Rehabilitation of Kashmiri Pandits – A circus being played out!

Resettlement of Kashmiri Pandit in their own land has been hot topic of debate and discussion in past few months. Many sections of society have kept the media busy with their extreme reactions on even a whimper about the resettlement.

Both Governments, national and state level, seem to be in a confused state, which is evident by the flip-flops at both levels. The golden solution proposed for the resettlement keeps changing every day based on the posturing of various actors in the play. A smart city exclusive for the community is announced one day, and then diluted the other day, by saying the community will only have 50% reservation in the smart city. On yet another day the solution is changed to multiple smaller settlements for the community across the valley. And, while the Governments are grappling to agree on a solution, the separatists and the terrorists in the valley would having nothing of this. They don’t want to give an inch to the Kashmiri Pandits. They shed crocodile tears and state that the Kashmiri Pandits are only allowed to come back to their scattered existence in the valley. And, if the absurdity wasn’t enough, Pakistan issues a statement out of nowhere that resettling of Kashmiri Pandits in the valley is violation of the defunct UN resolution – the resolution that they never honored in the first place in any part of the Jammu and Kashmir state that is in their illegal occupation!

What is the biggest and most obvious missing point in all this absurd narrative? You didn’t even notice? Yes, the very people who are the victims and need to be resettled, are being given zero say in any plan! Government is trying to thrust some proposal down the throats of the hapless community and wash their hands off the problem. And, the very people responsible for the ethnic cleansing of the Kashmiri Pandits from the land of their ancestors, are dictating terms for their return. How ironic can this be?

Time and again, for last 26 years, the community has been crying hoarse – they will not go back as a scattered community and make themselves guinea pigs to be persecuted yet again! The community swears by the Indian constitution and would only settle down in a single place within the valley where they are provided constitutional guarantee of their safety, security, honor, and dignity. Pretty much what an average Indian takes for granted!

Some folks question the Kashmiri Pandits – they say asking for a single separate area within the valley is communal. Really? Communal was when these self-declared champions of the so-called Kashmiri struggle unleashed mayhem on the un-armed peaceful citizens. The same Yasin Malik who today talks about a separate area for Kashmiri Pandits being akin to creating Palestine type situation in Kashmir, is responsible for the butchering of Kashmiri Pandits! The same Bitta Karate who is a self-styled leader, openly accepted on TV of killing dozens of Kashmiri Pandits! Why were the Kashmiri Pandits slaughtered and chased away from their homeland? It was because they were Hindus, and their existence does not suit the plans of these barbarians whose sole aim is to convert Kashmir into a complete Islamic region! Till the world doesn’t accept this as the root issue in Kashmir, the problem will never be solved!

Kashmiri Pandits, even after 26 years of exile, and being witness to inhuman killings of their community folks, have never resorted to return violence. There can be no bigger commitment to human values, democracy, and secularism! However, to now expect the community to be handled like cattle and be used as guinea pigs by pushing them into scattered existence in the valley – a place that has turned many times more fundamentalist in these two and a half decades, will be nothing less than hara-kiri – not only for the Indian nation, but a civilized world in general!

India, and the world, has to stand-up to the extremists who seem to be ruling the roost in the valley. All fundamental principles of modern democracy have been trampled in the valley. And, this place is not somewhere far away that we may close our eyes. This is within the largest democracy of the world. Cinema halls have been closed for many years now. Any musical performance is stifled in the valley. Pakistani flags are raised almost as a norm these days. Indian flag is burnt and insulted every now and then. Thousands of temples have been desecrated and destroyed. Even the names of ancient places are changed to sound Islamic! What more should happen to understand that the only problem in the valley is that some folks want to convert the place into an Islamic region?

In this scenario, when the world does not even clearly acknowledge the problem in the valley, there is no way that the Kashmiri Pandits will go back to a scattered existence there. Kashmiri Pandits are the aborigines of the valley and they have the right to demand a share of their homeland. For modern human values to survive in the region, the Kashmiri Pandits should be resettled in the valley at one single place under the free-flow of constitution of India! Nothing less than a separate homeland under the direct governance of the center guided by the Indian constitution in letter and spirit, is acceptable to the internally displaced community! I hope and pray that the fellow citizens of India, and the modern world in general, stand up with the community and ensure the menace of terrorism and fundamentalism is stopped here and now, lest today it is Kashmiri Pandits, tomorrow it will be rest of India, and then rest of the world!