‘The Kashmir Files’ incites hatred against Muslims: TN Cong

CHennai: Director Vivek Agnihotri’s ‘The Kashmir Files’ is a film aimed at inciting hatred against the Muslims by ”unilaterally displaying half-truths and unsubstantiated fabrications,” Tamil Nadu Congress Committee (TNCC) chief K S Alagiri, claimed on Thursday.

The film was produced and released to ”cover up and divert the injustice done to the people of Kashmir” and to distort the unsubstantiated slanderous allegations that the Pandits who lived like brothers and sisters with the Muslims in that state were tortured, he alleged. ”Through this film, the BJP aims to incite religious hatred and also seek political gains by disrupting religious harmony,” Alagiri claimed in a statement here.

”No one can forget that the then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, who was instrumental in the accession of Kashmir to India, belonged to the Pandit community,” he said. Alleging that The Kashmir Files is a film that ”unilaterally exposed half-truths and unsubstantiated fabrications with the aim of inciting hatred against Muslims,” the TNCC president claimed that there is ample historical evidence that the film aims to spread myths.

The RSS and the BJP were responsible for the exodus of Kashmir Pandits who lived in religious harmony with the Muslims, Alagiri said and asserted that neither the Congress nor Jammu and Kashmir National Conference leader Sheik Abdullah were responsible for the exodus of the Pandits as their parties were not in power then.

In fact, the friendship cherished between then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and Sheik Abdullah was the main reason for the accession of Kashmir. Prime Minister Narendra Modi led government at the Centre had revoked Article 370 withdrawing the special status granted to Kashmir and trifurcated the state without the consent of its people, completely distorting the historical background of Kashmir’s accession to India, the TNCC chief alleged.

”When India gained independence in 1947, various problems arose in the accession…. the Pandit community’s exodus happened between January and March 1990 due to unrest unleashed by militants in Kashmir. .. Jagmohan was appointed governor because he was a staunch Muslim hater and a supporter of RSS,” he said. He took exception to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah for praising and encouraging the director of the film, and said their open acknowledgement undermined the secular principles enshrined in the Constitution of India. ”I strongly condemn the BJP government for encouraging divisive politics and disruption of religious harmony,” Alagiri said.