INSPIRING and consummate lecture on Jammu & Kashmir involving various perspectives of opinions about the ‘so-called problems’ was presented by Organiser editor Shri Prafulla Ketkar in Chennai and Coimbatore on October 26, the ‘Kashmir Accession Day’. Shri Ketkar described ‘misinformation in Kashmir’ and ‘lack of information in rest of India’ as the crux of the whole J&K issue. Shri Vishnu Vijay, former army officer from Chennai, also shared his experience while working in Kashmir as an Army Officer.
About the myth that J&K is a Muslim majority State with Muslim culture, Shri Ketkar said Ladakh is Buddhist dominant, Jammu is Hindu and Sikh dominant and Kashmir has just 65 per cent Muslim population concentrated in the Valley only. Kashmiriyat is as much part of the Hindu as Punjabi/Marathi culture. More than 3 lakh Kashmiri Pandits were displaced in 23 years. About another myth that Kashmiri people are anti-India, Shri Ketkar emphasised that the Muslims among whom separatist sentiments and separatist violence are generally confined, constitute a minority in the State. Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists and non-Kashmiri Muslims like Gujars, Bakarwals and Kargil Shias are nearly 60 per cent of the State’s population. They do not nurture any anti-India sentiments.
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