Congress deletes 'more Muslim killed than Kashmiri Pandits' Tweet, assures action in matter

Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala`s Leader of Opposition (LoP) and Congress leader VD Satheesan on Monday (March 14) said that the party has no information about their tweets on `The Kashmir Files` film but assured probe into the row. "We don`t have any idea about that. Kerala Congress or UDF in Kerala never discussed such a matter on this film on any platform... I`ll check with the authority concerned. We will enquire and take action," the Congress leader told ANI.

The Kerala unit of Congress had claimed in a tweet, now deleted, that more Muslims were killed in Jammu and Kashmir during 1990-2007 than Pandits, inviting the wrath of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) which called the statements "insane".

'The Kashmir Files' has brought the spotlight on the killings and forced exodus of the Kashmiri Pandits from the valley after the Pakistan-sponsored terrorists ran amok there in the late 1980s and afterward.

The deleted tweet of the Kerala unit of the Congress posted from its official Twitter handle attempted to project a statistical perspective to the issue of the killings and exodus of the Kashmiri Pandits, arguing that 15,000 Muslims were killed during 1990-2007 against 399 Pandits.

To further dim the spotlight on the agonies of the Kashmiri Pundits, the Kerala Congress in another tweet, part of a series, claimed that over one lakh Muslims were killed in the erstwhile state in the wake of the communal riots (1948) after the partition of the country while no Pandits were killed in retaliation.

The tweets were posted with '#KashmiriPandit issue'. The Kerala Congress also sought to shift the onus for the exodus to the BJP, saying "the migration suited the agenda of the BJP for the Hindu-Muslim division while carrying out the Ram Mandir issue in Ayodhya".

Another tweet claimed that the then Jammu and Kashmir Governor Jagmohan was an RSS man, and he, in place of providing security to the Pandits, asked them to leave the valley en masse.

"Pandits left the valley en masse under the direction of Governor Jagmohan who was an RSS man. The migration started under the BJP-supported VP Singh government," claimed the Kerala unit of Congress in another tweet, arguing further that the BJP supported VP Singh`s government came to power in J&K in December 1989 and exodus began the very next month and BJP continued to support VP Singh till November 1990.