NCP hits out at Amit Shah, claims Centre failed to protect Kashmiri Pandits

The NCP on Sunday targeted Union Home Minister Amit Shah and claimed the Centre has failed to protect the lives of Hindus and Kashmiri Pandits, in the wake of the recent targeted killings of people from the community by terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir.

NCP’s chief spokesman Mahesh Tapase, whose party shares power with the Shiv Sena and Congress in Maharashtra, in a statement also said that BJP leaders were busy promoting ”The Kashmir Files” (movie) for their own political purpose.

Maharashtra was the only state which offered a safe passage to the displaced Kashmiri Pandits, while the BJP only played with their sentiments, Tapase claimed.

”The Modi government has miserably failed to protect the lives of Hindus and Kashmiri Pandits. As the country’s home minister, it is the duty of Amit Shah to protect the lives of citizens of the country,” Tapase said.

The rise of insurgency once again in the Kashmir Valley and targeting of civilians there is a failure of the intelligence machinery, he said. Shah should personally ensure the safety of all Kashmiri citizens, the NCP leader said.

He further said the Narendra Modi-led BJP government had promised a safe return for Kashmiri Pandits to the Valley. But, those promises have turned out to be another ”jumla” (rhetoric) as Prime Minister Modi’s government made no concrete efforts to re-establish the Kashmiri Pandits in their homeland, he claimed.

The BJP should get over religion and caste-based politics and ensure safety, livelihood and equality of the citizens of India, Tapase said.

On Saturday, Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray had also expressed concern about the ”targeted killings of Hindus and Kashmiri Pandits” in the Kashmir Valley.

Kashmiri Pandits were fleeing the Valley, Shiv Sena president Thackeray had said.

He had also said that in 1995, when the Shiv Sena-BJP coalition came to power in Maharashtra, Sena founder Bal Thackeray ensured a quota in educational institutes in the state for the children of Kashmiri Pandits.