Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Feb 26: Renewing its demand for the enactment of a comprehensive Genocide Bill, Panun Kashmir (PK) today asserted that that multiple Constitutional authorities and statutory institutions of the Indian State have already acknowledged the gravity of the crime committed against Kashmiri Pandits.
In a joint statement, Dr. Agnishekhar, convenor of PK, Prof. Tito Ganju, its official spokesman, and Kuldeep Raina, general secretary, said that the time for rhetorical acknowledgment has passed and the moment now demands legislative clarity.
Referring to recent public remarks by the Lieutenant Governor of Jammu & Kashmir, Manoj Sinha, the leadership noted that describing denial of the genocide as a “second annihilation” constitutes a formal moral recognition of the first. “When the Constitutional head of the Union Territory recognizes that denial compounds annihilation, the State has already admitted the substance of the crime,” the statement read.
The leaders further pointed to the Government of India’s notification banning the J&K Liberation Front under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, issued during the tenure of Union Home Secretary Rajeev Gauba, in which reference was made to acts that led to the genocide of Kashmiri Pandits. “This was not a political slogan. It was a statutory act of the Republic of India,” they emphasized.
PK also cited statements made on the floor of Parliament by Union Finance Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman, who rejected narratives attempting to portray the events as voluntary migration or propaganda and affirmed the targeted and grave character of the atrocities.
In addition, the organization referred to remarks by Union Law Minister Arjun Megwal, who in intervention with PM Package employees acknowledged the scale of targeted violence, genocide and displacement faced by the community, emphasizing the seriousness of the historical wrongs committed.
PK further recalled the findings of the National Human Rights Commission, (NHRC) which had recorded that the community had been subjected to ethnic cleansing akin to genocide, a finding that remains on institutional record.
Dr. Agnishekhar stated that “the Republic cannot afford a contradiction where genocide is acknowledged in speeches and notifications but remains absent from statute.” Prof. Tito Ganju added that acknowledgment without codification weakens the credibility of democratic institutions. “When executive authorities, statutory bodies, and Parliamentarians have all articulated the gravity of the crime, legislative silence creates a dangerous vacuum,” he said.
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