An organization of migrant Kashmiri Pandits has welcomed an ongoing anti-encroachment drive being carried out by the Jammu Kashmir administration to retrieve state land and demanded the formation of an SIT to probe the role of the NC and the PDP in the alleged promotion of separatism.
A statement to this effect was issued by Panun Kashmir chairman Ajay Chrungoo on Wednesday. It came at a time when several political leaders from Jammu and Kashmir, including former chief ministers Omar Abdullah of the National Conference (NC) and Mehbooba Mufti of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), have voiced their concerns against the drive.
Mufti recently accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government of turning Jammu and Kashmir into Afghanistan by “demolishing the homes of poor and marginalized”, while Abdullah said he was against people encroaching upon state land, but the administration should follow the due process of law.
Land measuring more than 10 lakh kanal has been retrieved across Jammu and Kashmir after the commissioner secretary of the revenue department, Vijay Kumar Bidhuri, directed all deputy commissioners to ensure a 100-per cent removal of encroachments from state land, including “Roshni” and “Kahcharai” (grazing land), on January 7.
“We welcome the action taken by the Jammu and Kashmir administration against the illegal encroachments and constructions across the Union Territory, particularly by top political bigwigs. Panun Kashmir asks both the leadership at the helm of the governments in Jammu and Kashmir and the Centre to recognise such corrupt and illegal activity not merely as acts of corruption, but as acts of internal subversion,” Chrungoo told reporters here.
He demanded the formation of a special investigation team (SIT) to “investigate, assess and analyse the role of the NC and the PDP in the promotion and perpetuation of separatism and Islamic fundamentalism” in Jammu and Kashmir.
“The political processes in Jammu and Kashmir, right since the installing of the NC government here, have nourished separatism and communalism. In fact, various governments in Jammu and Kashmir, spearheaded by the NC and the PDP, have operated as vehicles for the use of democratic domains for the growth of fundamentalism and separatism,” Chrungoo alleged.
Voicing support to the anti-encroachment drive without discriminating between rich and poor, he said subversion of democracy happens when democratic space is allowed to be used for politics, which violates the Constitution and the basic ideology and integrity of the country.
“If harnessing halfway separatism is not abandoned lock stock and barrel as a strategic and tactical outlook, then even if Pakistan stops all support to separatism and terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir, it will still survive and perpetuate,” Chrungoo said. PTI