Dr. Ram Chander Sharma
India is on the boil with the passage of Citizenship Amendment Act 2019 adopting persecuted on religious basis the minorities in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan. The people especially the students from Minority colleges and universities and of course the opposition parties to present ruling NDA Government of India stoking the violent protests. But, after 73 years of their exile the unfortunate Pak Occupied Jammu and Kashmir Displaced persons (POJKDPs) who are tagged with a terminology never used in any part of the world. These are the real persecuted. on religion basis and who faced Holocaust soon after the nefarious partition of Indian sub continent in the year 1947 under a preplanned conspiracy hatched by Britishrers and western allies. Whatever the case may be no human can be displaced for more than seven decades and not cared or heard in the largest democracy of the world India.
According to GOI records 41000 POJKDPs were recorded as DPs by the Provincial Rehabilitation Officer Jammu in the year 1947 and 22700 families were settled on agricultural land in Jammu and Kashmir 3600 families in urban areas, 5300 families in other states of India by a discriminatory J&K Cabinet Order 578 C in violation to GOI Displaced Persons Compensation and Rehabilitation Act 1954 by decreasing it to half in terms of land allotment and ex gratia. Moreover the compensation in lieu of left over moveable and immoveable properties were never paid to POJKDPs of Jammu and Kashmir till date. The irony is that the crucial period of migration was notified as Sept. 1947 to December 1950 and who were held captive and released latter on were not considered DPs but most cruel is the fact that the cases of 9500 were rejected on flimsy ground as the head of family didn’t migrate with family or whose family income was more than Rs. 300 pm at that time.
The word Holocaust/Genocide was coined after World war II when Brute Hitler of Nazi Germany killed five to six million ethnic Jews in gas chamber. They were lucky to embrace painless mass death but was not so with POJKDPs as they were slaughtered by sharp edged weapons or faced mass burning in cattle sheds. And, those who survived and now living in Jammu and Kashmir and other parts of India are treated as second class citizen of India as their basic Human Rights are grossly violated with no right to life, economy, education, health, employment, social justice, gender equality, non discrimination or special status as Refugees or Tribal etc. In the light of CAA now a triggering cause of religious bigotry, unrest or violence in India the trampling of HRs of POJKDPs need to be debated in United Nations, other developed countries and nevertheless in India.
UN has special department for world refugees and special laws to confront the refugees problems as 1951 Refugee Act and its 1967 Protocol and most of the world countries are signatory to it to follow International Refugees Laws but unfortunately India has not signed to the dismay of refugees. One of the unjustified reason to tag POJK Refugees as DPs is the notion that POK is an integral part of India and will be retrieved back from illegal occupation of Pakistan and China; but when? Till then the POJKDPs will remain as DPs and not settled as other Indian Pakistani DPs of 1947 who were lucky enough to be settled within months after their migration in partition. Every refugee dreams of a home for peace and security. The flight of people or migration is as old as history and so are the inevitable sufferings of uprooted and homeless. The various round table conferences and committees reports like 183rd Joint Indian Parliament Report has been deep freezed like their 24 Assembly seats in Jammu and Kashmir Legislature. Moreover, there are clear Court Orders of Justice TS Doabia of J&K High Court of 02-05-2002 and other Hon’ble Supreme Court of India but deaf and dumb Indian political system or HR values are not moved. It is immodestly desired to fully implement the GOI DPS Relief and Rehab. Act 1954 for POJKDPs and permanently settle them as Indian Citizens, scrap discriminatory J&K Cabinet order 578 C, allot full land to POJKDPs form Evacuee Land or State land in J&K, provide Rs 50 lac as one time settlement of each POJKDPs family including 5300 families settled outside and allot them land in J&K UT as they are aboriginal residents, constitute Refugee Rehabilitation Board with a corpus fund of 50 crores for their economic development, special reservation benefits as for KPs, special recruitment in Indian Army and Paramilitary Forces, construction of Refugee House in Jammu and New Delhi, opening of a Refugee University for professional colleges and conservation of their rich culture and languages etc.
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