R K Mattoo  

Perhaps it is for the first time that the Kashmiri Pandit community has felt the need for its very own political party. A seed was sown in Kolkata during the AIKS convention in the last week of December when the delegates and invitees to the conclave deliber­ated on the issue till mid-night and finally the AIKS pres­ident M K Kaw gave his ascent to adopt a resolution to this effect.

The very same resolution has now been brought to the streets by its convener with the help of like minded peo­ple to give it a shape and turn it into a reality.

In the last week of March, corner meetings were held in the National Capital Region of New Delhi where there is a concentration of KPs to elicit their views and opin­ions on the launching of the party. What compelled the convener to hold such meetings is the overwhelming response from the members all over the country through e-mails and phones received by the convener and his team.

Unlike in the past where community members used to dismiss such thoughts by simply saying that "Kashmiri Pandits never formed vote banks of any political party and therefore we should not even think about politics leave alone launching a party of our own".

May be this was relevant back in the valley where we lived as a miniscule minority at the mercy of a politician from the majority community. May be we never wanted to displease them for fear of being targeted. So this thought never got any attention.

But the things have changed since. Today we are living in clusters in many parts of the country where our votes count. For example in Jammu, we have nearly 45,000 families concentrated in areas where our collective vote is decisive. In the present days of coalition era both at Centre and State, even a single man party if elected will have a say and can decide the fate of the government.

In changed electoral scenario, if Raman Mattoo can be elected from Habba Kadal constituency, our candidates can even win from some of the constituencies in Anantnag and Jammu districts. Collectively we can become a force to reckon with and slowly we can emerge a force in the electoral battles, even for upset­ting the chances of winning candidates. This will draw the attention of other national political parties towards the community. They may even offer alliances and spare some seats to our political party for contesting. Once our own representatives get elected, we can take up issues and fight our battle in the most democratic way, instead of being at the mercy of other political parties.

There are nearly 600 KP families living in Shalimar Gardens in Gaziabad and today these families have become important as they have formed a single resident welfare association. I was told that the sitting MLAs of various parties have already met the representatives of this resident welfare association seeking their votes in the ensuing elections.

If we do not activate ourselves politically now, we will once again miss the bus for ever.

This is not the time to ponder and fight on 'Homeland or No Homeland', 'Forceble Return or Honourable Return', 'Settlement in Kashmir or Outside Kashmir'. This is the time to come together under one umbrella of a political party to get a space in the political set up of our state and the country. There are number of issues to be fought as we have been neglected over the last 17 years.

Once the idea of a political party gains momentum, the core committee will draft the constitution, register the party, evolve a symbol and a flag and then hold elec­tions as per the constitution of the party. The work of the come committee will end here and the elected body which will emerge will take the party forward and decide on political issues of the community which will be a binding on the members.

This democratic process will eliminate shortcomings and become a binding on individual members like any other political party. Hitherto, we have been having organizations with political thoughts and no attempt has been made to form a political party. Any one with politi­cal thinking and zeal can serve the new KP party.

 

DISCLAIMER:

The views expressed in the Article above are Author’s personal views and kashmiribhatta.in is not responsible for the opinions expressed in the above article.

Courtesy: Aalav- The Voice of Kashmir: April 2007