Excelsior Correspondent
NEW DELHI, Oct 22: Addressing the valedictory session of the one-day conclave on “Terrorism, Kashmir and Media” here today, Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER), MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh categorically asserted that time has come for the nation to draw the ultimate “bottom-line” and determine the ultimate limit of freedom for activism and media expression. This should not sound anomalous by any standards, he said, because even the most developed and liberal democracies of the world including United Kingdom and United States of America have such bottom-lines in place which are now a part of their time – honoured national ethos.
Dr Jitendra Singh said, unfortunately message has gone around, rightly or wrongly, that there is a “premium” on anti-India activism, including anti-India terrorism and anti-India intellectualism. He said, many an eyebrow was raised when he had used the term “intellectual terrorism” during a Kashmir debate to refer to a certain section of so called intellectuals who hardly qualify to be intellectuals, but nursed desperate intellectual pretensions and therefore, resorted to outrageous, unorthodox and anti-nationalist line of thought in writing and speech in the hope that this would earn them instant publicity.
Without mincing words, Dr Jitendra Singh said, he today felt tempted to describe such “intellectual terrorism” as “intellectual bankruptcy” or “intellectual dishonesty”. The glaring example of this is that if you ask these intellectual worthies a simple straight question as to whether Burhan Wani was a terrorist or not, they would avoid answering it in simple yes or no, and instead indulge in round-and-round philosophical postulations with little consequence.
Referring to Kashmir as an integral part of India, Dr Jitendra Singh reiterated, there is no issue as far as Kashmir is concerned and if at all there is an issue, it is only that of how to retrieve Pak occupied Jammu & Kashmir (PoJK) as well as Gilgit and Baltistan from the illegal occupation of Pakistan and make it part of the Union of India to restore Jammu & Kashmir to the original territorial format that was handed over by the last princely ruler, Maharaja Hari Singh.
Coming down heavily on the separatist lobby trying to fish in the troubled waters of Pak-sponsored terrorism, Dr Jitendra Singh said, the bitter truth is that even the so called separatist leaders of Kashmir are not separatist by conviction, but rather separatist by convenience. This is borne out by the fact that many of them have, in the past, been members of mainstream political parties and even the Legislative Assembly, and many of them are also making full use of the privileges provided as per the constitution of India, he added.
Dr Jitendra Singh said, if terrorism for so called “Azadi” was actually such a holy “Jehad” that anybody losing his life in it would go straight to paradise, then each of the separatist leaders should have set an example by contributing at least one child from his family to become a stone-pelter or so called martyr.
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