[Reader-list] Kashmiri Pandits Cheated-by Wilson John

[rashneek kher]

After being raped, killed, looted and chased out of their homes in Kashmir
Valley, the Pandits are now being offered a 'township' outside Jammu. The
Indian state has truly become effete. Manmohan Singh has just proved this
point again Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has a major failing: His inability
to look within and figure out solutions to problems that may be politically
volatile, like the issue of Kashmiri Pandits who have been living in refugee
camps after being chased out of their homes in Kashmir Valley by Islamist
terrorists and their sympathisers.
Last Sunday, Mr Singh went to Jammu to accept an honorary Degree of Letters
at the University of Jammu. In his address, he added a new meaning and
'spirit' to the term Line of Control (LoC), and said it should be turned
into a 'Line of Peace'. It was no doubt a carefully thought out and bold
statement to make; conceptually, it breaks old myths and doubts and brings
forth new possibilities of cooperation. The same day, he laid the foundation
of a city for the Kashmiri Pandits on the outskirts of Jammu.
So, within a span of few hours, we had the Prime Minister drawing a new
'Line of Peace' with India's arch adversary Pakistan - a commendable
initiative - and forever foreclosing even the remotest possibility of the
Kashmiri Pandits returning to their homes in the land of their ancestors.
Nothing could be more telling of Mr Singh's (or his advisers') priorities -
foreign policy over domestic interests.
To give the Prime Minister the benefit of the doubt, as the top
representative of the Indian state, he might be doing his bit in playing
down the complete failure of the state to protect its own citizens. It is no
doubt a national shame.
The fact that Muslim terrorists and their sympathisers systematically kept
driving out more than 3,00,000 (some put the figure at 5,00,000) Hindus from
their homes for over a period of five years even as India, the largest
democracy in the world and one of the most powerful military powers in Asia,
looked the other way.
The horrors perpetrated on Kashmiri Pandits, as much a part of Kashmir
culture and social life as Muslim residents, are innumerable, and documented
minutely.
To recall just one day in the life of a Kashmiri Pandit in the Valley: On
February 21, 1986, 40 temples were desecrated, 1,500 houses were looted and
300 of them set ablaze. In the years that followed, more than 1,000 Pandits
were killed and another 1,000 abducted. Terrorists and their sympathisers
systematically targeted the Pandits living in the Valley; kidnapping, raping
and looting to instil raw fear.
Those Hindus who withstood the onslaught and held on to their home and
hearth were mercilessly killed. The brutal murder of poet and scholar
Sarwanand Koul Premi was part of this ethnic cleansing.
In the case of Pandits, ironies never cease to exist. When they began to
flee their homes out of fear compounded by the failure of the Government to
protect them, the only action the Indian state could think of was to set up
shanty towns for the refugees in the Jammu region, Delhi and other places,
offer them pittance as survival allowance and buckets full of sympathy and
rhetoric. Successive Governments have spoken of the return of Kashmiri
Pandits to their homes.
The ML Koul Committee, one of the many committees set up to figure out the
problem and recommend solutions, submitted its report on July 24, 1997
(roughly 10 years ago). In the report, it recommended a provision of Rs 2,
589.73 crore for the return and rehabilitation of the Pandits. The money was
meant for the construction of 7,000 transit settlements in Srinagar,
Baramullah and Anantnag; rehabilitation grant to each family, aid for
repairs of damaged houses, grant for household goods and furniture, waiver
of business loans, compensation for loss of income from agriculture,
security and incentives for unemployed youth.
Obviously, no one remembers the committee and its report. But thousands of
crores of rupees have been spent. A few have certainly benefited in the name
of welfare for the Kashmiri Pandits. Golf courses have been laid out.
Shopping malls have sprouted. Expensive cars have begun appearing on the
roads. Some have flown off to Singapore for shopping and Switzerland for
holidays. Money, no doubt, has been spent, but none of it on the return of
the Kashmiri Pandits to the Kashmir Valley.
On top of it, New Delhi has released Mushtaq Ahmed Zargar, notorious for
killing at least 100 Pandits, during the Kandahar hijacking episode. Today
he roams freely in Pakistan and no one in the Government of India really
wants him back to stand trial.
Four years ago, at a conference on Kashmiri Pandits in New Delhi, Mr
Manmohan Singh had said, "What has happened to the Pandit community in the
Valley is a great national tragedy. I would say a great human tragedy.
Therefore, whatever can be done to relieve their pain and suffering is in
the wider national interest... The long-term objective has to be to enable
the Pandit community, and all those who want to go back to the Valley, to
return and lead a life of dignity and self-respect."
The satellite township for Kashmiri Pandits on the outskirts of Jammu
negates both letter and spirit of Mr Singh's comments. The Pandits are now
forever condemned to live like refugees in their own homeland. There is no
hope of their return. Their dignity and self-respect have been sacrificed
for myopic, opportunist politics.
To be fair, Mr Singh should not bear the entire blame for this shame. The
only regret is he, who has the vision and courage to upset so many
pre-conceived notions and positions - and is in a position to undo the past
and chart a new course - has chosen the easy path. --
-- 
Rashneek Kher
http://www.nietzschereborn.blogspot.com