Critical Times Need Correct Responses

By O.N. Trisal

For last two years I have felt an earnest desire to speak to my community on certain developments within my community. The desire has perhaps been driven by the realisation that we are placed at a time in history when momentous and critical events are happening around us which have crucial bearing on our future. Having seen the partition days as a prominent contributor to the freedom struggle in Kashmir, I feel the present times are perhaps more important in the sense that whatever is happening around will decide the fate of Indian civilisation and also my own community. 1947 era was time which determined whether India will emerge as a modern nation state and at what price. We know it very well the price we paid for freedom.

I have felt it intensely during last couple of years that the contradictions on which Indian Nation State was built are taking its toll in such brazeness and speed that unless they are addressed the entire edifice of nation will collapse. It is a depressing conclusion. However, as I see this grim reality staring at me I also see hope. This is because the experimentations of perverted secularism in India are meeting their end one after the other and the space for effecting fundamental correctives is enlarging.

I am feeling proud that during the years of exile since 1989 my community has played a role which is revolutionary. It has  voiced the elemental contradictions facing our nation fearlessly and coherently. It has refused to legitimise communalism and subversive processes in the name of national interest. Perhaps for these very reasons I drew closer to Panun Kashmir ideology. I see it very clearly that Panun Kashmir politics is subtly pushing the national discourse towards revolutionary changes. It is also evolving a survival vision for Kashmiri Pandits which has been almost absent for a long long time.

For all these reasons I think these are critical times for us. We have to guard against internal saboteurs, renegades and lumpuns. To render such enemies within us ineffective we have to understand the processes through which they operate.

Take for example the very present times. Sh. N.N. Vohra was in Jammu as an interlocutor of Govt. of India to talk to various shades of opinion. A series of Kashmiri Pandit deputations met him. And most of them supported the ‘homeland demand’. Not only that a striking unanimity was evident once they expressed their views be it the genesis of Kashmir problem or the day to day problems. Very few discordant voices raised by Pandits need to be understood in boarder perspective. All State Kashmiri Pandit Conference was one such voice.

A few days before Mr Vohra arrived this organisation assertively came up with the demand of ‘Kashyap State’. To some it appeared that the organisation perhaps has realised the dangers and futility of cliches like ‘return with dignity and honour’ and was moving gradually towards taking a concrete political line. However, if we look at the proposition of ‘Kashyap State’ closely it will glaringly become evident that it is aimed at sabotaging the political thrust created by ‘homeland demand’. The proposition argues that it aims at more share than the homeland demand envisages without giving any basis for the same.  In fact the leaders of the organisation have comical understanding of the demography of the state which they put forward as a basis of their political demand. I do not believe that these leaders are innocent, foolish or ignorant. The demand of ‘Kashyap State’ aims to give an impression that Kashmiri Pandits have a farcical politics. It subtly aims to create an external projection that Pandits  have no solutions to offer and as such create dismissiveness in the organs of Indian state and political establishment about Pandits. The organisation has persistently gone against the consensus of the community be it elections, dealing with Muslim ruling class or the mainstream political parties.

The example is quoted here only to explain the subtility of the process which sabotages main political thrust. ‘Kashyap State’ gives an impression that it is a new political demand when there is nothing new in it. By advocating a line on ridiculous premises it tries to creates an  indirect suggestion that the ‘Panun Kashmir’ concept also lacks substance.

Behaviour of the community responses in Jammu in the aftermath of Nadimarg massacre reveal more about the nature of the processes aimed at stifling community struggle and politics. In the morning of 23rd March when the sad news broke in Jammu, spontaneous demonstrations erupted. Panun Kashmir immediately responded to channelise the uproar into a proper and effective movement. 24th March was declared by them as a day of mourning and people were asked to gather at Rajinder Park to condole the deaths. Some important RSS activists prevailed upon Panun Kashmiri leaders to attend  all party meet at Shardha Sanjivini Kendra to finalise the programme for the next day.

When I reached the Shardha Sanjivini Kendra in the evening I was surprised to find such persons invited to the meeting who in the past had been desperately trying to find favour with Muslim establishment in the state and had no perceptible line on Kashmir. All of them tried to coerce the decision of the meeting in a way which would suite the Mufti Government.  There should be no vocal protest, no demonstration and Pandit leadership should seek audience with Mufti to discuss the issue. Fortunately the coercion did not work and despite physical intimidation in meeting the decision of Panun Kashmir for the next day protests could not be changed. Next day during the public rally at Rajinder Park the same elements tried to create a pandemonium. When leaders of various shades were offering their condolences these elements tried to disrupt the proceedings by asking the people to leave out in the form of a protest demonstration. And when the community leaders actually decided to come-out in the form of a rally the same people chose to stay back.

All these mischievous maneuvres failed. The community protested most stridently and the impact was global. Everybody from Secretary General of United Nations Organisations, President of USA, Prime Minister of UK, as well the entire leadership of country condemned the gruesome tragedy at Nadimarg. Never before has Pandit issue received such a widespread attention.

But the question is why should some RSS activists encourage lumpun brigade run by a ruling minister. The same activists were responsible for honouring Balraj Puri through the aegis of Prem Nath Bhat Memorial Trust. RSS activists, honouring of Balraj Puri is an the intriguing association. The same Trust has worked over last many years to bail out the communal leadership of NC, provided them platform as well as public honour to comment and deliberate upon displacement.

I have always considered renegades as more dangerous than the open adversaries. A leading community physician who claims to be the originator of ‘Homeland demand’ recently advocated ‘Homeland’ or ‘Kashyap State’ as solution to Kashmiri Pandit problem. Why should he equate as diverse and contradictory propositions as these and project as if they are the shades or variants of the same solution process. Another colleague of his had shaken hands with Pervez Musharraf hoping that the plight of Kashmiri Pandits would be mitigated by the act. Such gestures only mean that commitment to the political ideal in them  has long died. And what are propagated as tactical processes to further ‘homeland goal’ are basically deft manoeuvres to surrender the ideal.

I see a definite socialisation of community taking place which is transforming it into a political entity. This transformation is the biggest achievement in the history of ruthless persecution of our community. The transformation will not only redeem the community but the nation as well. Only beware of saboteurs, renegades and lumpuns.

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