Patna, March 17: A day after the BJP demanded that “The Kashmir Files” be made tax-free in Bihar, RJD national vice-president Shivanand Tiwari requested Chief Minister Nitish Kumar to see the film before releasing it in the state.
“It is true that violence took place in Kashmir valley during 1990s. The militants and separatist organisations had carried out a violent campaign against Kashmiri Pandits and forced them to flee the valley. But wasn’t their safety the responsibility of the then government of Jammu and Kashmir? At that time, Sheikh Abdullah was the chief minister and the governor was D. Jagmohan, a BJP leader and RSS sympathiser. Moreover, Vishwanath Pratap Singh was the prime minister of India and was running the government with the support of BJP,” Tiwari said.
“Whatever happened in Kashmir was a failure of the state and central government. The filmmaker has hidden the failures of state and central government and projected Muslims and criminals responsible for brutalising Kashmiri Pandits,” Tiwari said.
The massacre of Kashmiri Pandits was extremely unfortunate but the filmmaker has provided false data in the film. The state government of Jammu and Kashmir in Srinagar Vidhan Sabha in 2010 said that 1.5 lakh Kashmiri Pandits were forced to leave the valley during the 1990s and 219 persons were killed, he pointed out.
“The 30-year-old history of Jammu and Kashmir is being used to achieve the political goal of a particular political party which is wanting to intensify communalism in the country and create hatred for Muslims in the mind of Hindus,” he said.
“If we talk about history, Muslims were in majority in 1947 in Jammu region. During the partition, violence spread to such a level that Muslims came into minority category in the region. The question is how we are using our history. Are we using it to flare up the fire or are we using it to douse the flame,” Tiwari asked.
The Narendra Modi government is wanting to flare up fire in the country through this film. “I am afraid that my friend Nitish Kumar has held the wood in his hand to intensify more fire in the society.”
Earlier, Sanjay Sarawgi, a BJP MLA from Darbhanga demanded in the Assembly to make the film tax-free in the state. He also gave an example of several BJP-ruled states like Karnataka, MP, UP, Haryana announcing the film tax-free in their respective states.
Following his demand, the deputy chief minister assured the house to hold a meeting in this regard.
Chief Minister Nitish Kumar is yet to take a decision on it.
On Monday, Nitish Kumar offered ‘Chadar’ to Maner Sharif in Patna district where he said that he used to frequent the place for peace and maintain brotherhood between the two communities in the state.