Ashok Bhan
Realities are, at times, strange. Kashmiri Pandits, the aboriginal inhabitants 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 peaked during despotic rule of Tyrant kings. But it is a tragic irony that they did not get any respite even in the bright days of the enlightened times, especially in the post-independent days of their country, 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 Country”s great values-the perversion in practise of its Constitutional,socieo-Political and moral norms and jurisprudence. Acute fear and scare had been created which gripped the Kashmiri Pandits from Sept. 1989 onwards after killings of prominent members of the Community. The KPs started feeling what they had felt when hounded by Afghans in the second half of eighteenth centuary – “O heart,there is fear And dread in the city. Prepare for journey, Disorder is dominant in this city”.
Killing one and scaring a thousand was the concerted plan neatly executed by the local terror groups. The choice of exile was forced on the KP community by the Pakistan sponsored terrorists who imposed their writ on Kashmir by unleashing death and destruction.The elected State Government at that time abdicated its Constitutional duties and left the peoples life and liberty at the mercy of the looters and terror groups. The terrorist violence is unabated till this day. The terrorists maimed and 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 Kashmir Valley is without Kashmiri Pandits. Still the KPs are in 29th year of Exile. KPs 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.every inch of its bounteous soil which has nourished us all; Every day KPs in exile resolve –strive, struggle and stop not till the Exile is reversed and they return back to their homeland on there own terms.
The successive Central as well as the State Government shas done precious little for the rehabilitation of the K.P.Community. KPs have 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 KPs has been of triumphs and tragedies.The antiquity of the KPs and its Aryan origin are well established. Human memory is short and so is, unfortunately, the memory of our leaders.
The forced migration of 1990 left the Kashmiri Pandit Community shattered physically and psychologically. Scores of social organizations worked, day and night, on voluntary basis to bring succor to the exiled. In a permissive,soft and caste ridden Indian State and in many ways cruel, the exiled illustrious KP community have been created as refugees from its own flesh and blood and have been casted 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 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 KP 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 the Pandits.. There is no one at the political level not even the PM and The HM or at bureaucratic level prepared to stick their neck out and demand action to restore the dignity and honour of the Pandits.and come out with an actionable time bound plan for the return of the exiled community back to Valley. Hopes that the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Government would pay attention to the future of the Pandits were sadly belied.The Party leadership only exploits the victim hood of KPs in every electoral campaign only. The BJP-led Government is as confused and as inactive as any of the other Governments that had held office since 1989.
The exiled Pandits have been waiting for 28 years, hoping that the day of their return with honour and security to their homeland will come. It has not so far, despite the considerable improvement in the ground situation.
In the meanwhile, the plight of the Pandits has been slowly forgotten. Everybody sheds crocodile tears over their suffering, but there is nothing by way of action. The future of the Pandits, as an important dimension/ 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 the 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.
How do we move forward :-The return of the Pandits to their homeland cannot be enforced unilaterally by the Governments of India and the state. It has to be the outcome of a consensus among different political parties of the Nation and of the state and leaders of different communities. The Government of India has a moral responsibility for working towards such a consensus and demonstrate a strong political will.
(The author is Senior Advocate in Supreme Court of India)
feedbackexcelsior@gmail.com
Follow our WhatsApp channel