New Delhi: Amid the buzz surrounding the film, Kashmir Files, the Kerala unit of Congress claimed in a tweet, now deleted, that more Muslims were killed in Jammu and Kashmir during 1990-2007 than Pandits, inviting the wrath of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which called the statements “insane”.
‘Kashmir Files’ has brought the spotlight on the killings and forced exodus of the Kashmiri Pandits from the valley after the Pakistan sponsored terrorists ran amok there in the late 1980s and afterwards.
The deleted tweet of the Kerala unit of the Congress posted from its official Twitter handle attempted to project a statistical perspective to the issue of the killings and exodus of the Kashmiri Pandits, arguing that 15000 Muslims were killed during 1990-2007 against 399 Pandits.
The Kerala Congress in another tweet, part of a series, claimed that over one lakh Muslims were killed in the erstwhile state in the wake of the communal riots (1948) after the partition of the country while no Pandits were killed in retaliation.
The tweets were posted with ‘#KashmiriPandit issue’.
The BJP, reacting sharply, said that “Congress doesn’t understand history”. “…this is the most insane statement that Congress can make. Congress doesn’t understand history… and they’ve hugely distorted the version of history. Under the watch of Congress dispensations, over a lakh Pandits left the valley,” said former Union Minister and senior BJP leader K J Alphons.
The Kerala Congress also sought to shift the onus for the exodus to the BJP, saying “the migration suited the agenda of the BJP for the Hindu-Muslim division while carrying out the Ram Mandir issue in Ayodhya”. Another tweet claimed that the then Jammu and Kashmir Governor Jagmohan was an RSS man, and he in place of providing security to the Pandits asked them to leave the valley en masse.
“Pandits left the valley en masse under the direction of Governor Jagmohan who was an RSS man. The migration started under the BJP-supported VP Singh government,” claimed the Kerala unit of Congress in another tweet, arguing further that the BJP supported VP Singh’s government came to power in J&K in December 1989 and exodus began the very next month and BJP continued to support VP Singh till November 1990.
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