Ashok Bhan
Modi 2.0 on August 5th last year made Articles 370 and 35-A inoperable by a constitution amendment.The action of Central Government is challenged in the Supreme Court of the Country pending its final hearing before a five judges constitution bench.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi while highlighting the objective of this decision among other things said-
*Come, let us all together, build a new Jammu and Kashmir and new Ladakh with the new India’: PM Modi said, I have complete faith, under this new system, we all will be able to free Jammu and Kashmir of terrorism and separatism.
*President’s Rule benefitted Jammu and Kashmir’: The decision to keep Jammu and Kashmir directly under Central administration for a brief period was a well thought over decision. Since Governor rule was implemented in Jammu and Kashmir, state administration has been directly in touch with the Centre due to which the effects of good governance can be seen on ground,
*PM made a dig at dynasty politics: Decades of family-based politics has provided no guidance to the youth of Jammu and Kashmir. Now the youth will help rise Jammu and Kashmir to heights like never before. I would like to appeal to all young boys and girls to come out and take the reigns of the place in their hands, PM Modi said.
*Those from Jammu & Kashmir who live outside and elsewhere and,want to return to their homes will be helped by us -PM Modi said.
All the PM’s pronouncements set the stage for Naya Kashmir Vision, based on development, prosperity, democracy, terrorism free life, plural society and newer leadership etc. For all these promises the people of Jammu and Kashmir State ,the people have paid a valuable price of deprivation of the Statehood by bifurcation into two Union Territories-vis-Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir and UT of Ladakh.
These promises of Modi-2.0 skyrocketed the expectations of the people especially the hapless exiled Kashmiri Pandits.
Ten months have gone by,except for repealing few redundant laws and bringing in the new Domicile regime, none of the promises is fulfilled. Terrorism is increasing, as usual success rate of neutralising of terrorists by the security force is visible,the total disconnect of UT administration with the people is a writ large and trust deficit between New Delhi and Kashmiris has widened.There is no dialogue/engagement with the stake holders including the exiled Pandits nor is any effort to politically and ideologically strength the Idea of India on the horizon.
There is hardly any talk in the corridors of power in Delhi or JK Raj Bhawan about the return,restitution and retention of Pandits as a concentrated religious minority community physically in the Valley, nor is there any dialogue/engagement with their representatives in respect of any return plan and political empowerment. The peace in Kashmir will always elude so will Modi’s Naya Kashmir agenda be a farce until the Exile of Pandits is reversed and they are the participants as a stakeholder in any future policy and political Process.
Kashmiri Pandits heritage and their roots are engraved in the soil of the Valley for more than five thousand years. That can neither be destroyed nor obliterated by any power more so by acts of terrorists and anti-Kashmiriyat vicious campaign.
The harsh ground reality in today’s age of enlightenment is — Kashmir today is without Kashmiri Pandits. Realities are, at times harsh and strange. Kashmiri Pandits, the aborigines of Kashmir, are out in exile, in this modern age of reason and enlightenment. The forced exodus of the Kashmiri Pandits in 1990, designed to effect the motivated ethnic cleansing, will go down in the history of these aborigines of Kashmir as a continuation of the persecution and genocide facing for hundreds of years. The atrocities were peaked during despotic rule of tyrant kings in the past but 1989-1990 was worst and brutal in the history of Kashmir.
The aboriginal natives of Kashmir,the Pandits : The irony of the situation is that the pandits did not get any respite even in the bright days of the enlightened times, especially in the post-independent days of India.
Whatever be the vicissitudes of their history all pale into insignificance when we look at their present plight. The colossal crisis through which the exiled community or for that matter the entire Kashmiri society is passing through is in reality the crisis in the country’s great values — the perversion in practise of its constitutional jurisprudence, the socio-political and moral norms. Acute fear and scare had been created which gripped the Kashmiri Pandits from September 1989 onwards after killings of prominent members of the community. The Pandits started feeling what they had felt when hounded by Afgans in the second half of the 18th century,there is fear and dread in the city. Prepare for journey, disorder is dominant in this city.”
Killing one and scaring a thousand was a concerted plan neatly executed by local terror groups.
The choice of exile was forced on the Kashmiri Pandit community by Pakistan-sponsored terrorists who imposed their writ on Kashmir by unleashing death and destruction. The State Government at that time abdicated its constitutional duties and left people’s life and liberty at the mercy of looters, marauders and terror groups. The terrorist violence is unabated till this day. The terrorists maimed, killed, lynched and looted a large number of Kashmiri Pandits. The terror-stricken Pandits ran for life, leaving their homes and hearths behind them.
They sought refuge in Jammu, Delhi and elsewhere in the country. The cleansing process was completed and now the Kashmir Valley has a very small number of Kashmiri Pandits. The native Kashmiris have entered in the 29th year of exile. Pandits crave for return to their roots. They say bidding farewell to the soil they have sprung from is too traumatic as experience to be conveyed in words. They always say — we love our homeland and every inch of its bounteous soil has nourished us all. The everyday resolve of these hapless Kashmiris is — strive, struggle and stop not till the exile is reversed and they return back to their homeland on their own terms.
The successive Central as well as State Governments have done precious little for the rehabilitation of this community, which has contributed in a big way to the freedom struggle of India against the British imperialism, and also to the national reconstruction in the post-Independent era. It is a community whose history generates envy at their achievements as well as sorrow at their plight today. The long history of these exiled Kashmiris has been of triumphs and tragedies. The antiquity of the Kashmiri natives and its Aryan origin are well established. Human memory is short and so is, unfortunately, the memory of our leaders, especially of the current dispensation. It was I.K. Gujral as Prime Minister who said: “If the nation’s coffers have to be emptied for dignified return and rehabilitation of this illustrious community back in the Valley, still it would be a lesser price for their contribution towards modern nation building.”
The forced migration of 1990 left the Kashmiri Pandit community shattered physically and psychologically. Scores of social organisations worked day and night on voluntary basis to bring succour to the exiled. In a permissive, soft and caste-ridden Indian state and in many ways cruel, the exiled illustrious Kashmiri Pandit community have been created as refugees from its own flesh and blood and have been cast aside to fend for themselves. To survive as a distinct community is next to impossible in present-day world until the exile is reversed and rehabilitated physically back in the Valley. They are working relentlessly for the protection of their distinct socio-cultural entity. Their struggle is still going on. It is taking a lot of time for the leadership of the community to put across its considered views on the ultimate resettlement of the entire Kashmiri Pandit community in Kashmir on its own terms.
From 1989 till date Kashmiri Pandit groups are devoting a lot of time to their mission in one form or the other towards the task of restoring the honour and dignity of Pandits. There is no one at the political level, not even the PM and the home minister or at bureaucratic level, prepared to stick their neck out and demand action to restore the dignity and honour of Pandits and come out with an actionable time-bound plan for the return of the exiled community.
Hopes that with huge mandate the BJP-led Government would pay serious attention to the plight and future of Pandits were sadly belied. The party leadership only exploits the victimhood of Kashmiri Pandits in every electoral campaign. The BJP-led Government is as confused and as inactive as any of the other governments that had held office since 1989. No Government has ever consulted the representatives of the exiled natives nor there is any return module plan in public domain.
The exiled Pandits have been waiting for 30 years, hoping that the day of their return with honour, dignity and security to their homeland will come. It has not so far, despite claims of the considerable improvement in the ground situation.
In the meanwhile, the plight of Pandits has been slowly forgotten. Everybody sheds crocodile tears over their suffering, but there is nothing by way of action. The future of Pandits, as an important stakeholder and component of the Kashmir imbroglio, is less and less talked about.
There are attempts by various social groups and civil society activists to ensure that the promises made by the nation, to restore the honour and dignity of Pandits, are not forgotten. These groupings are interacting vigorously with leaders of the Government and Opposition political parties to ensure that this dimension of the Kashmir scenario is not forgotten. The socio-religious leadership of majority community and the groupings those who have for some reason have chosen not to be part of the mainstream are helpful factors towards the return of natives back home.
The return of Pandits to their homeland cannot be achieved unless the nation and the people of Kashmir are in unison and create consensus.
The Government of India and that of the state have to plan out a common and comprehensive return module and enforce the same in time-bound framework. New Delhi has a constitutional and political responsibility for working towards such a consensus and demonstrate a strong political will.
It has to create infrastructures, housing colonies, etc, provide adequate jobs to the educated youth and rescind the distress sales of immovable properties and secure all the religious places, cultural centres and endowments. The greater obligation on the Central and State Governments is to create a conducive economic and socio-political environment for reversing their exile and facilitate their safe and dignified return to their homeland. Native Kashmiri Pandits are longing to return to the Valley — their roots and homeland.
(The author is Senior Advocate and; Chairman (Kashmir Policy & Strategy group).
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