At a time when resettlement of Kashmiri Pandits remaining an unsolved puzzle there is another section of displaced population in Jammu who have been demanding for a respectable settlement package for almost six decades. The region has been home to people who have been dislocated during Partition of the country in 1947, people who have been affected by 1965 and 1971 India-Pakistan wars, who were forced to leave their hearth and move to safer places at that time and remain dislocated till today. The plight of migrants in all the cases is different and remains a political weapon for the state as well as national parties to exploit them for their political goals. Every time with elections a ray hope comes for this section of population and vanishes with the government formation as they are kept as electoral fodder. Some section of refugees has little political weightage except holding rallies and protests. In absence of limited voice and no political patronage from regional parties these organisations are left to fend for themselves. Under such circumstances the role of regional parties especially to effectively solve such contentious issues vis-à-vis their political stand becomes debatable. The regional players hardly have any bargaining power neither they have the reach and clout to take cause of displaced to the national forum. A bit of optimism prevailed when BJP came to power at the Centre, but with the passage of time that hope too looks diminishing and the issue would meet its own silent death. Regional aspirations were always relegated to secondary position and if these local outfits are to become champions of all the political downtrodden then they will have to come out of the safe cocoons. One must realize that at present none of these parties including BJP, PDP, Congress and NC retain status of game-changer in the state or hold solutions to any problem. What is needed is these organisations of displaced should form a united front to fight for their own cause.
