FROM THE PRESIDENT S DESK

Dear Biradari Member, Namaskar,

The package, announced by the Prime Minister for return to the Valley of the Kashmiri Pandits, is unhelpful for our community and an impractical one too. It lacks clarity. Rupees 1.600 crores have been allocated to it but it does not say as to how much, out of that, is to be spent on the K P project. It is silent about the K. P properties, in the Valley, that have been usurped. It makes no mention about those K.Ps as have been living in rural areas, far away from the cities. Who is going to provide protection to them? That is the reason why K. Ps. of different hues, and belonging to different organisations, are critical of this announcement, K. Ps. are of the view that the package does not serve the desired purpose.

The Executive Committee of the Kashmir Samiti Delhi had a detailed discussion on the subject. Among the participants were the elected representatives of all the areas of the Capital The meeting came to a unanimous conclusion that the package, in its present form, cannot be acceptable to the community The issue of the return of the Kashmiri Pandits to the Valley is of a critical nature What the community desires is that its members should return to the valley when they have there security of life and of honour. They, also, seek economic rehabilitation and employment avenues By offering Rs. 7.5 lakhs to aK. P. family for the purpose of returning indicates that the Government, merely, wants to complete a formality and, simultaneously, create an impression that normalcy has returned to the Valley which is not a fact. An impression has got created that since elections to the J & K Assembly are to be held by the end of this year, the Government wants to take back K. Ps. to attain some electoral mileage. K. Ps. do not want to-and should not - take the risk of going back unless the situation, there, is conducive for the purpose. 

Migration made us lose our homes and hearths. After a great struggle a majority of our biradari members managed to secure some sort of a foothold of a shelter in different areas of the country. In many cases this happened after selling of the K. P. properties in Kashmir at throw-away prices. In most cases these houses are gone forever from the hands of the K. P. biradari. When even the normal residential houses are not available, would it be in the fitness of things to coerce an educated, and thinking-type community to go back.

We have got engulfed in such a whirlpool that we cannot afford to face another migration at this stage. We love the Valley Sentimentally, we are attached to it. We are determined to go back. The Kashmir Samiti Delhi has made it clear umpteen times that K. Ps. should return when the Kashmir issue is settled finally and permanently. Such a settlement has to be to the satisfaction of all the concerned groups. We have, also, said that Kashmiri Pandits should not be ignored and their representatives should be included while negotiating a future package. We are the original inhabitants of Kashmir. It is our birthright to live there. Therefore, the return process has to be a product of serious thinking and pragmatic

planning We had to leave the Valley against our wish. We have remained cut off from that area for 18 years now. As things stand today, it is not possible, in the present circumstances, to have an environment in the Valley like the one it was when we migrated. It is, therefore, that the K.S.D. has been pressing for a separate homeland for the K.Ps. That appears to be the only solution of the problem.

The issue of return to the Valley is a continuing worry for the KS.D. A committee has been set up for the purpose. It is to consider the return process and the latest-offered package. The committee has, on it, also, representatives of various organisations. It will meet regularly and interact with the community's well-wishers in Jammu and other places. The aim is to prepare a unanimous action plan which we will present to the Government.

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Courtesy:-  Koshur Samachar 2008,May