[Reader-list] Fission Kashmir: Power Plays and the Kashmiri Pandits

[Wali Arifi]

Dear all,

Interesting piece!

Best.
Wali

http://counterpunch.org/versey09062007.html
 *Power Plays and the Kashmiri Pandits* Fission Kashmir

By FARZANA VERSEY

Size matters. Did you read the report that quoted an army officer who served
in the Kashmir valley saying, "Why would the police kill a militant who
carries only Rs. 10,000 on his head? It is a better idea to let him grow big
to command a reward of Rs. 3 lakh"?

Are you impressed by the prudence or disgusted?

"Does the government have any responsibility towards us? Their actions show
they are responsible only towards the militants," said a shop owner, when
the New Delhi Municipal Corporation razed a few shops that belonged to
Kashmiri Pandits at the INA Market.

What do the two comments tell us? That the militants are pampered or, like
sacrificial goats, fattened before slaughter?

Unlike the 140 terrorist groups, the Pandit lobby is strong. It can organise
itself. Displaced Pandits are now demanding reservations in the Jammu and
Kashmir legislature and government jobs for the community as well as setting
up of three townships in the Valley for their rehabilitation.

It is time they made these demands for the simple reason that it will take
away the onus from the local Kashmiris who did not drive them out. And
therefore they cannot claim to be refugees; they are regular immigrants, as
much as other Kashmiris.

The Pandit issue has been romanticised. If anyone is interested they truly
ought to go to the so-called refugee camps in Delhi. I revisited Amar Colony
and Pamposh Enclave. I had been there as suggested by Sunita Tikoo. I told
her they were all proper houses. She had smiled, "What did you expect? This
was not 1947. People had begun to move things. Every Pandit had two-three
bags. They were rehabilitated within a year. Our education is our strength.
Some were given two-three jobs here. You won't find a jobless Pandit. Most
are well-off. If you are looking for those camps, you will find them only in
Jammu."

I managed to trace one such place in Mangolpuri, a suburb in Delhi. It is
most certainly spartan with common facilities. Vinati Kaul had invited me
into her one-room house. She, like several others, was a victim of threats
from "terrorists or someone". There was an exodus. They approached the
Kashmiri Samiti and they provided them with this place. When they first
arrived the government gave a stipend of Rs. 500 for a four member family
and rations every month. The payment was increased every year and is now
almost Rs. 4,000. As she said, "Jagmohanji (the then governor) was the one
who pushed things. The BJP had helped us a lot, giving us *ghee* and
blankets. They would feel bad giving us aid because earlier we used to give
them funds."

Here too a hierarchy prevails. What one sees in the posh Pandit areas is the
pugnacity of government employees and those who could afford to keep the
people in power happy. They took advantage of the largesse reserved for
those who needed it most. Vinati admitted, "A lot of aid comes from abroad,
but it goes to the Samiti, it does not come to us."

The power-play begins with the manner in which Panun Kashmir was born. In
1991, the Margdarshan Resolution was passed. The General Secretary's Report
mentioned about "retrieving Kashmir as a nationalist bastion" and then went
on to talk about its determination "to carve out a union territory on the
soil of Kashmir".

When Ashok Pandit of Panun Kashmir once said, "We should have perhaps gone
the way of the Yasin Maliks and Shabir Shahs. Perhaps the government would
have taken us more seriously then", he might have helpfully quoted figures
of the number of them who have been killed or arrested by government
organisations.

There is no doubt they would have faced threats from terrorists, as is most
of the population. That is the reason there are so many killings taking
place to this day. Who are the dead? It isn't the Pandits because they have
left. Are they concerned?

While the rest of the Valley commemorates July 13 as Martyrs Day in
remembrance of a dozen Kashmiris who were killed in 1931 by the Dogra regime
outside the Central jail in Srinagar, the Pandits observe September 14 as
Martyr's Day. It is not in memory of innocents but the murder in 1989 of the
BJP vice-president.

They have talked about bringing technology and progress in the Valley and
yet they complain about the poor conditions. They take pride in how secular
they are, but they are asking for a separation on the basis of their
religious identity.

It would be wise to remember that much before outside forces came into the
picture, local militancy was already active. What were Kashmiris disgruntled
about? Isn't it possible that in a Muslim majority state it was the Pandits
who cornered all the prime jobs? Hari Jaising in his book, *Kashmir: A Tale
of Shame*, observed, "Strangely, the Pandits were the first to oppose the
entry of 'foreigners' (i.e. the Punjabis) into the Valley after partition.
They were afraid of losing their jobs. This shows how narrow and
time-serving their aims were."

Yet, it isn't a government agency that has talked about providing them with
security, but a militant outfit. Hurriyat Conference leader, Mirwaiz Umer
Farooq, has stated, "Kashmiri Pandits are a part and parcel of Kashmiri
society and we will bring them back."

Will they return? No. In a state where the army waits for a militant to grow
big, their only hope is to keep reminding the authorities that chess cannot
be played without pawns. And they are willing.

*Farzana Versey* is a Mumbai-based writer-columnist. This piece first
appeared in The Asian Age, India. She can be contacted at
kaaghaz.kalam at gmail.com