Magh Krushna Trutiya
Pune: Thousand of Kashmiri Hindus are living like refugees in their own country. And ignoring this fact the J&K government is trying to promote tourism in the valley, blames the Kashmiri Pandit Youth Forum an affiliation of Kashmiri Hindu Sabha, Pune. The members of forum submitted statement and demanded to take firm action for the rehabilitation of the displaced Kashmiri pandits during their meeting with Navang Rigzine Zora, the J&K tourism minister who was on Pune tour recently.
How strange a paradox is it that the tourism minister is asking all the population to visit Kashmir in large number and he is conveniently forgetting that half a million Kashmiries? Kashmiri Hindus to be more precise are still living in exile. It has been their 19th year in the exile. Then it is obvious in everyone’s mind that how do Hon. Minister expect people from the rest of Bharat to go to Kashmir where its own people have been driven out from their houses. How can an ordinary Indian feel safe in a place where an aborigine, Kashmiri pandit can not even go to his own home?
Kashmiri Pandits Youth Forum asked the following points in their representation –
- Can the state government claim normalcy in Kashmir when more than seven hundred thousand displaced Kashmiri pandits continue to be refugees in their own country?
- Can government of J&K guarantee the safe return of displaced people to their homes and hearth?
- What is preventing the state government from drawing a comprehensive return and settlement policy for the displaced people?
- What prevented the previous state legislature to pass displaced pandits protection of temples and shrines bill?
- Has the present state government any comprehensive package for the education and employment of the displaced people of the state?
- Is the present government in a position to strictly enforce the Kashmiri pandit distress sale act already passed by the state legislature earlier?
- Can the state government ensure the presence of all missing Kashmiri pandit names in the electoral roles for the next parliamentary elections?
- Can the state government deny the Chief Minister’s recent statement admitting the return of displaced Kashmiri pandits was a difficult preposition as the conditions in the valley were still not conductive for that?
In the view of the above, it is clear that state government has neither the will nor the inclination to address the core issue of Kashmiri pandits’ displacement. It is therefore, right for the Indian public to assume the democratically elected government of J&K is afraid to displease the fundamentalists and separatist forces who compelled the exodus of entire Kashmiri pandit population. The J&K government is playing diabolical game of appeasing the fundamentalist lobby in Kashmir by remaining silent on the plight of displaced people on the one hand and on the other hand misleading the nation about the ground realities there. The forum also requested to return the land and temple demolished in the time period.
Kashmiri pandit youth forum appeals the Indian intelligentsia and the general public not be mislead by the J&K governments false propaganda and seek honest answer from it before forming any opinion.
Source: Dainik Sanatan Prabhat
