Kashmiri Pandits: Are they not made in India?

By J.N. Raina

It is prime time for India to abrogate Article 370 of the Constitution, to stop mass extermination of the Hindu minority community in Kashmir and restore the Valley’s demographic character to its original form, that existed at the time of partition, or even prior to that period.

Brave nations do not seek permission from other countries, however powerful, to enact laws, which are in the best interests of its people. It is the Union Government’s bounden duty under the Constitution to provide security to its citizens, irrespective of caste, creed and religion.

Enough of precious blood has been shed, that has flowed down the holy Vitasta river, meandering through the Valley, whose nomenclature, without any government effort, has changed to “Hell upon this earth” from what famous Persian poet Firdous had described as “Heaven upon this earth”.

The carnage of 25 Kashmiri Hindu Pandits in village Nadimarg in Pulwama district, should not be treated as an isolated event. It is not an ordinary murder. It is a coward act of ethnic cleansing, committed by foreign mercenaries at the instance of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence ISI0 agency, against the will of the Muslim majority community.

The minority Hindu community is on the verge of extinction in their original abode. Exiled Pandits living as refugees in their own country, have been bereft of their cultural moorings. When Islamic militants and Muslim fundamentalists, led by Jamaite-Islami, resorted to "jihad" in 1988-89, to establish what they had said "Nizam-e-Mustafa" (Islamic way of life) in Jammu and Kashmir, an estimated 3,50,000 Hindus were forced to leave at gun point. They migrated only after a few hundred people of the community were mercilessly killed, when women were raped and murdered, when their dwellings were looted and set afire. But despite all this, some 10,000 to 15,000 Hindus had opted to stay back.

However, over 200 Hindus were butchered since 1996 in 28 gruesome incidents of ethnic cleansing. Will there be an end to Islamic barbarity? The victims had been living shoulder-to-shoulder with their Muslim brethren.

Secularism, the hallmark of the Indian Constitution (Jammu and Kashmir has a separate Constitution under Article 370, guaranteeing a special status to the state), has been rendered irrelevant for the hapless minority community. The Pandits have been forcibly exiled. This is the worst kind of human rights violation.

Following are some of the recorded incidents of ethnic cleansing:

On January 25, 1997, twenty five Kashmiri Hindu Pandits were killed at Wandhama-Ganderbal. On March 20, the same year, seven Pandits were killed at Sangrampora. On April 18, 1998, twenty seven Hindus were killed at Prankote in Udhampur district. On January 19, same year, 25 Hindus were killed at Chapnari in Doda district. On July 28, sixteen Hindus were killed in two villages of Doda. On March 20, 2000, thirty five Sikhs were killed at Chatisinghpora in Anantnag district. On August 1, that year, 31 people, including many Amarnath pilgrims were killed at Pahalgam.

Should India wait for the Islamic terrorists to snatch catastrophic weapons of mass destruction from rogue countries like Pakistan and North Korea to create hell in India? How long should India wait and watch the recrudescence of terrorist violence? Sometimes in a fit of rage, we talk of "aar par ki ladai". Should we seek permission from the US to make suitable laws aimed at providing secure life to its people? Should we continue to allow militants to create mayhem in Jammu and Kashmir? Rather, India should copy the US model in dealing with its enemy.

An impression is gaining ground around the globe that India is a weak country. The United States has unilaterally abrogated the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty with Russia, pressed ahead with the development of the national missile defence system and ignored the wide international consensus on the monitoring of the 1972 Biological weapons conventions. The US has also refused to accept the jurisdiction of the international criminal court and rejected the international protocol on climate change (Kyoto Agreement). The Americans did all this in the best interests of the nation. What is is doing in Iraq today, it considers, it is doing so in national interest. And who has raised a finger?

The US is dictating India not to take pre-emptive action against Pakistan because of our neighbour's "export of terrorism" and its threat to use weapons of mass destruction. Washington has restrained India from punishing Pakistan for engineering cross-border terrorism. Is the Bush administration justified in launching full-scale war on Iraq on the mere pretext that it possesses weapons of mass destruction?

Why should India feel shy of enacting laws, which can empower the government to devise ways and means, so that all communities can live in perfect harmony? Article 370 has brought ruin to the people of Jammu and Kashmir. What is the point in retaining a temporary article? Circumstances have drastically changed over the years. What has autonomy given to the Kashmiris, who do not bother about it now. They laugh at it.

Late Kashmir leader Sheikh Abdullah had once likened the Valley to a garden, in which flowers of all hue could bloom. Even Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayed has remarked recently that a garden, in which flowers to only one colour bloom, does not look beautiful.

Without touching upon Article 370, there can be a law, which can enable people of different ethnic groups to settle in the Valley, provided all political parties are above board and help in framing such a law. Besides Muslims and Hindus, other communities like the Buddhists, Christians, Sikhs, Jains and Parsis should be allowed to settle there, which can definitely lead to a congenial atmosphere. If demographic character is maintained properly, not only in the Valley but also elsewhere in the country, I am sanguine, there can hardly be any communal trouble.

Sheikh Abdullah had dreamed of making the Kashmir valley a model state and a real paradise, but his dream remained unfulfilled.

The same formula can be applied in the country’s communally sensitive areas. If the people of different ethnicity are ‘forced’ to live together, communal peace can be surely maintained.

Army and paramilitary forces personnel should be settled near the borders when they retire, to ensure security in the area and check infiltration. In fact, it is for the Valley’s Muslims to realize the past  mistakes and seek abrogation of Article 370. They should themselves take the lead. If fifteen crore of Muslims can live in India peacefully, what is the problem with just fifty lakh Muslims residing in the Valley? Pakistan wants to marginalize those Kashmiri Muslims who want peace with India.

It is time for Indian leadership to shun away its idiotic policy of depending on foreign support on Kashmir. Why should we ask the US to declare Pakistan a terrorist country when India has granted our petulant neighbour the most-favoured nation status? Why should the US do it for India?

India should repudiate the Sindh Water treaty with Pakistan, if it does not honour the Shimla agreement. India is a formidable power and should not get scared of Pakistan. Militants recently chopped off noses of six persons, including that of a woman in Rajouri district. When Ravana's sister Shrupnakha was dishonoured similarly, the demon king Ravana did not tolerate it and kidnapped Sita, leading to war and consequent destruction of Lanka.

If the Centre continues to act in a lackadaisical manner, it might give rise to a revolution and anarchy. Had not Jayaprakash Narayan (JP) during emergency, told army jawans to look into their conscience first before firing a shot? That was the outcome of wrong policies.