ER Nishant Vikram Zadoo
This article is an open letter to all those people including the dignitary like Naeem Akhtar and celebrated bigot separatist leaders like Yaseen Malik who are opposing the satellite township for Kashmiri Pundits.
It is an irony that in India the domiciles are not allowed to rehabilitate as per their wish at their own mother land .Kashmir is a land of Kashyap Rishi , Lalleshwari, great Kalhan, Lohar dynasty that ruled Kashmir and Birbal Dhar. We Kashmiri Pundits, micro minority community are the real sons of soil and yet we are deprived of our mother land ruthlessly by bigots and fundamentalistic radicals that comprise major population of Kashmir. The statement by Naeem Akhtar that Cluster Township for displaced Kashmiri Pundits will instigate 2008 agitation like situation and a separatist like Geelani should guide them for rehabilitation of Kashmiri Pundits is disappointing to its extreme limit. Can we imagine that our rehabilitation at Kashmir is at the mercy of separatists and not the Government of India and it is a big breach of trust of Kashmiri Pundits at the hands of this elected government . The appeasement of separatists at the hands of State Govt. ministers is really depressing for any common Indian who loves his country above his life .Having been born and brought up at Jammu , I have keenly observed the fear in the eyes of Kashmiri Pundits over the idea of returning back to Kashmir . Their heart wishes to go back but slogans like ‘Hum Kya Chahte Azaadi’ and countless murders of eminent Kashmiri pundit community during 90’s still brings shiver to their spine . Adding salt to their injuries, not only the Kashmiri separatists but the Kashmiri political leaders too are opposing satellite township for Kashmiri migrants.
In my personal opinion I really wonder how can satellite township be harmful to the people of Kashmir,as they are propogating , when they themselves have colonies at Jammu at some places like Hyder pora , Sultan pura , Khatti Ka Talaab and not last but not the least Sidhra and Bhatindi too .Though these colonies are not officially one community based yet on ground level all these colonies are predominatedly populated by population of Kashmiri majority community . Do people of Jammu ever oppose their colonies at Jammu? No never. In fact these people are warmly embraced by the people of Jammu and substantially these people merge in secular fabric of Jammu . Infact when the majority community of Kashmir ousted and forced the micro minority Kashmiri Pundit community to elope Kashmir , it was people of Jammu who stood by us shoulder to shoulder .Can’t we learn from the tolerance of people of Jammu . How much these Kashmiri politician and separatists can stoop low to show such religiously motivated ideology and show the highest degree of intolerance . Moreover lakhs of Kashmiri Muslims live and work happily in rest of the India , most of them working at Banglore , Pune Hyderabad and UP . They are welcomed there with full zeal and valour . They too adapt to this compassionate environment vivaciously but when it comes to Sainik Colony and cluster township for Kashmiri Pundits , their standards change suddenly and they blackmail Indian Government on the pretext of agitations .They have caught the jugglers vein .We are the victims of secessionists .And these secessionists are justifying their brutal violence which caused the mass exodus of Kashmiri Pundits from Kashmir in 1990 . This ugly politically motivated ideas can only infuse feeling of hatred in Kashmiri Pundit community and Dogra brotherhood against the people of Kashmir .
Now let us calculate some statistics about Kashmiri Pundits . There are 60,000 Kashimiri Pundit families in India . Of them 40,000 live at Jammu and rest of them live in other parts of India .More than half of the population has already started migrating to Mumbai , Pune and Bangalore . Height of the situation is that every year ¾ of the youth of Kashmiri Pundits between age group of 18-35 leave Jammu to seek livelihood in far alien lands of Mumbai and Bangalore. This culturally fast dying micro minority community faces severe fear of getting totally uprooted from its soil .Kudos to Kashmir centric politicians and separatists. Being a Kashmiri pundit I can clearly see the fear of returning back to Kashmir in the eyes of Kashmiri Pundit. 399 official killings of KPs were made just in between 1989 to 1991. And the killers were none other than their own neighbours who killed them in the name of Islam and Azaadi. How can they feel safe in between those neighbours’ who burnt their houses in front of their eyes? How can they feel safe in between those same neighbours who slained their sons and grounded their 100s of Shiv Temples. No Kashmiri Pundit father is willing to give his daughter in hand to that guy who is working at Kashmir because no one wants their kins to face that doom again. Such is the level of fear in the eyes of Kashmiri Pundits. And it is the duty of not only NDA Government but also National Conference and Indian National Congress that Kashmiri Pundits have voted for in assembly elections. We KashmiriPundits have lot of expectations from Modi ji, Mehbooba ji and Farooq Saab .And we hope that our trust is not breached at least this time .Kashmiri Pundit community is one of the unsung warrior community which has paid the price of single handedly holding the cause of Indian democratic republic at Kashmir and we fought tooth and nail from 1950 – 1990 to keep flags of Indian Union high in the Valley of Kashmir where they were tortured from long time for being a patriotic Indian.
My heart bleeds cries and appeals loudly to this system and ask, “for how long will you people test our patience .For how long we have to struggle against the fascist, racial and communal ideology of Kashmiri separatists”. How can you even imagine Kashmiri Pundit youth vesting his faith in this government when such statements are made in Valley not only by separatists but also by political leaders? The Kashmiri Pundit community has already faced the wrath of Islamic terrorism and they no longer find their future secure in the neighborhood of Jihadi ideologists .how can you expect patriotic Kashmiri Pundits to live in between the people raising slogans of ‘Hum Kya Chahte Azaadi’ ‘Yahaa Kyaa Chalega Nizaam – e – Mustafaa’ . Kahmiri Pundit community cannot live in the vicinity of such intolerant communal neighborhoods
If this Govt. is really serious about the rehabilitation of Kashmiri Pundit community then they must provide immediate township for Kashmiri Pundits and allocate pending 4,000 jobs for their youths. This step is not only beneficial for the cause of India but also for survival of fast dying Kashmiri Pundit culture. The government must establish colonies swiftly and do fast track recruitment of Kashmiri migrant youths to keep this community intact to its roots otherwise this Govt. must be ready to face the wrath of people in next Assembly elections.
