Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Jan 31: Asserting that it is Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which has maintained its secular credentials in true sense in the State than other claimants, BJP State Spokesperson, Balbir Ram Rattan questioned Congress and Kashmir based regional parties to explain why the population of minorities in Kashmir has came down from 14 per cent to just one per cent and who is responsible for this steep decline during all these years after 1947.
Rattan said that in 1947, the minorities living in Kashmir were 14 per cent and the first Interim Ministry had Sham Lal Saraf, D.P Dhar and Prof. Harbans Singh Azad as three ministers from minority communities. “Then in 1951, there were six MLAs from minority community hailing from Valley in first elected Assembly,” he further said.
He said that with the passage of time and forced migration of Kashmiri Pandits and Nationalist Muslims from Valley, the present status of minorities living there has dropped to one per cent.
“Had the Governments headed by NC and Congress induced a sense of security among the Kashmiri Pandits, none would have migrated”, Balbir said adding that such an approach of these parties itself raise fingers on their secular credentials.
He ridiculed the charges being labeled by the leaders of NC, Congress and others that BJP is communal.
Follow our WhatsApp channel