One of the oldest allies of the BJP in the NDA, the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) has demanded that President Ram Nath Kovind take action against Meghalaya Governor Tathagata Roy for his tweets calling for a boycott of Kashmiris and Kashmiri businesses across the country.
Party MP and senior leader Naresh Gujral told The Hindu that it was imperative that mistakes that were made in the 1980s leading to the ostracisation of the Sikh community following militancy in Punjab, should not be repeated today. “There may be some members of the Kashmiri community who are involved in terrorism, and the government should go after them. This does not mean that the whole community should be ostracised,” he said.
“It is unfortunate that people like Tathagata Roy have been appointed Governors. President Kovind should intervene in this matter. That people like him [Tathagata Roy] hold constitutional positions is a disgrace to our secular democratic ethos,” said Mr. Gujral.
He elaborated on what he termed a dangerous trend of singling out ordinary Kashmiris after the Pulwama attack.
“The proxy war waged by Pakistan on India started with Punjab. It went on for a decade and a half, and over 40,000 innocent lives were lost, but the greater tragedy was that after 1984, the entire Sikh community came under suspicion, a community that has sacrificed the most for India’s freedom and the country’s democratic rights during Emergency. During the Asian Games, even Sikh Lieutenant-Generals were stopped at the Delhi border for checks and frisking and it served to alienate the entire community,” he said.
