Vibrant KP community will rise

January, 2018, will mark the completion of 28 years of exodus of Kashmiri Pandits (KPs) and a miniscule others from the Kashmir valley in 1990. In other words, 99.9% of the ethnically distinct and aboriginal Kashmiri Pandit community, with a heritage perhaps dating back to the very formation of the first human civilization in Kashmir, would complete its 28 years in exile. The question on everybody's mind is, therefore, will this exile ever end? Or will the community, with a generation lost already, be able to return to its home in the near future?

All these 28 years the same set of questions teased the powers in Delhi and Srinagar with no answers. The government line has been that it is doing or has done its best to mitigate the hardships of the exiled community and since 1990 about Rs 2,000 Cr has been spent on providing succour and other facilities to this mass while at the same time it has denied the community the status of internally- displaced people and a settlement outside the state for obviously either strategic or legal reasons.

There has been a genuine grudge among members of the community about 'no forward' movement on their permanent rehabilitation or resettlement, particularly after the present NDA government had committed itself to this issue when it assumed power after a landslide victory and majority in 2014. The fact is that after 2007-2009, when a sub-committee of Rajya Sabha Parliamentary Standing Committee of the Ministry of Home Affairs recommended a return package for KPS-which is still there-there hasn't been any major push from the government on this front Contrary to this, there has been complete lack of understanding of the problems that these people face in day-to-day life.

At the time of migration, 38,119 families were registered at Jammu, 19,338 in Delhi and 1,985 elsewhere in the country, taking the total of registered families to 59,442. Now this figure is being quoted as 62,000 in official parlance. It is a common fact that a number of families didn't register at that time as some moved to places from where they couldn't complete this formality or, for other reasons, thought it unnecessary at that time. Also, by the logic of common sense, there has been a natural expansion of families due to marriages and child births even after accounting for deaths. While in Jammu, additions or bifurcations were permitted, the same is being denied to more than 20,000 families (going by government statistics) in Delhi and beyond. The relief assistance has been. discontinued in states other than J & K and Delhi. This doesn't end here.

The government agreed to help create 15,000 employment opportunities by providing youth an assistance of Rs 5 lakh to, at least, 9,000 of them besides 6,000 government jobs and this was talked in 2008. Has it moved on these 9,000 things? In the government employed package, there has been some movement and some 1,600 KP youth are employed under it and there is a current notification for filling some more posts. Again, a corpus fund of Rs. 5 crore was agreed upon for medical expenses/emergencies of migrants with the chief secretary of the J&K. And from available information even 10% has not been given till date. In education too, migrants outside the state are being discriminated on the scheme under which J&K students get full hostel and tuition reimbursement.

So, how as a government are you sensitised about this community? On the one hand, you are saying that outside settlement is not envisaged and, on the other you are completely out of sync with the needs and entitlements of this hapless community The community's own efforts to get justice have been shunned by courts because of the government position Why can't you as a sympathetic and caring government extend a cover of preservation and protection to this community through a parliamentary legislation so that wherever the exiled people are living in the country. they get same entitlements and protection, at least, till their return to home? Unless there is legal architecture, the community won't be able to survive to reclaim its rightful stake in the Kashmir valley, which in a way, is in the country's national interest.

The root problem of this perceived apathy by change the community and a satisfied government (as it thinks it is doing its best) is that the issue is not being approached scientifically Time and tide waits for none Both sides are somehow frozen in time and whatever emergency relief policy and administrative mechanism was put in place in the early years of the exodus is being perpetuated without modifications, evaluations and improvements The government, at best, has periodically enhanced the monthly allowance and the community, at best, is ensuring this and other token relief continues But this is not all to this issue which has several dimensions from human rights to stability of the J & K state, secularism as enshrined in the preamble of the Indian Constitution and the sovereignty of the nation itself.

Typically, efforts from both the sides must have been at arriving at a consensus for a second home, or in official jargon, a temporary resentment which must be collective Individual families, which have been mostly resigned to a fate that tells you to fend for yourself, have invested whatever resources, in housing needs. With this thinking, to a large extent, they have also changed their outlook and mindset much the same way as any emigrant does-adapting to the changed environment practically in every sense, including language and culture. And this is likely to provide the fatal blow to any effort at the home-return process. The other side in Kashmir is gleefully aware of this!

KPs are overtly cosmopolitan, not because of this current exile, but historically Even during this long separation from Kashmir, they are very much friends with their childhood friends, colleagues, batch mates and neighbours. There was a proposal in the early interlocutors report (headed by journalist late Dilip Padgoankar in 2012) on a new composite city near Srinagar as a single settlement site for KPs. As far as KPs are concerned and even governments that would have been the idea of change .

While that proposal is still appealing and must be explored, the government and the community must also put energy and thoughts on the concept of a second home. As a country, India has done this kind of experiment at Auroville in Pondicherry. It has created a town to provide a home to people from all over the world. A majority of KPs live in Jammu and a small incident a couple of months back shattered their psychological life. Not again. as there was a hint of another uprooting. So, there is need of creating a separate town whether in Kashmir or outside if the government and the community itself is serious to keep the flock together for a rightful stake of this community in Kashmir valley.

As the exile moves into its 29 year, let's do  everything that we can do to make this emotionally stressful exile a past history with a new beginning , of reversing it. Then, a vibrant, happy community of KPs will rise again.

( The writer is Member, Executive KSD The views expressed are personal)

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Courtesy:- Avtar Nehru and  Koshur Samachar 2018, January