Pied Piper?

So often my thoughts go back to the winter of 1989-90. It is extremely painful memory, and I just can’t erase it. Time and again, my thoughts take my soul back through that painful experience. I hear that time heals all wounds, but this wound seems to be too deep to be cured so easily.

Why did I, and all my community members, have to leave their home and hearth? Why did we have to live a life in exile? Why were so many of Kashmiri Pundits languishing in tent accommodations across various places in North India, when they had big bungalows and big fields in their homeland? As per the terrorists like Yaseen Malik, Bitta Karate, and others of their ilk, it was because Kashmiri Pundits were like rats following the Pied Piper (read Jagmohan)!

Imagine a whole community (about 500,000 people) blindly following orders of the Governor, who declares that in order for India to have a free hand in Kashmir, Kashmiri Pundits should leave their homeland. And, all Kashmiri Pundits feel “Wow, this guy is our Guru, lets just leave everything and live in tents for a while!” If Jagmohan indeed achieved this feat, then he might well be an Avatar of Jesus Christ!

Would anyone leave all he/she has, and leave stealthily in the dead of the night, to live a life of an exile, because one person asks him/her to do it? Well, maybe a few might just get swayed, but would 500,000? Unless of course, that one person is Jesus Christ, Shri Krishna, or the like.

Whenever Kashmiri Pundits talk about the barbaric killings of their folks by the Islamic zealots, they are told to stop whining and wailing. Why shouldn’t we raise our voice? Has even one person been held responsible for our plight? Has even one case of crimes against our community resulted in any justice?

How would you react if the person responsible for killing many of your community members, responsible for killing some of your bright Air Force personnel, raping one of your sisters, is acclaimed by your own country mates as a leader of peace? He is out there serving sermons on how Kashmir would return to peace? It is so ironic and frustrating!

Well, if Jagmohan wasn’t responsible for the plight of Kashmiri Pundits, then who is?

I go back to 1986, when there were riots against the minority community of Kashmiri Pundits in the valley of Kashmir. I understand that the arms and terrorists eased into Kashmir even before that. The riots of 1986 were first major indication of things to come for Kashmir in general, and Kashmiri Pundits in particular. I remember when I was in primary school (1986-89), my Muslim classmates would keep talking about how they will be liberating Kashmir and make it a part of Pakistan. Yes, even primary school kids were talking about the imminent catastrophe! No prizes for guessing what would be the topic of discussions in their homes. Just that Kashmiri Pundits did not realize the gravity of the situation. We were blinded by the traditions of so-called Kashmiriyat and Hindu-Muslim brotherhood!

14th September 1989 saw the gunning down of Sh Tika Lal Taploo, a beloved leader of Kashmiri Pundits. Ironically, one of the biggest promoters of brotherhood with the majority community of Kashmir! Next few months witnessed gruesome killing and torturous deaths of the minority Kashmiri Pundit community members. Some were cut to pieces in saw mills, some were tortured to death by being pierced with cigarette butts, some were hanged from trees, some were urinated upon while they were dying, some were raped and strangled to death, and many more barbaric ways. This period saw announcements from local mosques declaring Kashmiri Pundit men folk to leave the valley and leave their women folk behind! Announcements in newspapers, and so-called hit-lists pasted outside the homes of the minority community, reflected the same terror! I don’t think a bigger lawless situation has been witnessed in our country ever.

19th Jan 1990 was the fateful night when majority of the Pundit families left the valley in the dead of the night, to provide security to their kith and kin. And, till date they are waiting for their Government to provide them the first basic right of secure life in their own homeland!

And, 20 years since then, the spokesperson of the ruling party claims that the community left the valley because of “fear psychosis of Governor Jagmohan”! Even if the whole community was so dumb to have chosen to live a life of refugees in their own country on basis of fear psychosis of one man, what was the state and central Government doing? Congress was in power in both state and centre! What steps did any of the two Governments take to not let a complete community leave their homes? Was it secular to let Hindus in the valley, who are a minority there, take refuge out of the valley?

What should the Kashmiri Pundit community do?

• Get on the roads and make a hue and cry about the statement of Manish Tewari. Force him to apologize to the community?
• Take the comment in their stride and keep absorbing all their frustration. Go on with their lives and forget Kashmir for ever. Let the community go extinct in near future?
• Prop up their efforts of highlighting their plight and counter such remarks by getting the Indian, and the world, civil society engaged in the discussions on how to provide justice to the community?

I am not sure which path would the various community organizations take. Meanwhile, here is wishing Manish Tewari good health - “Get well soon, Mamu!”