14 years of Exile

Nation must care for Kashmiri Pandits

By Dr. Shakti Bhan Khanna

Kashmiri Hindus have become the frontline victims of the proxy war being waged by Pakistan and other Islamist outfits. Their ethnic-cleansing would not have happened had Kashmiri Muslim society not succumbed to communal and fundamentalist propaganda of separatists. Total collapse of the law and order apparatus and abdication of their role by Valley-based political parties too contributed to the process. If sometimes the vested interests point accusing fingers at the former governor, the implication is only to hide these failures.

The Indian state, its political leadership and the civil society all underplayed this ethnic-cleansing, a unique phenomenon in the post-independent India. There was a reason. It was argued, it will delicate the precarious communal balance in the country. Many politicians and academics overshot it by describing the exodus as a contrived affair. They even went to praise rabidly fundamentalist groups and accused Pandits’ of grabbing all jobs. This propaganda had a two-fold purpose. One, to project the fundamentalist fascist uprising in Kashmir as a ‘national-liberation’ movement. Secondly, to dilute the national sympathy for the victims of ethnic-cleansing. Now, when solutions are being advocated, a different type of slander campaign is on, to bypass pandits in any future dispensation.

Fourteen years of Exile :

Fourteen years of turmoil have taken heavy toll of the community. Nearly 1200 people were killed by the terrorists and scores maimed. Hard life in exile amidst financial and social insecurity has made disease rampant amongst refugees. Every month, on an average seventy people die. Diabetes, Heart disease, respiratory problems due to unhealthy, cramped accommodation impose an addition burden on paltry relief. Suicides, deaths in road traffic accidents and snake-bites, increasing incidence of psychiatric illness, are the new things that Kashmiri Pandits are experiencing. There are not even twenty new births in the community per month. The reasons being late marriages, lack of privacy, financial insecurity, bleak failure, divorces etc. The community is being slowly pushed to a state of negative growth.

Nearly 27,000 houses have been looted, nine thousand burnt, and eight thousand damaged. A thousand houses are either fraudulently or forcibly occupied. Orchards have been destroyed, shops grabbed. The last act has been to create a situation in which an exiled Pandit has no option but to dispose of his property in distress. For the last fourteen years Pandits have been facing genocide due to apathetic attitude of the state administration. The massive litigation imposed on the displaced community would shame any civilised society. From ex-gratia relief to granting of house-rent, in every case the community is forced to resort to litigation. Nothing happens in routine.

The nation is silently watching the ongoing genocide of displaced Pandits. It does not augur well for Indian unity. There have been exceptions. Pandits shall never forget the contribution of Messers Bala Saheb Thackeray, Madan Lal Khurana or Murli Manohar Joshi in lessening the rigors of genocide. They stand apart from others. Even this modest help has not been liked by the communal elements in Valley.

Nation’s responsibility:

Kashmiri Pandits are tired of the proforma statements dished out by politicians of different hue from time to time. Pandits do not need sympathy. They want action on the ground. Late Rajesh Pilot once talked of creating a ‘Ministry of Rehabilitation’ for displaced people from Kashmir in the Central government. The proposal died with his death.

The Centre is playing games with Pandits. Mr IK Gujral once said in Nagrota camp, “If India’s all the coffers go empty in helping Pandits to return to their homeland, we will not mind”. What did he do to follow this up? If the nation fails to restore the entire Pandit community to their homeland, its implications are obvious. There will be no secularism in the country. Similarly if Kashmiris fail to restore religious pluralism, on what moral grands can they demand nation’s sympathy. Return of ‘Kashmiri Pandits, by creating stakes for them, has to be an integral part of any national reconstruction in Kashmir. It has to be a two-way affair.

It is the duty of the nation to find out who is pushing this patriotic community towards genocide and then decide solutions. Responsibility needs to be fixed. Nation’s silence will not do. Recently, the Pandit Teachers in State government, higher-up in the seniority list, were bypassed for promotions. When the victims protested, the state government, to cover this up, asked Pandits whether they were prepared to serve in Valley. Why was this question put only to Pandits and not others? If for reasons of security, Pandits are not able to go, who was responsible? Pandits do not need healing touch, they need impartial and not sectarian  governance.

Deprivations:

Displaced Pandits have three sets of problems- consequences of uprootment in Valley, difficulties in exile and the issue of return. Problems of social cohesion and identity are its internal problems and the community is seized of it.

Consequences of uprootment in Valley:

1) Restoration of properties: Pandit properties still existing in Valley have been in many cases forcibly occupied by the locals. In many cases, fraudulent documents have been forged to make the cases sub-judice. This is time-consuming and renders government paralysed for any quick action. Police and illegal occupants in some cases have entered into a nexus making eviction evasive.

Solution:

A special tribunal should be reconstituted for quick disposal of sub-judice cases and heavy penalty shouled be imposed on those who have fraudulently occupied Pandit houses. This will act as a deterrent. Forcible occupation of Pandit property or any damage to it should be made a penal offence. There is also large-scale encroachment of arable lands, orchards, business concerns etc. A special revenue officer should be appointed to look into encroachment or tempering of revenue records. All distress sales should be stopped and previous sales nullified.

ii) Damaged houses and other property should be fully compensated. An agency to make estimates should also include Pandit representatives. Owing to communal bias, damage to Pandit property is generally undervalued. Balance of ex-gratia relief  should be immediately released. There should be total transparency in the process.

iii) Agriculture Sector: Compensation against the loss of orchard and agriculture income be paid. What Pandits are receiving by way of relief is pittance, compared to the regular income from orchards, agriculture or forestry. Damages to orchards like felling of trees, dismantling of hutments and other developmental structures be paid.

iv) Traders and industrialists: Shops particularly those at prime locations have been grabbed. These should be restored. There should be reasonable compensation for the loss of business and loans without interest should be granted for re-starting business. Rehabilitation of Pandit business community would need special care, meaning giving them facilities to obtain contractor cards, transport cards and the rest.

vi) Shrines and Religious places: Shrines belonging to Pandits in different villages and towns have suffered due to neglect, damage, encroachment etc. The State administration should come out with full details as well as the present state of these shrines. It must allow Pandit delegations to visit Valley and assess for themselves the damage. The state administration must create fund for the repair of all these shrines and get encroachments vacated. Sham boards created by the previous government should be dissolved. Pandit community will itself take care of its shrines.

Genocide in Exile

(i) Services: Routine service benefits, as given to other employees of state should be restored. Promotions denied to Pandit employees should be restored with effect from due date. All supersessions should be annulled. Punishment postings should be cancelled forthwith. In service professional trainings should be restored for Pandit employees. Services of displaced employees should be utilised properly by shifting their posts from valley till normalcy is restored. All new appointments be done against posts fallen vacant due to retirement of Pandit employees. Extraordinary situations demand extraordinary solutions. Special recruitment drives not only in Police but in other departments also should be launched. Farooq Abdullah govt recruited 1.50 lakh employees. What was Pandits’ share in this? Today out of 4 lakh state govt employees there are just six thousand Pandits. With orchards and other businesses gone, for What Pandits are to stay in state or return to Kashmir? Any talk of return needs to address this issue first. Employees retiring from service have to struggle to finalise pension cases and recovering GPF and other dues. Special mechanism needs to be devised for speedy disposal of these and other family pension cases.

(ii) Educational Institutions: There should be no hurdles for running of Pandit community’s educational institutions. All discrimination should be ended forth with.

(iii) Living conditions in the camps need to be improved and adequate medical cover should be provided. There is a need to involve social workers and others to help the refugees combat stress and look after the neglected. There is also need for streamlining the registration procedure.

Pandits deprivations in exile have compounded  because of central govt’s hesitancy in declaring them as refugees. So it is moral dudy of govt to see that their problems are immediately and adequately attended.

Issue of return

The issue of return requires national consensus and national will. Token return of a hundred or two hundred families will only convince that Indian govt has no political will to restore Pandits to their homeland, and it cannot tackle bigger issues. This will undermine its prestige at international level.

The return is also linked with political mobilisation on this issue in valley and strong action against vested interest in valley creating hurdles. There is also need to create a law and order apparatus on which the returness can have faith and resetling Pandits in a manner that will help them to perpetuate for all times to come. With all the means of livelihood snatched, talk of return without rebuilding economic life is sheer hypocrisy. There is a need for creating national fund for this.

At the deterrent level, there is a need to appoint a commission of inquiry into all aspects of exodus, including failure of law and order and fixing of responsibility. All the terrorists involved in killing of Pandits and other innocent Kashmiris need to be tried in specially designated courts. There is also need to take action against those who try to incite communal hatred or undermine religious and ethnic pluralism. An internally tranquil Kashmiri society will be better equipped to deal with threats that undermine democracy, pluralism, law and order and toleration. It will create conditions for emergence of a much desirable healthy civil society.