JAMMU, Dec 28: It was a solemn occasion. Despite bitter cold, nearly a thousand delegates heard speaker after speaker in Abhinav Theatre today with rapt attention. Panun Kashmir, the frontline organisation spearheading the demand for separate homeland for displaced Hindus in Kashmir valley, was observing the tenth anniversary of Margdarshan Resolution as Re-Affirmation Day. The star speaker were Dr M.K. Teng, former Head of the Political Science Department University of Kashmir, Dr. Ajay Chrangoo, Chairman Panun Kashmir, Mr O.N. Trissal, a veteran freedom fighter, Mr Sunil Hali, a leading advocate and Mr. Shailendra Aima, a founder member of Panun Kashmir and Editor, Kashmir Sentinel, Jammu. Dr Shashi Shekher Toshkhani, a leading linguist, poet and author came all the way from Delhi to attend the function. Mr Sunil Shakhdar, President Kashmiri Samiti, Delhi delivered the presidential address. Mr Kuldeep Raina, General Secretary, Panun Kashmir read his report deliberating on Panun Kashmir’s role since its inception. Mr Bihari Lal Koul and Sh. Pran Raina compared the proceedings. A variety cultural show, in which students of Abhay High School, Alaxender Memorial High School and leading artists of the community took part, was also organised. Students of Abhay School performed the famous Kashmiri play “Akanandun’, under the direction of veteran playwright and director, Sh. Moti Lal Kemmu.

These speakers had also defended the Margdarshan Resolution in 1991. Prof M.K. Teng gave a brief background of the events leading to the formulation of Margdarshan Resolution. He criticized Govt. of India for speaking bundles of lies on the ethnic-cleansing of Kashmiri Hindus. Dr Teng added that not only at national fora but also internationally GoI was saying exodus of Pandits was incidental to terrorism in Kashmir. He said forced expulsion of Pandits was a well-planned conspiracy of converting J&K State or at least the part of J&K on the right of Chenab into a purely Muslim State. Dr Teng explained that when people everywhere were exercising right to self-determination, at least the Pandits should have the right to determination of their self. And this was the basis of Margdarshan Resolution.

He declared that Pandits, after the experience of ethnic-cleansing will not return to Muslim state. He said GoI had created a Muslim state on the territory of India through the instrumentality of Article 370. Pandits lived for four decades in subservience and slavery of Muslim state, he added. Dr Teng said in 1990 Pandits were told that even that was not enough. “If we desired to give there, we should do that as the citizens of Pakistan. When we said no, the first bullets of Muslim Jehad were received by us,” Dr Teng told the audience. He argued Pandits chose to leave because they could not have lived in Pakistan. The fate of non-Muslim minorities in Pakistan started them in their face. Dr Teng told the gathering that GoI was pursuing perverse secularism creating a Muslim state on the territory of India and special rights for minorities were part of this perverse secularism. Dr Teng described the ongoing conflict as the war of civilisations.

Mr Sunil Hali made a resolute defence of the demand for homeland. He said the demand was born out of rejection of co-existence by Kashmiri Muslims. He argued, “the demand of homeland is recognition of our rights. We are seeking our place in our country, in our own state. When this demand was made, there was an element of surprise, disbelief and cynicism, because our community was not prepared to accept this fact. Can we ask for a separate homeland, they asked. We can’t blame our community members because during the past six centuries our political rights had been strangulated. And the only rights we were aware was the right of survival. Homeland was too big a demand for the community”.

Mr Hali came down heavily on the ruling National Conference for spreading canards and practising politics of discrimination against a community in throes of genocide. He said ruling party members were telling GoI that Panun Kashmir was a hollow demand and Pandits were raising this demand as they are not interested in going back. Mr Hali referred to the drama the ruling party played over the issue of job recruitment with Kashmiri Hindus. He praised the community members for calling the bluff of Chief Minister. Expressing concern, he said even those 200 to 300 people who were recruited--their appointments have only been paper appointments. Mr Hali said the mindset of the Indian leadership and media only addresses the so-called alienation of Kashmiris. He wondered whether Autonomy was a moderate option and asked, “How are we to be accommodated in the third option”. He explained that by linking autonomy to accession, NC was putting premium on patriotism.

Mr Hali said that some Indian leaders had been trying to underplay the Islamist threat to the country. No less than the present defence minister had been going around and telling people that cause of unrest in Kashmir was due to the usurpation of all jobs and other avenues by Kashmiri Pandits. Mr Hali praised the vision of Panun Kashmir, in forewarning the people of Mumbai about the impending threats.

Mr Shailendra Aima, the Editor, Kashmir Sentinel said homeland resolution, “created a tremendous hope and provided a vision of survival”. “For the first time in the history of more than six centuries Kashmiri Pandits developed a doctrine of survival of their own”, he added. Mr Aima observed that there was a sinister conspiracy at work to undermine India’s unity. He said Indian civilisation was not conglomerate of different refugee groups i.e. “Kaafle Baste Gaye Hindustan Basta Gaya”. He dilated upon the dichotomy between Hindu civilisation and Semitic Arab concepts.

Mr O.N. Trissal, a renowned freedom fighter who spearheads AIKPSC praised Panun Kashmir leaders for countering disinformation on Pandits’ genocide and giving political content to the struggle waged by nationalistic groups in J&K. He said rejection of co-existence with Kafirs was the very essence of the ideology of Islamic fundamentalism. He declared displaced Pandits can not return to Kashmir under these circumstances. “You can’t go there. The only alternative is a Union Territory for Kashmiri Pandits. To attain that you have to talk to people of India,” he told the gathering. In this context he recalled the prophetic advice given by late Giri Lal Jain, a renowned journalist way back in 1990. Late Jain had asked Pandits to spread throughout India and sensitise the locals there to enormity of their genocide and the dangers India faced. Mr Trisal suggested, “you must spread and give the people there the message that India is in danger at the hands of Pan-Islamists. You have seen the barbarism, as to how the terrorists amputated the limbs, gouged out the eyes of our fellow community members. You are the real mesengers to bring home this to the world community.” He said despite all the hardships and privations, Pandit community never wavered in imparting quality education to their children.

Dr Shashi Shekhar Toshkhani described Margdarshan Resolution of 1991 as a defining moment in Kashmiri Pandits’ history. Pandits positive history begins from that day, he added. Tracing the context of Margdarshan Resolution, he observed that Pandit community stood besieged them and all sorts of disinformation and distortion on community’s genocide were being spread by vested interests. The community was disillusioned and stood directionless. Disoriented intellectuals were repeating cliches of ‘Izzat and Aabru’. Funny formulae were being advocated. Dr Ajay Chrangoo, Dr MK Teng, Mr Shailendra Aima and others at this juncture chalked out a different course for the destiny of Pandit community, Dr Toshkhani added. This leadership put for the first time clear-cut demands, which held the potentiality of reversing the genocide process. Dr Toshkhani described the vision of Panun Kashmir as path-breaking. This vision had spelt out that whatever may be the ultimate solution to Kashmir, Kashmiri Pandits will not go back to that Kashmir which was unsecular and legitimised Muslim precedence. For the first time Panun Kashmir was speaking the truth about trials and tribulations the Pandit community underwent during six centuries, he remarked.

Dr Toshkhani criticised Indian leaders like Jaipal Reddy and VP Singh for trivilising the Pandit genocide. He narrated the poem he had composed that time, criticising their indifference. The poem read:

History has shown that Pandit genocide was not a trivial thing. It goes to the credit of Panun Kashmir which became a pioneer to warn about the clash of civilisations. Pandits’ genocide has to be seen in this light. Dr Toshkhani came down heavily on Indian intellectuals. These intellectuals, he said were building pro militants portraits larger than life and were only talking about the human rights of terrorists.

Dr Toshkhani praised Prof. Teng for changing the fossilised mindset of Kashmir Pandits and referring the contribution of Kashmiri Pandits in Sanskritising the Himalayas. He added the real inheritor of Kashmir’s rich Sanskritic Civilisation was Kashmiri Pandit, and no one else. Referring to the cultural invasion on Sanskrit Himalayas, he said before Ibn Batuta, the historic name of Hindukush was Nishad Parvat. Dr Toshkhani enlightened the audience about close cultural relationship between Kashmir and Afghanistan in ancient times. It was an irony of history that the same Afghan people have become today, the instruments for destroying Kashmir’s rich civilisation.

He observed that despite holocaust Kashmiri Pandits has shown the will to survive. Pandits’ voice has been marginalised because the Indian leaders have turned myopic in the game of power summing up this predicament, Dr Toshkhani said:

Banduk Ki Nok Se Zayada Cub Rahi Hai,

Dr. Ajay Chrangoo, Chairman Panun Kashmir observed that he saw a ray of hope in what the Prime Minister said that “we will fight a lasting battle against terrorism””. He said it was at long last that the Indian state has started defining threshold of tolerance against the proxy-war.

Panun Kashmir chief said all along his organisation has never dithered in criticising the government, when it felt national interests were being undermined. In this context many a times Panun Kashmir has waged a lone battle. He recounted a number of instances in this regard.

He remarked that when a country and the government talk about the limits, they primarily mean the national interest. During the past three decades, no consensus has evolved on what we are defending in Punjab, J&K and northeast. So whenever any crisis emerged, the Central governments reacted without a clear perspective, he opined.

Dr Chrangoo referred to the attempts by a section of intelligentsia to undermine nationalist consolidation. He traced a pattern in the activities of this group. Kargil martyrs’ bodies were sent to their home places, wrapped in national tricolour. These intellectuals indulged in slander, accusing government of indulging in coffin politics. The very same people are involved in so-called Track-II diplomacy, which seeks unilateral surrender of Indian interests to Pakistan. These disoriented people also held a seminar in Jammu University, articulating against the interests of the nation. To bail out terrorists’ of the charge of genocide, these vested interests were disinforming people that Pandits’ exodus was a result of panic reaction.

Panun Kashmir leader said Indian secular paradigm suffered from an inherent fait accompli, and describes Hizb as internal dissidents. Dr Ajay Chrangoo questioned the wisdom of Indian leaders in doing hair-splitting between internal insurgency and sponsored terrorism. The internal insurgency and sponsored terrorism. The internal insurgency seeks same dispensation as sponsored terrorism-a rabid fundamentalist state, outside the sovereignty of India, he explained.

Dr Chrangoo strongly criticised former bureaucrats like Muchkund Dubey and Salman Haider for undermining India’s civilisational links with Kashmir. He said talks of porous borders by some Indian intellectuals smacked of secessionist intentions. He added both the foreign office and the other institutions of state policy were groping in dark about short-term and long-term demands in Kashmir. There was no attempt to tackle the internal dimension of subversion. He wondered how could Army top brass take a position on Kashmir in a recent seminar, which said, “ We have to dilute our position on Kashmir. We cannot look to our constitutional nuances, and integrity of those..Autonomy as advocated by ruling NC is the best solution”.

Dr. Chrangoo said none of the mainstream parties in Kashmir has come out against political culture of Islamic fundamentalism. He also raised doubts about the desirability of going for massive recruitment in State government sector. He also spoke about the incomprehension and defeatist mindset of some Kashmiri Pandit Sabha leaders. These leaders he said, were advocating a policy of total surrender by displaced Pandits to National Conference. There was an attempt to hand over community’s minority institutions.

On self-determination for Kashmiri Muslims, Dr Chrangoo said it was not abiding. Were the Indian people given this right at the time of partition of India, he questioned. So how do Kashmiri Muslims qualify for this right. Dr Chrangoo referred to some intellectuals, who were trying to counter pose Indian identity against Kashmiri identity. He said Kashmiri Hindus always considered Kashmir as an extension of India and never felt any contradiction between the two.

Dr Chrangoo criticised the role of Pandits’ political elite over the years, explaining how it let down the community quite often. He said the strategies of this elite revolved round seeking space within Muslim communalism for survival. This was being justified as pragmatic politics. He declared to a thunderous applause from the audience. “If you call compromise as pragmatism, surrender as pragmatism, then we are not with it. We will in that situation go alone, even if we are reduced to a few people. We will always speak the truth”.

In his eloquent address, Mr Sunil Shakhdar President, Kashmir Samiti recalled Margdarshan 91. He said he was distressed at yesterday’s seminar organised by Prem Nath Bhat Memorial Committee. He said NC workers are not dying for the country, but for the third agenda of autonomy. Mr Shakhdhar said he was not happy at Mr GM Shah’s comments the previous day. Secularism is always safe in India but not in Kashmir, Mr Shakhdhar added. He said the State government had already snatched our right to live but now had also snatched the right to death. In this context he referred to the death of Mr Handoo, killed in bomb blast at State Assembly building. He said State government did not have any courtesy to send his body to his family members in New Delhi. Kashmiri Samiti chief said Kashmiri Samiti, Delhi and Panun Kashmir will work jointly for the cause of community.

Prof ML Koul’s presentation on temples of Kashmir and details about cultural programme will appear in next issue.