Omkar Dattatray
It is said that ‘Janani Janam Bhoomi Swarg Se Mahan Hai’ and place of birth and motherland is sweet for all people and so Kayshp land that Kashmir is, is very attractive for the uprooted Kashmir Pandits. Majority of Kashmiri Pandits and all the package employees long for their return, rehabilitation and resettlement in Kashmir which is the place of their birth. Kashmiri Pandits want to return to Kashmir on their terms and conditions, but Government should not force them to return to Kashmir under the present conditions as the PM package employees and Jammu-based government employees posted across Kashmir are being targeted and killed by so-called crusaders of Jihad and ground conditions and the situation is not feasible and conducive for return and rehabilitation of the Kashmiri Pandits including PM package employees in Kashmir valley and therefore powers should not force the Kashmiri Pandits in general and the package employees in particular to return, live and work in Kashmir were their members were killed in the line of their duty and the package employees are warned not to venture in Kashmir and otherwise face serious consequences if they dare to enter the Kashmir valley. In such precarious atmosphere the government should not force the Kashmiri Pandits and the package employees to return to Kashmir. In fact the ground situation in Kashmir resembles the hay days of the terrorism of 1990 when the terrorism was at its zenith and many Kashmiri Pandits were killed and others were left with no option but to leave the valley for the safety, security and dignity of their life. The present conditions are similar to the conditions of the terrorism of 1990 and in the same manner the Pandit and other Hindu minorities as well as the package employees were killed to scare them so that they were force d to leave the valley for their safety and survival. The plan and policy of the return and rehabilitation of the Kashmiri Pandits which includes the return of the package employees as well is a pious policy but it should not be implemented in hurry and haste as doing it in haste will prove counterproductive and defeat the very purpose of the return and rehabilitation policy. In the past thirty two years of the migration of the Kashmiri Pandits, the successive centre and state governments failed to rehabilitate even one family of the uprooted Kashmiri Pandits in Kashmir. It implies that the government is not serious about the return and rehabilitation of the Kashmiri Pandits including the package employees but only is using the Kashmiri Pandits as a vote catching device in the elections outside the Kashmir valley. It seems that the government is making use of the Kashmiri Pandits as a use and through policy and this has complicated the genuine return and resettlement of the Kashmiri Pandits in Kashmir. The government is doing experimentation with the Kashmiri Pandits as if they are the laboratory products and the government should stop to do experimentation with the exiled Kashmiri Pandits. The package employees most of them have fled Kashmir due to the targeted killings of their co-employees and because of the threat perception and an atmosphere of panic and fear and are camping in Jammu for the safety and survival of their lives. These unfortunate and hapless package employees are protesting for the last over two months in the office of Relief and Rehabilitation commissioner Migrants canal road Jammu and at times are also protesting for their only and genuine demand of their relocation/shifting to Jammu division, but unfortunately the BJP led NDA government and the LG administration is paying a deaf ear towards the striking package employees, with the result the package employees are forced to continue their indefinite protest for the only demand of their relocation. It is very queer and unfortunate that the government has given incorrect figures and data in Raj Sabha on uprooted Kashmiri Pandits and it has said that no migration of Kashmiri Pandits has happened from the date of the abrogation of article-370 that is from 5th August 2019 and 118 civilians had been killed by the terrorists during the period. There statistics are a sheer concoction and has no relevance with the actual facts. The fact is that the majority of package employees and some families of Kashmiri Pandits have migrated post abrogation of article 370.The MoS Home Nityanand Rai has in a written reply to a question of congress MP Digvijay Singh in Raj Sabha said that from August 5, 2019, till July 9, 2022, almost 128 security force personnel and 118 civilians were martyred by terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir. These statistics are true and it shows that there is no normalcy in the disturbed Jammu and Kashmir where people including Kashmiri Pandits and other minorities have been killed during the period mentioned by the MOS home and the fact is that the targeted killings of the Kashmiri Pandits and other minorities continue in Kashmir. The MoS Home has further said that 5500 Kashmiri Pandits were appointed post abrogation of article 370 but there is no truth in this data. The fact is that about 3,000 Kashmiri Pandit youth have joined duty before the 5th of August 2019 and some odd 1400 have been appointed post abrogation of Article 370. It is so sad that the government is painting a rosy picture of the situation in Kashmir while the ground reality is far from the assertions of the government about the so called normalcy. The normalcy balloon of the BJP led NDA government has punctured by the killings of the security forces and the civilians. So for as the return and rehabilitation of the Kashmiri Pandits including package employees is concerned, the government should held talks with the Kashmiri Pandit leaders before embarking on the policy and plan of their return and rehabilitation. Thus the main stakeholders – the Kashmiri Pandit leaders should be consulted on the plan and policy of their return and rehabilitation. The plan and policy of the rehabilitation of the Kashmiri Pandits will be successful only when the leaders of the exiled community are consulted and their views are taken into consideration. Thus the return and rehabilitation of the Kashmiri Pandits in Kashmir should precede the much needed deliberations and discussions with the Kashmiri Pandits so that the plan and policy of the rehabilitation will be successful. The government should realize that the living of the Kashmiri Pandits in Kashmir is not possible in scattered form as they lived before their migration of 1990. Almost all their houses and dwellings stand either burnet or sold at the throw away prices as distress sales under compulsion of the circumstances. Therefore their return and settlement should be done at a single place so that they will live without any fear and panic. This is possible only when they are rehabilitated at a single place in Kashmir. Thus the NDA Government, if serious about the return and rehabilitation of the Kashmiri Pandits, should settle and rehabilitate them at a single concentration so that return and rehabilitation will be successful and in order to ensure that there is no further migration of the Kashmiri Pandits. As far as package employees are concerned they should not be forced to live and perform their duties across Kashmir but should be allowed to work from home from Jammu till there is complete normalcy in Kashmir. Alternatively the package employees who are on indefinite strike should be relocated from Kashmir and shifted to Jammu and relocated/adjusted or attached to the Relief commissioner’s office, Jammu till the situation limps back to normal in Kashmir. There is great and urgent need to delink employment package from return and rehabilitation of the Kashmiri Pandits because the PM employment package is purely an economic package and it has to do nothing with return and rehabilitation policy of Kashmiri Pandits. To conclude, it can be safely and rightly said that Kashmiri Pandits should be rehabilitated at a single place in Kashmir so that there is no scope for further migration from Kashmir. The migration should be reversed for all times to come so that the rehabilitated Kashmiri Pandits will live in peace and dignity and this is possible only when the Kashmiri Pandits are consulted on the policy and plan of their return and rehabilitation and only then it can be successful otherwise not. Moreover there should be no haste in embarking of the return and rehabilitation plan and policy of Kashmiri Pandits.
(The author is a Columnist and Social Activist).