Omkar Dattatray
There is nothing more unfortunate for a community than the fact that it is caught between two stools and the Kashmiri Pandits are in fact sadly caught between two stools and are on the brink of their extinction like the proverbial Kashmiri Hangul and sincere steps need to be taken to address the problems of the survival of this microscopic minority community. The Kashmiri Pandits stand devastated and ruined in the secular democracy of their own country and the insensitive rulers only use the community of Kashmiri Pandits as a vote bank and do politics over the misfortunes of the community and do only experimentation on them as if they are laboratory objects. The genuine concerns and grievances of Kashmiri Pandits should be addressed but it seems to be the no priority of the BJP government which is busy only in furthering the interests of the party and seems least concerned with the welfare of the Pandit community which has become refugee in their own country and the rulers want to remain leeched to power and has no time or inclination to attend to and address the problems of the uprooted Kashmiri Pandits.
The Kashmiri Pandits remain on two stands and are thus neither of the Kashmir nor of Jammu and this is the tragedy and the powers should take sincere steps to save the community from extinction and this will be the true service of the government towards the Kashmiri Pandits.
This unfortunate and hapless community of Kashmiri Pandits feel insecure and frightened as well as alienated in the place of their birth and the government does not take required steps to remove the fear psychosis in the Pandit community and fail to instil confidence and trust among these people so that they live and work in peace, security and tranquillity. Day in and day out the youth of this community are made the soft targets and are killed by the enemies of humanity in broad day light without any remorse.
The Kashmiriyat and the sufi culture as well as the communal harmony and brotherhood for which Kashmir was famous throughout the world stands destroyed beyond repair and this is the great misfortune and it has brought bad name to Kashmir which is very unfortunate. The targeted killings of the Kashmiri Pandits, other Hindu minorities and the patriotic and nationalistic Muslims is a big stain and slap on the secular democracy of the country. The Kashmiri Pandits stand devastated and destroyed being on the two stands and their culture and identity is under perpetual threat and they are on the brink of extinction and steps should be taken by the powers to ensure their survival in Kashmir which is under threat. Therefore the government should take a serious note of the sad plight of the Pandits and the package employees who are performing their duties in Kashmir under duress, oppression and threat to their precious lives and the BJP government remaining as a mute spectator to all the sad happenings and killings in the valley. The ground conditions today in Kashmir resemble to the hay days of militancy of 1990 as the fear and insecurity has gripped the valley and the rulers looking the other way and only giving fake and false sermons of normalcy. The normalcy of BJP is nowhere in sight and the balloon of normalcy of the BJP has punctured because of the killings of the soft targets and selective killings. One fails to understand as to what is the definition and parameter of normalcy to the government which only parrot the normalcy paradigm. The Kashmiri Pandits and its package employee’s stand churned in the mill of the militancy and there seems no one to come to the rescue of this unfortunate community. The tall claims and shallow declarations of the powers to rehabilitate the KP community in the land of their birth are utopian and there is no substance in these declarations of the government and the Kashmiri Pandits attach no importance to these hallow claims of the rulers. The Kashmiri Pandits and the package employees stand sandwiched between the bullets of the gun tottering militants and the total apathy and insensitiveness of the BJP government towards the problems of existence of the Kashmiri Pandits. There seems no one on whom the hapless Kashmiri Pandits can bank upon as their faith and confidence on the rulers has been totally shattered. The majority community of Kashmir has totally failed to stand by the Kashmiri Pandits and have abdicated their religious and moral responsibility of protecting the miniscule minority community of Pandits. Therefore on whose faith the Kashmiri Pandits will live and work in Kashmir. This is the big dilemma. The government has failed to provide the fool proof security to the Kashmiri Pandits and the Package employees who are targeted at their sweet will by the militants. It will be sane that the government should relocate the Pandit package employees to Jammu division so that they are saved from the cruel jaws of the militants. The package employees are so much scared that they are reluctant to perform their duties in Kashmir valley as the package employees are killed by the militants with sadistic pleasure.
The government should come to the rescue of the Package employees and relocate them to Jammu division for the time being so that they are saved and their life, limb and honour is also saved. The insensitive BJP government of centre and the LG administration should wake from the deep slumber and take sincere steps to ensure the survival of the Kashmiri Pandits whose very survival is at stake in Kashmir because of the brutal killings of the community members and more so of the package employees. The government wants the miniscule minority community Pandit package employees to work in Kashmir against all threats to their lives from the militants and these unfortunate ones have become cannon fodders to the guns of the militants. The government only wants that the return of Kashmiri Pandits should not be sabotaged and it makes the Kashmiri Pandits and package employees as sacrificial goats and is least concerned with their safety and dignity. The package employees are agitating from the last ten days and are genuinely demanding their temporary adjustment anywhere in India and the government is trying to divide the package employees and are giving them the lollipops of solving service, promotion matters but during the last ten years the government did nothing to address the service related matters. This is only done to distract the attention of package employees from their main and genuine demand of relocating them outside Kashmir valley. It is very sad that different Kashmiri Pandit organizations are maintaining stoic silence on the unfortunate killing of KP employee Rahul Bhat. It seems that there shops will be closed if the demands of the agitating Package employees are met. Jammu and Kashmir is not a state but is a Union Territory and as such the government employees can be transferred to any place in the UT and so the package employees can be adjusted in Jammu province and there is no harm in it and one wonders as to why is the government indifferent to adjust these package employees in Jammu province? The BJP government which has overwhelming majority in Parliament should pass Kashmiri Pandits’ Return and Rehabilitation bill so that seven lakh Kashmiri Pandits can be resettled back in their place of birth and the government should sincerely take steps to make the plan of the return and rehabilitation a success on the ground. It is only after the return and rehabilitation of Kashmiri Pandits in valley that the package employees can live and perform their duties without fear and duress and only then they should be ordered to perform their duties across Kashmir. The Kashmiri Pandits existence and survival is at danger because of the gum wielding militants and Islamist Jehadists and their very culture and identity is at stake and they will continue to be annihilated and their rehabilitation seems to be their annihilation and the government seems hell bent on false return and rehabilitation of the Kashmiri Pandits which in effect seems to be synonyms with their annihilation.
The Government if it is interested in the welfare of the uprooted Kashmiri Pandit’s should take necessary and sincere steps so that the existence and survival of the Kashmiri Pandit’s is not threatened but made possible. To conclude the following poetry of a poet is apt to describe the condition of the uprooted Kashmiri Pandits, “Na Khuda He Mila Na Visalay Sanam Na Eder Kay Rahay Na Uder Kay Rahay”.
(The author is a columnist and social activist).
