Dushera celebrations ‘sabotaged’ by Raj Bhawan, says KPSS
Srinagar: This year, Kashmiri Pandits were overwhelmingly willing to celebrate Dushera in the valley, but to their utter dismay, the centre of power these days in the J&K—Raj Bhawan—gave them a cold shoulder, eventually, ‘alienated’ and ‘saddened,’ the community could not organize any function this year.
Kashmir Pandits Sangarish Samiti (KPSS) in a statement issued Thursday said that it could not organize any functioning regarding Dushera in Kashmir Valley, “for the reasons that the Government showed a cold shoulder to us.”
KPSS said that since the imposition of Governor’s rule in J&K, they have sent a number of requests to the Raj Bhawan to provide with them a time slot to meet the Governor to discuss issues related to the Kashmiri Pandits living in Kashmir Valley and to discuss the celebrations of Dushera in Kashmir.
“But till date, Raj Bhawan could not spare us even one minute to talk about the issues related to the Kashmiri Pandits stationed inside the Valley. During this Governor rule, we the left out Kashmiri Pandits felt alienated by the system,” KPSS statement said.
It said that on the one hand Raj Bhawan “claims that their role is above politics and to bring people together but on the ground, their policy is alienating the people to believe in the Constitution and theme to which Raj Bhawan represents.”
Since 2007, KPSS has been organizing Dushera Celebrations in Kashmir Valley which showcased the composite culture of the Kashmiri Society as such functions used to be more of peoples’ functions than religious ones.
In the year 2008, 2010 and 2016, KPSS could not organize this celebration function due to the unrest, and in the year 2014, the celebrations could not be organized due to the floods.
Disheartened, the Samiti had to inform everyone that even this year that no function will be organized regarding Dushera. “Today, we received a number of phone calls from the people around, including the one from Majority Community, about the celebrations, but they also got saddened by the information that this year we could not organize Dushera.”
Even after Dushera is over, the Samiti is still waiting for the response from the Raj Bhavan to their requests submitted through the official mail and also by post.
“Despite communication(s) submitted to the Raj Bhawan through official mail and also by post, requesting to grant us time to meet His Excellency so that preparations of Dushera could be discussed in length and breadth, as during celebrations we require the involvement of many Government Institutions, but till date no positive response came from that side, resulting that KPSS could not organize the celebrations of Dushera,” the statement said.
KV News
