[Reader-list] "We were mute spectators"-Omar Abdullah

[Partha Dasgupta]

I think that the bare bones text of the message is far better than the Times
Now report.

Also, don't see the point of this post when the main text of the statement
was in the list earlier by Nitesh.

Rgds, Partha
.........................................

On Fri, May 16, 2008 at 2:04 PM, Aditya Raj Kaul <kauladityaraj at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Reality Unfolding :-)
>
> Sarai members, what say ?
>
>
> On 5/16/08, rashneek kher <rashneek at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > *A Times Now Report by Mir Fareed
> > *Two decades after the genocide of Kashmiri Pandits in the Valley,
> National
> > conference President Omar Abdullah has spoken up, saying that Muslims
> > including him shouldn't have been mute spectators during the exodus.
> >
> > "It is a fact that the majority of us - and I include myself in it - the
> > majority of us Kashmiris remained mute spectators when the Kashmiri
> Pandits
> > left. And even though now we may want to talk about their return, at that
> > time perhaps we did not do as much as should have been done," said Omar
> on
> > Thursday (May 15).
> >
> > While the timing of his statement is questionable, what cannot be
> > discounted
> > is the fact that this is the first time a mainstream Kashmiri politician
> > has
> > spoken so strongly about the plight of  Kashmiri Pandits.
> >
> > Whether it's Rajya Sabha ticket that Omar is eyeing or a sudden prick of
> > consience, the feeling of being refugees in their own country is not a
> one
> > that the Pandits are likely to forget soon.
> >
> > At the height of militancy in Jammu & Kashmir in 1990, propaganda from
> > Pakistan laced with the militancy of the Jammu & Kashmir Liberation front
> > forced lakhs of Kashmiri Pandits out the valley leaving thousands
> homeless,
> > and forcing them into exile.
> >
> > In his statement, which first appeared on his blog, Omar Abdullah even
> > chatises himself for not speaking up on the genocide, lamenting the fact
> > that none of them stood up and had the courage to say the atrocities must
> > stop.
> >
> > "It's so easy to say that we"ll lay down our lives to bring Kashmiri
> > Pandits
> > back to the valley and I appreciate the sentiment. Pity that sentiment
> was
> > missing when our mosques were being used to drive these people out. None
> of
> > us said this is wrong and the Kashmiri Pandits had every right to
> continue
> > living in the valley. We were mute spectators either mute in agreement or
> > mute in abject fear, but mute none the less," he writes.
> >
> > While this is the first time a mainstream Kashmiri politician has spoken
> so
> > strongly on the plight of these Kashmiri Pandits, Omar's sentiments will
> > not
> > make the Kashmiri Pandits forget the feeling of being refugees in their
> own
> > country, just yet.
> >
> >
> > --
> > Rashneek Kher
> > http://www.nietzschereborn.blogspot.com
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-- 
Partha Dasgupta
+919811047132