A letter written by former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi to New York-based Dr Nirmala Mitra expressing her unhappiness on Article 370 and treatment of Kashmiri Pandits and Buddhists in Jammu & Kashmir has been doing rounds across social media. Dr Mitra is a pediatric neurologist, and a former Director of Kashmiri Overseas Association in USA.
In response to an earlier letter written by Dr Nirmala Mitra to late Prime Minister in December 1980 regarding the treatment of Kashmiri Pandits and Buddhists in Jammu and Kashmir, Indira Gandhi on January 8, 1981, wrote that she was too unhappy that she could not own small piece of land or home in Jammu and Kashmir due to Article 370 despite the fact that her forefathers came from the same land.
New Jersey based Rakesh Kaul, who claims to be the friend of Dr Nirmala Mitra, on Sunday shared the letter written by Indira Gandhi to Mitra sympathising for the cause of Kashmiri Pandits and Buddhists living in Jammu and Kashmir, who were discriminated by controversial Article 370.
I release a historic letter by PM Indira Gandhi to my New York friend on her stance on Article 370 & Article 35A. @PMOIndia @AmitShah @CHAKRAVIEW1971 @AdityaRajKaul @AartiTikoo @rahulpandita @Nidhi Thank you, PM Modi, for not fearing what Indira did and doing what was necessary. pic.twitter.com/nnP2NbmSKT
— Rakesh Kaul (@rkkaulsr) December 29, 2019
Interestingly, Indira Gandhi in the letter also revealed how she could not take up the issue as both ‘Indian press’ and ‘international counterparts’ was busy depicting her as authoritarian that made it much more difficult to “do necessary things”.
In the end, the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi wrote that Kashmiri Pandits and the Buddhists in Ladakh are being unfairly treated and discriminated.
When asked regarding the authenticity of the letter, Kaul said that the letter was 200 per cent genuine. He added that Dr Nirmala Mitra is a totally credible doctor who had met Indira Gandhi. In his tweet, he was ready to state facts and fight the conspiracy theorists on this issue. He also said that he has other correspondences on the issue.
