UL 52 EdM-KS-01061995

Editor's Mail Koshur Samachar

No Need to Pity Pandits!

By M.L. Kaul

Dear Sir,

Shri Saif-ud-Din Soz ('Hindustan Times', April 27, 1995) has come to cognise, though belatedly, the melange of forces that cumulatively pressured the micro-community of Kashmiri Pandits to flee their native land. With a track record of disseminating a farrago of canards and lies about the Kashmiri Pandits, he is deliberately elusive about the tidal wave of armed Muslim bigotry as the prime factor impelling them to abandon their homes and hearths for uncharted destinations. He has smoke-screened the role of the Muslim majority that failed to maintain a rational or reasonable temper on that cursed night of 19th January, 1990, when as per premeditated machinations, 'Azaadi' was manipulated to dawn with mosques as focal centres, thus generating an unprecedented hurricane of Muslim frenzy with its pointed thrust against the Kashmiri Pandits, who had been dubbed as 'fifth-column' by no less a person than the tall Sheikh.

Ignoring the brutal manifestations of militarised Islam, Soz as a matter of expedience or guided by his inner motivations as a Muslim, has absolved the Muslim neighbourhoods of an active and frenetic collaboration with the forces motivated by the fanatic zeal of extirpating infidelity, Kufur from the soil of Kashmir. The terrorist blitzkrieg surging deep into the homes of Kashmiri Pandits, stunning and shocking them and butchering them was the handiwork of Muslim bigots operating in their respective localities not as intruders, but as mujahids with known credentials. The self-serving and deracinated ruling aided and abetted the brutal processes designed to transform Kashmir into an Islamic ghetto.

Soz and men of his ilk have been blaming the then brilliant governor for the exodus of Kashmiri Pandits. The fact remains that he earned their wrath when he gutfully met the terrorist challenge by frustrating all moves culminating in Kashmir's annexation to Pakistan under the dubious cover of Azaadi.

That 20,000 Kashmiri Pandits have stayed back in Kashmir is a myth fabricated by Rahul Singh and avidly lapped by Saif-ud-Din Soz. Be it said that the myth of Muslim rationality punctured the day three lakh Kashmiri Pandits were forced out of their homeland, adding a new chapter to their history of exodus since the advent of Islam in Kashmir. Yours,

New Delhi

M.L. Kaul

"Opportunity Lost"

By S.N. Tiku

Dear Sir,

Mr. A.N. Dar in his main article 'Kashmir-a lost opportunity (H.T. March:3) has raised a praiseworthy point of national value, that the Indian Muslims and their leaders have lost an opportunity of a significant nature in demonstrating their support for Kashmiri Muslims by not openly advising them not to fall a prey to the secessionist movement led by the terrorists sponsored and abetted by Pakistan. The Kashmiri Muslims should have been told by their Muslim counterparts of India that they were safe in India and should have played a major role to counter the vicious religious and communal propaganda of Pakistan which could result, most probably, in a happier situation in Kashmir. The writer has rightly pointed out that official counter-propaganda would not have been more effective as the part played by the Indian Muslims would have gone to the hearts of the Kashmiri Muslims. Apart from this, the Indian Muslim movement in this behalf would have beaten back the Hindu communalism in India. This would have also helped the Muslim cause in India and consequently dissuading Kashmiri Muslims from being led astray by terrorists and the Pakistan propaganda, and most probably would have checked the exodus of Pandits from the Valley.

In this behalf, it is a sad commentary to relate the role played by S. Shahabuddin, the most vocal Muslim M.P., in raising an alarm and advising the Govt. to forget the prospects of Kashmiri Pandits' return to the Valley and fill up Govt. posts vacated by them (which had already been done by the end of 1991) in the Indian Parliament when budget estimates of the J&K. States were voted upon in the Lok Sabha on 27th March, 1992. Reacting to the M.P's statement, letters of protest were sent by the undersigned and others and published in the Hindustan Times dated 6-4-1992 reminding Shri Shahabuddin that he had no locus-standi vis-a-vis Kashmir and that his statements had contributed to the demand of Pandits for a separate home-land in the Valley.

New Delhi

S.N. Tiku

(This letter was ignored by 'Hindustan Times')

Mishandling of Jammu

By T.N. Kaul

Dear Sir,

The article captioned 'Mishandling of Jammu by Shri Amrik Singh ('Hindustan Times: March 17, 1995) ignores the involvement of almost all channels of civil administration in the current insurgency, which stands well-established, as also confirmed by the bomb-blast at the Republic Day Parade on January 26 this year. People who know the situation in Kashmir are aware that this insurgency started making inroads into the administration in 1988. That was the time when buses started ferrying people to the POK border, from the main bus-stands in every district of the Valley, for getting arms-training and bringing them back along with arms and ammunition. Even government vehicles, deployed for taking essential commodities to border areas, were used for the purpose. The pro-Indian population, which was forced to flee later, could not get even an inkling of what was happening and the Central Government was not perhaps prepared even to listen to its own intelligence agencies.

It is also clear now that funds being pumped into Kashmir by the Central Government for development purposes do not feed the projects. A predetermined percentage thereof goes to the militants with the active help and connivance of civil administration in the Valley.

As for insurgency in Jammu, Shri Amrik Singh would do well to scan some areas around Residency Road to find out the truth. In any case, it is no use to hide facts as in that case we will be doing a great disservice to the nation. Yours,

Delhi

T.N. Kaul

(This letter also was ignored by the 'Hindustan Times')

New Resonance Indeed!

By S.K. Kaul

Dear Sir,

A report in India Today' failed to bring to surface basic facts. What logic do the Kashmiri Muslims have in promoting secession from India. Plebiscite factor got washed off with the Simla Agreement. The Agreement is now a part of history. Coming to the 'secular' course charted by Shabir Shah, it has no sense when our country has been professing and practising secularism since independence. Moreover, the identity of Kashmiri Muslims has never been endangered in India. Special status conferred on this state and excessive

stress on ethnic identity, the 'Kashmiriyat, has only proved counterproductive. Does 'Kashmiriyat' mean Muslim dominance, precedence and political culture to these separatist spokesmen. Why are they inimical to the strong, stable institutional structures of democracy, secularism and socialism in India? If the 'secular' outlook is the only solution to the crisis in Kashmir then what exactly is their problem. The very undertones and overtones of utterances by these leaders suggest that the argument for delinking Kashmir from India is based on designs of communal majoritarianism, and gun-culture is a and forceful method to promote their philosophy.

Well! Pandits of Kashmir do not subscribe to the independence of the state nor have they any desire to embrace these separatist leaders whatever their garb. Kashmiri Pandits have been subjected to discrimination in the state. They are being conveniently traded as sacrificial pawns by the Indian polity as well as the separatists. Despite their suffering and humiliation, they stand dedicated to nationalistic goals and aspirations of free India. Understandably! Pandits have nothing in common with Shabir Shah in the secular garb of his kind. Embracing Shah by Pandits is an atrocious distortion of facts Presenting any tilt of Kashmiri Pandits towards the forces having direct bearing on our present plight is a deliberate distortion of truth Solutions suggested by way of perverted philosophy of "secular azadi" has no takers amongst Kashmiri Pandits. Yours,

Jammu

S.K. Kaul

(This letter was not published by 'India Today')

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Courtesy:  June 1995 Kosher Samachar