Ronik Sharma
Even after the lapse of 75 years, the victims, as well as families of the 1947 Pakistan Occupied Jammu and Kashmir displaced persons, popularly known as POJK DPs, are still waiting for justice from the government of India. The unfortunate great displacement of 1947, in which thousands of innocent Hindu-Sikh families were displaced from the areas of the erstwhile princely state of J&K due to aggression engineered openly by Pakistan on October 22nd, 1947. Several times, appeals were made before the Central Government as well as Union territory administration to consider claims and demands of 1947 POJK DPs and at least now sympathetically look into the years issues and grievances and demands of 1947 POJK DPs that have been pending for nearly 75 years. No property claims have been given to these families till today, since they were not treated like refugees from Pakistan, and till today they are not treated as internally displaced persons, and no IDP status has been given so far by any of the successive governments at the Centre. No doubt, some meagre ex-gratia was given to some families, but even for those families, it was like a pinch of salt given the loss of life and property, as well as the agony they endured as a result of displacement forced on them due to the delayed decision of accession, as well as insufficient state defence forces to protect the state from attacks/intrusions by Pakistan before the state acceded.Why? The then-Government of India, and subsequent governments, did not provide that small sum of money to at least all of the state subject families who were forcibly evicted from their homes, hearths, businesses, and other establishments in POJK and who lived in badly affected areas as a result of Pakistan’s direct attack. So far, no efforts have been made to locate such badly affected families, whose other family members and relatives became trapped in the forced and involuntary displacement.According to some government data available in the public domain, only a meagre amount was given to a few families, and since it was offered to some categories only, one could know how unmercifully the first victims of the first Pakistan engineered holocaust were ignored by the then administration. No property claims have been given strangely up till today by the successive governments of India. While sanctioning just Rs 5.5 lakh per 1947 DP family as a one-time settlement in 2016, it excluded even those 5300 families who were on record as POJK DPs but were staying in other parts of the country. But if we talk about all 31619 families, the amount of Rs 5.5 lakh that was offered in December 2016 was not paid to all families on record since, out of these, even families numbering 5300 were unjudiciously excluded.
These issues have been raised several times in order to ensure the proper registration of all displaced families who were subjected to the brutal 1947 great displacement, neither to the then-state subjects of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir nor to others.So strangely, how to talk of Rs. 30 lakh per family as was recommended by the Parliamentary Standing Committee in 2014, even the amount of Rs. 25 lakh that was recommended by the NC-Cong Government in 2014 was cut to Rs. 5.5 lakh by the Government of India, and that one-time settlement, Rs. 5. 5 lakh, was not the 1st instalment as some ministers have been quoted as having said, and instead, as per the order, it has been a one-time settlement which the POJK DPs have objected to from day one itself. To deal with all such issues and problems being faced by the victims of the 1947 holocaust, a separate department needs to be set up for POJK DPs’ cases. Even a Parliamentary committee had recommended that in 2015 because the POJK DPs of 1947 were the first victims of Pakistan’s aggression.
But so far, no one has honestly talked about these victims and the real assets left behind in 1947 by them that need to be adjudged in 2022. If we talk about the political representation of these displaced people, to date, they continue to be unrepresented in the legislative assembly of Jammu and Kashmir despite twenty-four seats being kept vacant even after a lapse of more than seven decades. This apathetic attitude reveals that those at the helm of affairs have no concern and scant regard for the plight of the 1947 POJK displaced persons. This step-motherly treatment by successive erstwhile State Governments has compounded the miseries of these unfortunate and deprived people. Because a lack of political representation and a lack of projection of their cause have resulted in untold suffering, they must reconsider this genuine and humanitarian issue.
POJK displaced persons have high hopes from the current Central Government for redressal of their genuine grievances, keeping in view that the Prime Minister of India is honestly and sincerely working to resolve all the outstanding issues faced by different communities, tribes, etc. in the country in general and particularly in Jammu and Kashmir for decades together. Let us wait and see how the Prime Minister takes up this humanitarian issue of displaced persons from POJK and provides a solution to their burning demands.
(The author is Roots in POJK Convenor)
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