Omkar Dattatray
The miniscule minority of Kashmiri Pandits have all along being experimented in the gas chambers of the secular laboratory of the country. This experimentation is continuing even today with the exiled Kashmiri Pandits and the NDA government headed by the BJP is also busy in doing experimentation with the Kashmiri Pandits.
To the ill luck of the community, it is being treated as a laboratory product of experimentation and to put it rightly the Kashmiri Pandits are treated as an experimental animal.
The Kashmiri Pandits are passing and suffering in the thirty two of the exile and the successive centre and state governments seem to be insensitive and indifferent to the sad plight, woes and demands as well as concerns of KPs.
The uprooted and displaced Kashmiri Pandits have suffered enormously in all most all spheres of the life and no sincere efforts are being made to address and solve the demands and issues of the Kashmiri Pandits.
The future of the displaced Kashmiri Pandits seems very bleak and uncertain and the threat of their extinction is lurking and they are becoming proverbial Kashmiri Hangul so for as their existence is concerned. Serious efforts need to be done to conserve and preserve the culture, tradition and even the life of the Kashmiri Pandits.
All these 32 years of their fateful migration from their place of birth the governments have been talking of the honorable return and rehabilitation of the displaced Pandits and every year and every dispensation has been parroting of the safe return and rehabilitation but the powers failed to rehabilitate even one family of the Kashmiri Pandits at the place of their birth.
All the talks and promises to rehabilitate uprooted Pandits back in Kashmir valley failed to mature because the governments lacked the political will and determination to rehabilitate Kashmiri Pandits in Kashmir and there is no sincerity in the governments all these years to embark on the plan of the safe and honorable return and rehabilitation in Kashmir, with the result all talks and declarations of taking back Kashmiri Pandits could not materialize.
The half-hearted measures and adhoc arrangements cannot help in the rehabilitation of the Kashmiri Pandits but it needs a comprehensive, well integrated and a policy full of compassion and a pragmatic and practical policy to implement the return and rehabilitation of the Kashmiri Pandits in Kashmir. The mere pious declarations and loud talks only are of no use in the practical rehabilitation of the Kashmiri Pandits back in Kashmir, but no return and rehabilitation of Kashmiri Pandits should be thought of and sought to be implemented on the ground without consulting and deliberating with the various Kashmiri Pandit organizations.
Therefore, the Government, if serious and sincere on question of the return and rehabilitation of the KPs in Kashmir, should hold dialogue and talks with the KP leaders and should take the whole community of the Pandits in confidence for embarking the plan and policy of return and rehabilitation of the Kashmiri Pandits in Kashmir. But the fact should not be overlooked that the ground situation in Kashmir is not conducive and feasible for the return and rehabilitation of the Pandits as the targeted Killings of the Kashmiri Pandits, PM package employees, other Hindu minorities, Jammu based reserved category employees and Sikhs has taken place in the resent past and the sporadic killings still continue. The security forces and state police personnel are also martyred more or less on daily basis.
All this has created fear, panic and an atmosphere of fear psychosis particularly among the Hindu minorities and Kashmiri Pandits and Pandit Package employees posted across Kashmir valley. Majority of the PM package employees working in Kashmir have fled and migrated to Jammu after the brutal killing of one of their colleague Rahul Bhat in his well crowded Tehsil office in Chadoora Budgam in broad day light while performing his duty.
These package employees are on indefinite protest in Jammu for the last over two months for the only and genuine demand of their relocation /shifting/attachment with the Relief commissioner’s office till complete normalcy is restored in Kashmir.
The government is only experimenting with the Package employees and is not considering their genuine demand of relocation to Jammu which is closely related with their life, safety and survival. The government is not paying any heed towards the striking PM Package employees and it seems that BJP government of Modi with whom the community of KPs has high hopes are letting them down and neglecting their woes and problems.
The government should attend towards the problems, concerns and issues of the Kashmiri Pandits living in exile in camps and in their own accommodation and solve them on priority and balm the hurt psyche and wounds of the KPs till the time situation becomes conducive for their return and rehabilitation in valley. Succor should be provided and their genuine problems should be addressed to provide some relief to the suffering community of KPs and they should not be left in lurch and fend for themselves. The displaced Kashmiri Pandits cannot and should not be allowed to suffer till the time situation becomes complete normal in Kashmir for their dignified and safe return and rehabilitation. The BJP led NDA government is overlooking the genuine and pressing issues and problems of the Kashmiri Pandits and is showing lackadaisical attitude towards the demands of KPs and is making no sincere efforts to solve the problems confronting the uprooted community of Pandits. It is very surprising and disturbing that the same BJP which flourished on the theme of the sad plight of the exiled Pandits in the past and KPs remained the pet agenda of the politics of the BJP is now showing no concern towards the concerns and demands of the displaced Pandits.
It is now crystal clear that the BJP has used the Kashmiri Pandits and their sufferings to cultivate and dividends and in fact used them for vote bank politics in different states of India.
It seems that BJP has mastered the art of using and dumping the KPs. As now it has totally ignored the sentiments and aspirations as well as the demands of the Kashmiri Pandits and has infact overlooked the demands and pressing problems of the displaced Pandits. So for as the return and rehabilitation of the displaced Pandits to Kashmir is concerned, no haste and hurry should be made on the issue as it is very complex and sensitive issue which involves the life, survival an d safety of the Kashmiri Pandits and all things and facts should be well considered by the government before embarking on the plan of return and rehabilitation.
The return and rehabilitation in Kashmir of the KPs should not lead to again of the migration which will be very unfortunate. So no reverse migration should be attempted in haste as it can prove fatal and counter-productive.
Thus Government should desist to experiment with the precious lives of the Kashmiri Pandits as it will lead to insurmountable sufferings and augmentation of the problems faced by the community. Government should pay attention towards the problems and issues of the Kashmiri Pandits and try sincerely to address and solve these so that sufferings of KPs can be lessened to some extent. The LG administration of the UT should hold talks with agitating Prime Minister Package employees and find a solution to their demand of relocation to Jammu province till the situation becomes normal in Kashmir for their living and working.
The powers should stop experimentation with the lives of the exiled Kashmiri Pandits and ensure that their demands and concerns are addressed while their temporarily living in Jammu so that some sort of succor and relief is provided to them.