[Reader-list] Kashmiri Pandits demand ‘internally displaced persons’ status

Mon Nov 3 19:15:00 IST 2008

Dear Aman 

I hope your 'suggestion' was just a 'needle'. One more added to the many that populate this List. 

Such one-liner 'needles' meant to only provoke and not contribute anything useful carry their own consequences of responses they get. Once that happens, there is a lot of whining all around.

Certainly your 'suggestion' could not have been a serious one. If it was intended to be so, it was 'moronic' indeed. Seriously moronic.

KPs believe that the erstwhile Princely State of J&K duly became a part of India through the Instrument of Accession. You may or may not agree with that position but that is what KPs believe.

With 'that position' of the KPs it would be quite moronic for anyone to suggest that they should simultaneously demand implementation of the UN Resolution on 'Kashmir' which contradicts the position held by KPs. 

You might see the implementation of the UN Resolution on 'Kashmir' as un unfinished agenda. You might (if you do) see it as 'A Cause'  or even see it as 'The Cause' in Kashmir. That does not mean that no other 'cause' linked with 'Kashmir' can be spoken about unless simultaneously what you see as "A Cause" or "The Cause" in 'Kashmir' is not spoken about.

Instead of the 'moronic' suggestion, you could have if you wanted to and felt strongly about, questioned the validity of KPs seeking recognition as IDPs. Or, if you think that KPs are IDPs, perhaps even suggested what would be proper manner and fora in which to seek recognition as IDPs.

Since you mentioned it, I hope you know that the UN Resolution on 'Kashmir' is generally evaluated as giving only 2 options; 'Join India' or 'Join Pakistan'. There is no 'Third Option'. (Generally so evaluated).

You might want to ponder over what has changed since 1947 that led Kofi Annan to doubt whether the UN Resolution on 'Kashmir' can be implemented. It has been reported that the Resolutions do not fall under Chapter 7 of the UN Charter and so the UN has no 'enforcement' mandate. 

You might also like to think over what it was that led Musharraff to float his 'thinking out of the box' proposals while in fact disregarding but not acknowledging the discarding of the UN Resolution on 'Kashmir'.

Think. Unless, you want to come up with yet another "moronic' suggestion, in which case you do not need to do much thinking.

Kshmendra 

--- On Sun, 11/2/08, Aman Sethi <aman.am at gmail.com> wrote:

From: Aman Sethi <aman.am at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [Reader-list] Kashmiri Pandits demand ‘internally displaced persons’ status
To: reader-list at sarai.net
Date: Sunday, November 2, 2008, 3:42 AM

Perhaps you should insist that India carry out the UN mandated
plebiscite as well.
a.

On Sat, Nov 1, 2008 at 6:10 AM, Aditya Raj Kaul <kauladityaraj at gmail.com>
wrote:
> Kashmiri Pandits demand 'internally displaced persons' status By
Indo-Asian
> News Service
<http://www.freshnews.in/author/indo-asian-news-service/> on
> Friday, October 31, 2008
>
>  Kashmiri Pandits held a silent sit in protest outside the United Nations
> High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) office here Friday, demanding that
> the community, which fled the Kashmir
> Valley<http://www.freshnews.in/tag/kashmir-valley>during the peak of
> militancy 20 years ago, be declared as internally
> displaced persons (IDPs).
>
> The community represented by Kashmiri youth organisations in the capital
> like Roots in Kashmir, Internally Displaced Youth Front, All India Kashmir
> Samaj, Panun Kashmir and others, along with elderly members of the
community
> in Delhi, presented a five-page memorandum of their demands to Nayona Bose
> of the UNHCR to be forwarded to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, who is
on
> a two-day visit to India.
>
> "We welcome the UN secretary on his visit to India. As a community
we,
> therefore, appeal to him to help us - declare the Kashmiri Hindu community
> as IDPs," Lalit Ambardar, 35, a qualified engineer who was one of the
> 100-odd protestors, told IANS.
>
> "The Human Rights Working Group on Minorities in Geneva had
recognised
> Kashmiri Hindus formally as a 'reverse minority'. So the use of
the
> insulting term of 'migrants' for us - a forcibly exiled community
- should
> be removed from all records and communications relating to us
henceforth,"
> Ambardar chorused the protestor's demand.
>
> Many others protestors were angry about the state to which Kashmiri Hindus
> have been reduced since insurgency in the Kashmir Valley in 1989-90, when
> more that 400,000 Kashmiri Pandits fled their homes to escape persecution.
>
> "Historically, Kashmiri Pandits were known to be intellectuals, but
now we
> are rotting away - we are a national waste - we have no political
> representation, have no geographic ethnicity that we can claim as our
own!"
> fumed Raj Raina, 37.
>
> Raina was unable to get a government job owing to his 'migrant'
status. He
> is now self-employed and runs a small printing press.
>
> "When I was forced to leave my home in the Valley,
> militants<http://www.freshnews.in/tag/militants>threatened us time
and
> again - merge with us (with political and religious
> views), perish or vanish," Raina recapitulated memories of the
insurgency.
>
> Amongst those present from the community were varsity
> students<http://www.freshnews.in/tag/students>,
> who also held that the current situation was sordid.
>
> "Calling us migrants implies that we had a choice in the matter, when
we
> were actually forced to flee," said Aditya Raj Kaul, a 22-year-old
student
> activist from Delhi University.
>
> "We have demanded in the memorandum that the UN direct the Indian
government
> to ensure adequate protection to the residual Kashmiri Hindu population
> living in the Valley. Also that Kashmiri Hindus be restored political and
> economic rights, giving them equal status rather than second-class
> citizenship in their native land," Kaul informed.
>
> Link -
>
http://www.freshnews.in/kashmiri-pandits-demand-internally-displaced-persons-status-93431
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