Cong demands white paper from govt on 'plight of Kashmiri Pandits'

New Delhi: Hitting out at the BJP over the alleged exodus of Kashmiri Pandits from south Kashmir's Shopian district, the Congress on Thursday demanded that the government should release a white paper on the plight of the minority community during its eight-year rule.

The opposition party also attacked the BJP-led Centre over the targeted killings of Kashmiri Pandits in Jammu and Kashmir and said that the government must apologise for it.

While addressing a press conference Congress' media department head Pawan Khera said that when the first migration of Kashmiri Pandits took place in 1989, VP Singh's government was in office with the BJP's support.

"In 1986, when the first riot against Kashmiri Pandits took place, Rajiv Gandhi's government was in office at the Centre. Kashmiri Pandits walked from the national stadium to Rajiv Gandhi's office, he heard them and Ghulam Mohammad Shah's government was brought down," Khera said, adding that the BJP only talks about zero tolerance but what it actually means was shown by late Rajiv Gandhi.

Slamming the Centre, Khera said that 70 ministers of the government are carrying out an outreach programme in Kashmir and asked if any of them visited a camp of Kashmiri Pandits. "What is this outreach when you cannot reach out to the Kashmiri Pandits living in the camps there," he asked.

Citing an order, the Congress leader also alleged that Kashmiri Pandit employees are being "threatened" to return to work against their wishes as there have been 30 targeted killings of Kashmiri Pandits from January to October this year.

"We demand a white paper from the Modi government on the plight of Kashmiri Pandits. In the last eight years, all that has been done and not been done by this government should come out in that white paper," Khera said.

"You (the government) will have to answer for the 80 killings. How is this normal, answer this," he added.

In response to Union Minister Kiren Rijiju's article titled 'the 75th Anniversary of Five Nehruvian Blunders on Kashmir', Khera said, "Those leaders of the BJP who are students of "WhatsApp nursery" need to revisit their history classes. If all that they are saying is true, how is it that during the Manmohan Singh era targeted killings stopped and 75 percent of the people would participate in the democratic process of elections in the state? We would be happy to get the answer to that."

The BJP leaders have no idea of contemporary history of the country, he said, adding that it is very easy to blame Jawaharlal Nehru for this, Indira Gandhi for something else, PV Narasimha Rao for something else and Manmohan Singh for the rest.