Mere Assembly draft is no good!
J&K Assembly seems to have gotten time from its ongoing “escapades” to address what is identified as one of the most talked about subjects across the world. The resolution for return Kashmiri Pandits was finally passed unanimously by Jammu Kashmir Assembly, who left Kashmir 27 years ago in fear of their lives from militancy and increasing radicalization.
These miserable men, women and kids had to leave their homes to remain safe from being butchered and massacred. That majority of them were forced to live in refugee camps is a shame for the state and the country at large.
The scars – mental and emotional that they have borne might in all probability die with them but it would forever be followed on for the generations to come. The fact that nothing material was done towards their protection to ensure safety from the emerging Pakistan Sponsored militancy is in itself ridiculous and unfortunate.
The situation played havoc with the lives of millions who had to brave the terror that dotted the Kashmir valley.
The Hindu minority in Muslim majority Kashmir shrank from an estimated 140,000 in the late 1980s to 19,865 by 1998 as posters appeared overnight in 1990 to leave the State or face death. Today, estimates say there are a mere 3,700 Kashmiri Pandit families in Kashmir. Militancy and terror continue to this day though on a diminished scale and that a mere resolution in a State Assembly would suffice for them to pick up the threads from where they left is wishful thinking.
It is all very well that former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah piloted the resolution for the return of the Pandits and the current Progressive Democratic Front-BJP government supported it but have enough safeguards been built into the system to ensure that their protection is well and truly guaranteed?
As the resolution for the return of migrants was taken up in the Assembly, Parliamentary Affairs Minister and senior PDP leader, Abdul Rehman Veeri, said that the government was supporting the resolution as these migrants “were an inseparable part of Kashmir”. The State Education Minister Naeem Akhtar told reporters that Kashmir was facing an “ethnic imbalance” as only one type of people live there. “Migration was a dreadful event in our history. There is an immediate need for the return of Kashmiri Pandits. Otherwise, this can be an end of a civilisation,” he told reporters. But what is vital is that cutting across party lines, the legislators and the well-entrenched people at large have to support the security agencies to combat terror and defeat it comprehensively if Kashmir is to be restored to the dream status of ‘paradise on earth.' If the Pandits and the Sikhs return to their homeland, it would be the responsibility of Kashmiris to ensure that no stone is left unturned to rehabilitate them and make their emotional assimilation in society a reality.
