Mehbooba Mufti and ruling PDP MLA and state education minister Naeem Akhtar gave the event the a miss.
Jammu and Kashmir Chief minister Mehbooba Mufti and ruling PDP MLA and state education minister Naeem Akhtar, were both invited for a two-day RSS-backed Kashmir conference here, but did not turn up. While the PDP, which is in coalition government with the BJP in the state, skipped it, BJP MLA and state's Animal and Sheep Husbandry minister Abdul Gani Kohli was present.
The event, held in the wake of unrest in the state after Hizbul Mujahideen local commander Burhan Wani's killing by security forces, was organised by the RSS backed social organisation Vishwagram, of which senior RSS ideologue Indresh Kumar is chief patron.
Event organisers sought to downplay the PDP leaders' absence and said they didn't come because they were preoccupied in Srinagar with official work. Among others who attended the event included BJP leader from Kashmir Dr Heena Shafi Bhatt, Union minister General VK Singh and representatives from the Indian Armed forces veterans' community.
Chief patron Indresh Kumar, who read out the resolution passed after the two-day event, called for a rejection of 'anti-India' sentiments and views on Kashmir and said 'Kashmiris have a future with India and not Pakistan'. Dr MB Magrey, a former college principal from Rajouri in Kashmir pointed 'How the brotherhood among various ethnic communities in Kashmir has eroded due to the unrest over the years and this needs a correction through efforts from all stakeholders'.
BJP's Dr Bhatt told dna on the sidelines of the event that there was a need to bring the various political parties and stakeholders together on a single platform so that despite ideological differences, a synergy could be reached for the betterment of Kashmir. "PDP and BJP have been ideologically different from each other. The former is a regional Kashmir-based party while we are a national one. And yet, we are working together for the state. Kashmir needs development, the youth there need employment and educational opportunities. And that is what our government is trying to do," she said.
Vishwagram founder member SS Chhikara said "Somewhere Kashmiriyat is lost in the years of unrest and the indifference of governments in the past has not helped the situation." Representatives from the Muslim, Hindu-Dogra and Sikh communities took the stage over the two-day symposium and called upon the Kashmiri youth to identify the 'real enemy Pakistan' and join the 'constructive' Indian efforts for Kashmir's development.
The event was earlier scheduled to be held inside the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) campus but had to be shifted to IIMC after the university administration expressed inability to host it amidst ongoing admissions there. Earlier, the JNU Students Union had planned to protest against RSS ideologue Indresh Kumar's presence but didn't go ahead with it even as the venue was shifted.
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