PDP MLA Waheed Para criticises BJP MLA Sunil Sharma for demanding removal of Urdu from Naib Tehsildar exams

“It is an attack on the cultural and historical identity of Jammu and Kashmir.”

STC NEWS DESK
SRINAGAR, JUNE 13 (STC): MLA Pulwama and People’s Democratic Party (PDP) leader Waheed-ur-Rehman Para has strongly criticized the demand made by BJP’s Leader of Opposition to remove Urdu as a qualifying subject from the Naib Tehsildar examinations. In a statement, he has called it an attack on the cultural and historical identity of Jammu and Kashmir.
Para took to X platform and posted: “Urdu is not just a language it is the archive of our collective memory, a symbol of our cultural legacy, and a bridge across communities in Jammu and Kashmir. To remove it is to erase our past and divide our society.”
This is a dangerous attempt to marginalize a language that has long been a medium of poetry, resistance, and expression in the region, he said.
“Undermining Urdu is not merely a policy change, it is a cultural rupture. This effort to rewrite our identity through exams will be resisted by all who care about Kashmir’s pluralistic history,” Para stated.
(STC)