The panel discussion hosted by Amnesty International India in the city, last Saturday has controversy with a capital 'C' written all over it.
Amnesty has been slapped with a sedition charge for organizing the event. And now the president of the Kashmiri Pandits’ Association in Bengaluru, Mr R.K. MATTOO who was present at the meeting, asks why such events are held in the first place. “Do they serve any purpose when it only causes more tension,” he asks while talking to JOYEETA CHAKRAVORTY
The fact that he has been busy making the rounds of police stations to depose as a key witness to the event, over the past few days, perhaps goes to prove his point. "I was at the police station again as I am the prime witness. I got to know of this event really late and was not even invited. I, however, felt that one's side of the story had to be told as only then can it become an objective panel discussion. But I was not happy with what transpired, as it was all one-sided and against the Indian army. I left mid-way and as I went out to address the media, I heard cries of, “Azadi Azadi, humko chahiye aazadi!” he recalled.
"I did present my view but sadly, the organisers constantly asserted they had done their homework and the Indian army was guilty of excesses in Kashmir and that my argument merely defeated the whole point of the discussion," Mattoo adds.
Noting that the army is present everywhere in the North-East as well as in Kashmir, he points out that no cases of atrocities by the soldiers have been reported anywhere as yet.
“I can tell you, proudly, that the Indian army is one of the most disciplined in the world. But I was hushed up, and asked to keep quiet constantly during the discussion," he says.
“I asked the organisers why they were only talking to three families and giving their story when there had been two lakh deaths in Kashmir since 1990,” he said. “What about the men from the armed forces who have been killed by terrorists? What about the plight of Kashmiri Pandits? And why such a programme in Bengaluru? I have been living in the city for the last 26 years and I don't want it to be made another pocket of tension."
He says that it's not that one doesn't have any sympathy for the Kashmiris who have suffered. "I want to say that my heart beats for all these families who have come to the city and for their loss.”
But he was unrelentingly critical of Amnesty, saying that a discussion of this nature was uncalled for. “You cannot paint everything with the same brush based on the stories of three families. The Indian army has been in Kashmir from 1947 to 1990, but such excesses have never been reported. Why now? For 26 years why did Amnesty International not do any study of the Kashmiri Pandits or others involved in the mass exodus from the state. This is only an effort to tarnish the Indian army,” he said, saying it was one-sided and whipped up hate against the Indian Army.
