SUJATA ANANDAN

MUMBAI, Sept. 24: As the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) attempts to shrug off the Shiv Sena, which in recent days has become an albatross round its neck, it might find that it is losing ground to its ally where matters relating to the Hindu heart are concerned.

The BJP�s dilly-dallying over hardcore Hindutva issues has already earned it the ridicule of the extreme right of the Hindu fundamentalist forces. With the Sena all set to dent its vote bank in Uttar Pradesh, their latest support base to be plundered is that of Kashmiri Hindus in exile.

BJP ideologue Govindacharya�s recent statements that the Sena�s militancy was abhorrent and that the party had failed to grasp the true meaning of Hindutva might result in the loss of support of Kashmiri Hindus in exile, who have taken exception to his description of the Sena as �incompetent and immature�.

In an extremely critical condemnation, the Panun Kashmir, an umbrella organisation of Kashmiris in exile, has described Govindacharya as �irresponsible and hypocritical� and accused him of practising the same �double standards that his people believe in�.

The ire arises out of Govindacharya�s earlier criticism of Kashmiri Pandits. According to Anu Tikoo, the Mumbai coordinator of Panun Kashmir, �A year back, he was quoted as saying that Kashmiri Pandits have got enough and now they should try and go back to Kashmir.�*

This has got their goat. Kashmiri Pandits contrast this attitude with that of Sena supremeo Bal Thackeray who, they say, has stood by them, even persuading the Maharashtra government to reserve a special quota in the state�s educational institutions for Kashmiri migrants. �On a single-page petition, he took a decision within six days that settled the future of 2,000 students without much ado,� says Ashok Pandit, the western India co-ordinator of Panun Kashmir.

So now they eulogise Thackeray as another avataar of the Maratha warrior Chhatrapati Shivaji and dismiss the BJP and Govindacharya as political opportunists for having gone back on every promise made to them.

The litany of their grievances against the BJP are carefully listed but. They are most peeved at the fast that while the BJP�s election manifesto clearly rooted for the abolition of Article 370, soon after Atal Behari Vajpayee was sworn in Prime Minister, he went back on this commitment �stating that the abolition of the Article was not on his government�s agenda�.

�I am sure if Thackeray�s government comes to power in Delhi he would take steps to remove Article 370,� Tikoo said.

�So the BJP has been unable to protect the interests of Kashmiri Pandits in India. And so far as understanding issues is concerned it is the BJP which has completely failed to understand the issue of elections in Kashmir,� Pandit told the Indian Express. Pandit believes Thackeray is the only politician in India who grasped the issue at stake for the Kashmiri migrants.
 

Footnotes:

* Govindacharya should have given a lead by going to and settling down in Kashmir. Lecturing to poor Kashmiri Hindus on what they should do, comes easily to self-appointed Hindu leaders like Govindacharya who goes about with airs of a profound political strategist.
 

     

Time for Stock Taking - Whither Sangh Parivar?

Sita Ram Goel
Chapters
Introduction 1. A Call for an Intellectual (Bauddhika) Kshatriya 2. Ideological Defence of Hindu Society 1. G.V. Ashtekar 2. Professor G.C. Asnani 3. Deep Chandra Awasthi 4. P. N. Awasthi 5. S. K. Balasubramanian 6. Abhas Chatterjee 7. G.C. Chaudhary 8. S. K. Dalvi 9. Ashoke Dasgupta 10. Jitendra D. Desai 11. Nachiketa Dogra 12.  Adwayanand R. Galatge 13. K. B. Ganapathy 14. Padmashri Shalil Ghosh 15. Bhagwati Prasad Goenka 16. Shiv Goud 17. S. C. Gupta 18. B.L. Jaju 19. H.C. Joshi 20.  Dr. S.D. Kulkarni 21.  S.D. Laghate 22.  Professor K. Lakshminarayana 23. Professor K.S. Lal 24. Professor R. R. Mangasuli 25. T. G. Mohandas 26.  Professor S. G. Mujumdar 27.  P. R. K. Naidu 28.  S. Omkar 29. Virendra V. Parekh 30. Hem Raj Prabhakar 31. Baljit Rai 32. Dr. H. Ramarao 33. B.K. Rao 34. (Mrs) Veda Sampath 35. Smt.  M. Sandhya 36. K. Satya Deva Prasad 37. Jagannath Sharma 38. Ajit Singh 39.  Ram Autar Singh 40. Vikram Singh 41. Dr. Vinay Kumar Sinha 42. Shrikant G. Talageri 43. Mrs. Leela Tampi 44. B. K. Verma 45. R. C. Waswani 46. P. S. Yog 47. Brief Responses 1. Sarva Dharma Samabhãva or Sarva Dharma Sambhrama?  (Unity or Confusion of Religions?) 2. Meaning of Conversions 1. Roll Over, Rushdie 2. Standing Up to Scrutinize Islam 3. Turning away from Mecca 4. Islam is religious fascism 5. Courageous author puts his life on the line 6. Far more dangerous than Nazism 1. Legacy of hate 2. BJP shifts stand to woo Muslims 3. BJP promoting a �minority-friendly� image for elections 4. BJP looks for Muslim plank to move towards Delhi 5. BJP girds up to appease Muslim 6. Khurana�s go-slow on migrants issue irks hawks 7. Pampering the minority ego 8. BJP to bring out Koran in Sanskrit 9. Vajpayee for diluting stand on �Hindutva� 10. More Space for �namaaz� urged 11. Chhabildas sticks to his guns on minority votes 12. Advani allays minorities fears 13. Secret of BJP�s success 14. Advani woos Indian expatriates in London, assails Govt�s Kashmir policy 15. BJP bid to woo Muslims 16. �How can any Muslim in this country say that he does not respect Ram?� 17. Malhotra�s statement on Ayodhya annoys Chavan 18. BJP bid to win over Muslims 19. RSS wants Muslims for friends 20. Babri or �Barabari�? 21. Bihar BJP�s first-ever Muslim leader emerges 22. J.K. Hindu exiles eulogise Thackeray 23. Secularism is the very colour of our blood: Vajpayee 24. A good augury 25. Muslims in Behrampada voted in a pragmatic way 26. Joshi sparks off row over Religion Bill 27. VHP drops plan to �liberate� Kashi, Mathura 28. Govt seeks revision of order on Naib Imam 29. BJYM�S meet on June 7 30. Vande Mataram �dispute� at BJP Muslim meeting The Tabligh Movement or Millions of Bearded Militants on the March 1. Population Explosion in West Bengal: A Survey