Shashi Tharoor regrets House disruption that stalled bill on Kashmiri Pandits

SRINAGAR: Congress leader and MP Shashi Tharoor on Saturday expressed regret that disruptions in Parliament prevented him from introducing a Private Member’s Bill on the rights of Kashmiri Pandits, a proposal he first drafted and submitted in 2021.  Taking to X, Tharoor said the repeated adjournments deprived him of the opportunity to table the bill, despite it finally being listed after nearly five years. “The disruption of Parliament yesterday deprived me of an opportunity to introduce a Private Member’s Bill on the rights of Kashmiri Pandits, that I had first drafted and submitted in 2021,” he wrote.

“It was then held in abeyance by the authorities for the rest of the Seventeenth Lok Sabha. I resubmitted it last year in the Eighteenth Lok Sabha, and it was finally listed, five years late, yesterday. Now it will have to wait some more.” The full text of the bill has not yet been made public, as Private Member’s Bills are typically released only after formal introduction in the House.  Tharoor originally submitted the bill during the 17th Lok Sabha in 2021, but it was not taken up and lapsed with the dissolution of the House. He reintroduced the same bill in the 18th Lok Sabha, and in February 2026, it was finally listed for introduction before being stalled again due to repeated disruptions. Tharoor’s statements and media reports indicate that the bill seeks to address the legal rights of Kashmiri Pandits as a displaced community. It aims to formally recognize their forced exodus from the Kashmir Valley in the early 1990s as an ongoing rights issue requiring parliamentary intervention.

Tharoor has publicly expressed frustration over the repeated deferral of the bill, noting that despite waiting nearly five years, it remains stalled without being formally introduced. (IANS)

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