Kolkata-based Bengali film actor Bharat Kaul, who is also a displaced Kashmiri Pandit, has said, “Those who had to leave own soil will understand the pain of the Kashmiri Pandits” while responding to remarks during the
According to a report in Bengali language news outlet Aajkaal, Bharat Kaul said, “I heard what Israeli filmmaker Nadav Lapid has said. Nothing to say. Everyone has freedom of expression. Nadav may have said from his viewpoint. But I could not agree with his statement. From which angle does ‘The Kashmir Files’ appear to be a propaganda film? What did the Israeli director want to say with this opinion about the film? I did not understand. I myself have seen the film twice. No lies, no propaganda anywhere. This film is a documentation of what happened to the Kashmiri Pandits 30 years ago. Vivek Agnihotri took great care to highlight what happened to the families of Kashmiri Pandits like me.”
The actor added, “I have said it again & again, Kashmiri Hindu Pandits are a religious minority in a Hindu (majority) country! How can I explain this pain? One husband hid inside the rice drum to save his life. But he was dragged out and shot dead by the terrorists. The blood of the deceased was mixed with rice. The terrorists then forced the pregnant wife of the deceased (husband) to take a handful of that rice and eat. Otherwise terrorists would have shot at her womb. The next generation would have been wiped out. I have heard about this incident from ancestors. Is it unfair to show that incident in the film?
“I have heard Israeli ambassador to Bharat, Naor Gilon apologised to Bharat & slammed Nadav Lapid’s statement. I have no comment on that because the issue got a political color. Nadav Lapid is an Israeli. There is an ongoing civil war between Palestine and Israel. Still, Nadav did not understand the sorrow of Kashmiri Pandits! Really sad.”
“Just like the people who were forced to leave everything in Bangladesh and migrate to India during 1971 liberation war of Bangladesh. Those who became proletarians overnight”, the actor added.
Earlier, Bharat Kaul had urged the central government to take strict action to stop ongoing Kashmiri Pandit killings, and to relocate the ~ 5000 Kashmir Pandit govt. employees posted in the Kashmir valley to Jammu.
Kashmiri Pandits have been denied of basic human rights. They have been brutally evicted from their own land. Lapid, perhaps, does not know the true history of their genocide in 1990-91.