Is air pregnant for KPs- Or are better days only in the air?

B L Saraf   

We have to wait till May, 2019, to know the outcome of the 2019 parliamentary elections. Who will rule Delhi for another five years is anybody’s guess? However, for the displaced Pandits, fragrance of the good times, coming their way, is in air. But there are many imponderables.

We have not, still, come out of the pangs of uncertainty and the storm that gathered in 199 has not blown over. The fragrant buds that have sprouted may have to withstand many a rough whether till they bear fruit.

One after another, starting with the Prime Minister announcements are flowing which may gladden hearts of the displaced persons. Prime Minister Narrandra Modi, on his latest visit to J&K, has told the gathering, in Srinagar, that he shares pain of the displaced KPs and has expressed his commitment “to restore rights and justice” to the Pandits. Assuring return and rehabilitation of KPs to the Valley, he said “work on more transit accommodation for them at Vessu and Sheikhpora was on and after construction of 700 flats, the Kashmiri Pandits will get roof to live in the Valley. Kashmiryat demands that those Kashmiri Pandits, who had to flee due to the violence here, leaving behind their homes, land and memories of ancestors, should be settled here with full honour.” Modi said “government was duty bound to provide employment to those who want to return.” That he has confidence that recruitment to 3,000 posts sanctioned by the state government under PMDP, will take place soon.”

Earlier, National Security Council Secretariat (NSCS) issued advisory to the state government to furnish details for “preparing an assessment” on Kashmiri migrants. The top advisory body of GOI sought areawise details of immovable properties of Kashmiri migrants” at present or sold in Kashmir since 1990.” The exercise is reportedly underway to invoke distress sale provisions of the relevant law.

It has been a story of fluctuating hopes for the displaced community - sometimes raised to the sky and the next moment dashed to the ground. Like seasonal cycle following a pattern, the displaced Pandit is caught in an ever revolving political ‘period cycle’ which, for him, is seldom on the rise but often remains low. Relegated to the footnote of times, when political correctness demands Pandit is recalled to the Centre-stage, and then, unceremoniously, relegated back to the place after selective inconvenience begins to show up. So they won’t be disappointed if this time too nothing in real terms materializes for them.

These developments, indeed, constitute “a statement of the intent.” The displaced community has taken them in a right spirit.Nonetheless, the intent must be translated into the tangibles by addressing a few redeemable concerns. Time for the Pandits has travelled much beyond the stage where mere sharing pain won’t heal the scars. A person, who is in an enormous position do things, as indeed PM Modi is, must walk the talk. As a token of good intention, at least he should tell the state government to de notify the lands of the displaced Pandits and return to them which have been taken over on the skewed ‘notion’ of public purpose and held unutilized so far.

Then there is unanimous-long pending-demand of the whole Hindu community of Kashmir for a law to protect, preserve and manage its religious places in the Valley. PM Modi could reinforce confidence in the displaced community if he ensures such an enactment before May, 2019.

Kashmiri Pandits have great faith in PM Narendra Modi. Even though he is at the fag end of the term, they still nurse a hope that he will deliver them from the woods. They feel the PM is conscious of the fact that it was in 2008 that former PM Manmohan Singh announced the PMDP for the return and rehabilitation of the exile. Till date only a part of one component of the package has been implemented. One shudders to think how much more time the remaining part of the Package will take to materialize. Number of times in the past displaced persons were asked to submit inventories of their properties left behind, so that they are preserved. Nobody knows what went with the lists. The displaced will feel hugely let down if PM Modi doesn’t come up to his minimum expectations.

It is not an easy job to sort out the issue of return and a permanent rehabilitation of the exile. Prevalence of a congenial atmosphere is sine quo non for the displaced persons to live physically rooted to their land of ancestors. They can’t bear another forced dislocation. They need not only a roof in Kashmir but also have an entitlement to such guaranteed citizenry rights as are available to the minorities elsewhere in India.

The GOI will have to exercise caution while talking about rehabilitation of the displaced persons. Word and action in this regard must be issue specific and not of an 'all in one’ phenomenon, like clubbing it with cases of other settlements in the Valley. No occasion must be given to incite the resistance. Some in the Valley just need a pretext to rake up the controversy. Earlier it was ‘Mossad of Israel, this time it is ‘distress sale monster,’. NSCS advisory is still unclear, Kashmir Economic Alliance and some persons in Kashmir have raised a cry of conspiracy to disposes “illegally and unethically” people in the Valley. No bona fide purchaser will be ‘harassed’ - only an unscrupulous has to be fearful of “distress sale monster”.

We may recall that he former State Minister of Relief and Rehabilitation informed the Assembly in 2016 that 273 acres of land have been identified by the respective Deputy Commissioners in the Valley for construction of dwelling places for the returning migrants. Then came statement from the Union Home Ministry that no such land has been earmarked for the Pandits. The matter gets complicated when return of the displaced community is clubbed with proposal of a separate Sainik Colony in the Valley. Central and State governments must come on the same page if they are serious to see the honorable rehabilitation of the displaced persons - as visualized by the PM.

Is air pregnant with a better day for the displaced Pandit or, the better day is only in air for him ? That remains to be seen.

(A luminary of the Bar and the Bench, the writer is former Principal District & Sessions Judge)

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Courtesy: B L Saraf and   March 2019, Koshur Samachar