Er. P.L.Khushu
Lt Governor of Jammu & Kashmir has recently said that the employees from the minority community, including Kashmiri Pandits protesting in Jammu and not resuming their duties in Kashmir, would not be paid salaries. “After the employees fled to Jammu from Kashmir, they asked for a ‘breathing period’ which we allowed and provided salaries till August this year. We cannot pay them if they are sitting at home and not resuming their duties,” the L-G said at a press conference in Jammu. The L-G said he was in touch with the protesting employees and had heard their genuine demands. “We have ensured that all Kashmiri Pandit employees are transferred to the district headquarters. Only those in the Rural Development Department are working in villages of Kashmir as they cannot be shifted to city areas,” the L-G said. Well a very good administrative order probably suiting the bureaucratic pattern of governance which remains stitched to files with file notes there on, without mentioning about the recent threats of The Resistance Front (TRF) a terror outfit to the Kashmiri Pandit employees, who are presently working in Kashmir under some rehabilitation schemes. Kashmir Fight blog, the mouthpiece of The Resistance Front (TRF), Pakistan’s new terror outfit , established in Kashmir and an offshoot of the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) group, has issued threats and released a ‘hit list’ with the names of 57 Kashmiri Pandits, who are working as government employees, under the Prime Minister’s Rehabilitation Package in the Kashmir Valley to leave the valley or face the consequences . Consequences are apparent. The terror group further stated that Delhi is imposing a ‘fascist’ Hindutva ideology on Kashmir and Kashmiri’s, which they will not tolerate. TRF also vowed to continue attacking Hindus who are “maligning the atmosphere of the valley.” “We once again want to warn such elements not to become pawns of Delhi Regime and don’t become the carriers of their filthy and fascist agenda,” reads the threat letter. A similar situation is being created which has almost full synonimity with the terrorist’s acts against the Kashmiri Pandits in the year 1989-1990, when Kashmiri Pandits became the soft targets for the immoral guns of the Islamic terrorists and were massacred and driven out of their homes and hearths under the fear and threat of the gun. It is a ploy to again ensure that KP’s should not come back to the Kashmir valley when there are often some plans coming in various news corridors from the government in this regard. The employment package programs, being issued by the government for the appointment of Kashmiri Pandits on various government jobs in Kashmir to pave a way for the honorable return of the Kashmiri Pandits en mass to valley is presently the big eye sore with these terror out fits, to ensure that no such employment program for Kashmiri Pandits or any proposal of the speculated return of the displaced Kashmiri Pandist back to valley gets executed.
It has been seen in the immediate recent past that so many Kashmiri Pandit employees, working in the valley were killed in cold blood. Instances are there when some Kashmiri Pandits other than government employees working in valley, who had migrated back to the original places of their hearths and homes in Kashmir, too were killed brutally in broad day lights. Is the governance in forgetful mood to revisit their memory about the brutal killing of a young non-Muslim teacher Rajni Bala, 36, who belonged to Samba district and was posted at a government school in Gopalpora, was shot dead by terrorists earlier in the day. Kashmiri Pandit Rahul Bhat, working in the office of Tehsildar Chadroo, in the district Badgam of Kashmir. He was shot dead inside the main office premises of the Tehsil Office at Chaddora, district Budgam, Kashmir on 13th May-2022, in broad day light, under the very nose of others working in that office, of course being mostly the Muslim employees. The lured terrorists barged into the Tehsil office Chadoora and shot from a close-range Rahul Bhat, working under Prime Minister’s Rehabilitation Package (PMRP), as a clerk. What a pathos. Another brutal killing of such a nature was of a Kashmiri Pandit Sh. Rakesh Pandita, the President of Municipal Committee Tral, which was done by Jehadis at Tral Kashmir, on 2nd June-2021, after another gruesome killing of Ajay Pandita a Kashmiri Pandit and a sarpanch at Larkipora, Anantnag, who was shot dead by unidentified terrorists at Lokbawan in Anantnag on 8th June-2020. Yet another Kashmiri Pandit, Pooran Bhat was shot dead by militants in Choudry Gund area of Shopian district on 15th October-2022. A police spokes man said that he was fired upon by militants when he was in the lawn of his residential house. Nine Kashmiri Pandits have been killed by terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir since 2020, Rajya Sabha was informed recently.
Is it a handy work of the terrorist’s organizations across the border alone? No? The terrorist organizations operating in Kashmir are now the established flock of local young people too, helped and abetted by the local population and the local politicians for their vote bank politics. While as Islamization and the fanning of crude Islamic fundamentalism has been the core operational intent of the terrorism in Kashmir, there are other vital factors also which are weighing prominently with the local Muslim population in this regard. The bullets of the terrorists who are being used as tools by the over ground forces, which include most of the civilian population for their personal and individual interests. Some amongst them do not want KP employees back, so that their booty in the administration is not shared by anyone else other than these silent abettors to such acts of terror and murders. It is the case with the other sections of such people, who have grabbed KP’s lands and properties at tiny and shoddy prices and are under a dormant fear that they shall have to return these properties along with penalties, if KP’s return to Kashmir.
Does it mean that the Prime Minister’s Rehabilitation Package (PMRP) for the KP’s should become a death trap for KP employees working in Kashmir under this rehabilitation scheme of the Prime Minister of India for such employees. Is a better worded homage and an ex gratia payment after the death of such Kashmiri Pandits employee to their defendants a comfortable answer for the administration to compromise with it. Equally is it that for the affected Kashmiri Pandit families to forget such deaths of their dear one’s as big failures on the part of the local governance of this union territory in particular and the central government of BJP at the centre in general, as the only option for it. Probably the local administration should stop their cry from tree tops that the atmosphere in Kashmir is improving and thus to give a wrong scenario of law and situation to the outside world in general and the government of India in particular. Where is the civil society of Kashmir? Are they all supporters of such gruesome killings?
With the new threat warnings to Kashmiri Pandits serving in Kashmir by the “The Resistance Front (TRF)”, when so many KP employees working in Kashmir, were killed in cold blood, how can the KP employees working in Kashmir, take a chance to get killed against the remunerations they get for such jobs. Is the massacre of KP’s in 1989-90 forgotten by the administration of the state or central, about the gruesome killings of Kashmiri Pandits numbering more than 2500, due to the terrorists guns.
Having the highest regard for the authority of the Lt. Governor and the present Lt. Governor in particular, probably the present government which is a bureaucratic one without any public representation in it, is not able to comprehend the real woes of the KP employees involved. The authorities running this government are not probably fully aware of the devastation and destruction of this miniscule KP community due to the militancy in Jammu and Kashmir. Had it been so, such an order making it known that the salary of all such employees will not be paid who are absenting from their duties in Kashmir and simultaneously asking all such employees who are resistant to go back to Kashmir, to return back immediately and attend to their duties, would not have been issued. Probably such deterrent orders are drafted by the bureaucratic machinery from their cozy offices, without knowing the ground situations. After passing a protracted turmoil of almost more than three decades, the displaced Kashmiri Pandits are presently facing a piquant situation like ” death traps” for them, for their existence after about 33 years of their forced displacement from Kashmir, under the wield of the guns of the Islamic fundamentals working as terror outfits in Kashmir. Where should such employees go under the circumstances? Does the governance of the day mean that all such employees will be removed from their jobs in Kashmir if they do not report back to their duties. Is the security apparatus so fool proof, which can provide twenty-four hours security to all such employees, as it takes terrorists just a few seconds when he kills a person who is innocent and unarmed? Should classic obituaries fill in the gap after such brutal killings? Right to live and right to earn is the fundamental right of every citizen. It cannot be denied through the speck of an administrative order. The government of the day in Kashmir has to provide both security and the salary to such employees, with cent percent responsibility. Since the providing of the fool proof security to these employees is not possible under the present circumstances of their service conditions, all such agitating KP employees agitating at Jammu clamoring for their safety and salary to feed themselves and their dependants, it is probably necessary to transfer them to Jammu region and adjust them on suitable posts without disturbing the present administrative set up of Jammu. Probably it should not be a big task, unless the government does not make it an issue of ego. If such an adjustment is not possible for one or the other reason for the government of the day, these KP employees may be transferred to Jammu temporarily along with their posts and made to work from some centralized office in Jammu, for other referential administrative matters linked to Kashmir, till the security scenario for their return and for the return of the KP’s back to Kashmir is ensured fully. BJP has to ensure that the KP employees serving in Kashmir and the Kashmiri Pandits as a whole, are not treated as second class citizens and deprived of their right to live with safety and dignity. Lip sympathies by the BJP ministers or leaders will not work. Action is needed on ground. Heavens will not fall if these KP employees are transferred to Jammu to save them from death. Where is the slogan of BJP for the displaced Kashmiri Pandits, which is ” Sab-Ka-Sath, Sab-Ka-Vikas, Sab-Ka, Vishwas, Sab-Ka-Priyas”. Kashmiri Pandits were refused relief by the judiciary for some technical reasons. The government of the day has not done anything tangible to restore the confidence of security in this miniscule community, which is now shrinking in numbers to its extinction. Without prejudice to the law of the land, does it mean that KP’s should forget to call themselves as Indians and seek asylum in some other western countries. The BJP government in centre which is there now for the last more than 7 years have done nothing for this displaced community so far. KP’s are caught between the devil and the deep sea as they are not able to raise their voice against the BJP, as no other political option in the state or centre is there to protect them, or come to their rescue. Probably BJP has shown its worst apathy towards the KP’s problem and given only false hopes to them. The KP’s should not be lured by the statements of other political parties like the Congress Party , the National Conference and PDP in this behalf showing sympathies to KP’s on this issue by shedding crocodile tears for the KP’s, when they are actually responsible for all the miseries of the KP’s which they are facing now. KP’s know them and will continue to know them. It is the wearer who knows, where the shoe is pinching. Once bitten twice shy. They have bitten KP’s from time to time badly. They need to be kept at bay.
(The author is a retired chartered civil engineer as also a displaced KP, who loves his motherland the union territory of J&K, [email protected]).
