Don't do politics on 'The Kashmir Files', talk about integration of PoK: Raut to BJP

The BJP should talk about integrating Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir (PoK) with India instead of doing "politics" over the grant of tax waiver to "The Kashmir Files", Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut said here on Thursday. The Sena did not demand tax exemption even for a film on the life of its founder, late Bal Thackeray, he added.

Mumbai:The BJP should talk about integrating Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir (PoK) with India instead of doing "politics" over the grant of tax waiver to "The Kashmir Files", Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut said here on Thursday. The Sena did not demand tax exemption even for a film on the life of its founder, late Bal Thackeray, he added.

Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar had on Wednesday rejected the BJP's demand of tax waiver for "The Kashmir Files", saying if the Centre waived GST on the film, it will get benefit across the country. The film revolves around the exodus of Kashmiri Pandits from the Kashmir Valley in the 1990s after militants targeted them systematically. "We made a film, a biographical film on Balasaheb Thackeray (in 2019). It was a good film. We never demanded that it be exempted from entertainment tax," the Sena's Rajya Sabha member said.

The politics on "The Kashmir Files" is not right, he added. The entire country knows the Shiv Sena's sentiments about Kashmir and Kashmiri Pandits, Raut said, adding that Thackeray had even demanded that the Union government give weapons to Kashmiri Pandits so that they could protect themselves when violence erupted in Jammu and Kashmir in 1989.

Thackeray also ensured that the children of Kashmiri Pandits who had to leave Kashmir following the violence got five percent reservation in medical and engineering colleges in Maharashtra, he said. We did not produce a film and engage in campaign. We did not engage in propaganda, we did not do politics, Raut added.

The future of democracy would be in danger if the BJP did not understand on which issues politics should be done, he said. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had said in 2014 that PoK will be brought back into India. It should be brought back. Do something, if you can, about that. Also, do talk about your promise to ensure that Kashmiri Pandits return to Kashmir," Raut said.

When are you taking them (back to Kashmir)? Why are you only talking and releasing films? he asked.

PTI