JAMMU — The BJP’s Jammu and Kashmir unit on Monday slammed National Conference president Farooq Abdullah over his remarks on the possible return of displaced Kashmiri Pandits to the Valley, accusing him of trying to normalise a “historic crime” and evade political responsibility for the exodus of the community.
Former MLC and BJP spokesperson Girdhari Lal Raina said Abdullah has no moral authority to speculate on the wishes of a community he failed to protect and that his remarks were an attempt to “absolve himself and the National Conference of historic guilt”.
The BJP leader was reacting after Abdullah said that displaced pandits are always welcome to return to their homes in the Valley but expressed scepticism about whether the migrated community would want to come back permanently, considering they have built new lives where they currently reside in other parts of the country, with their children engaged in employment and education.
Raina said that “Kashmiri Pandits will return to Kashmir — not because the National Conference permits it, but because history, justice, and truth demand it”.
“Abdullah’s scepticism about whether displaced Kashmiri Pandits would wish to return to the Valley is not an expression of concern — it is an attempt to normalise a historic crime.
“It reflects personal convenience, not empathy, and seeks to dilute political responsibility for a tragedy in which his party and his government played a decisive role,” Raina, also a Kashmiri pandit, said in a statement here.
As Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir, “he abandoned the Kashmiri Hindu community precisely when the first flames of ethnic cleansing were lit”, Raina alleged.
“Abdullah will stand in history as a modern-day Sikandar Butshikan for presiding over an era in which an ancient, indigenous minority was systematically targeted, terrorised, and driven out of its homeland,” the BJP leader said.
He referred to the selective killings of some Kashmiri pandits between November 1987 to November 1989, and said the community’s resettlement outside Kashmir was not a voluntary choice but was “forced at gunpoint, under threats of annihilation”.
“His scepticism is not neutrality – it is a calculated attempt to absolve himself and the National Conference of historic guilt. As chief minister, he presided over the early phase of an organised campaign of terror against the indigenous Kashmiri Hindu population,” he alleged.
When decisive leadership was required, he said Abdullah fled outside the country. “He resigned as soon as Jagmohan, Governor known for firmness, was appointed, and from the safety of England, participated in propaganda efforts to deflect blame, malign institutions, and distort history. Cowardice was followed by deception.”
The BJP leader said that to now claim that Kashmiri Pandits are “welcome” is an insult to their suffering.
“Their resettlement outside Kashmir was not a voluntary choice — it was forced at gunpoint, under threats of annihilation. The loss of homeland, temples, homes, and centuries-old civilisational roots cannot be erased by hollow assurances,” he said.
He said the Kashmiri Pandit community survived betrayal, terror, and exile, and it will outlast the politics of denial “practised by the Abdullah dynasty”. — (PTI)