Author: Lalit Koul
Publication: Rediff on Net
Date: December 17, 2003
URL: http://www.rediff.com/news/2003/dec/17guest.htm
In recent weeks, we have once again
seen some chattering by local Jammu & Kashmir politicians, national
politicians and Islamic terrorists about the return of Kashmiri Hindus
to the Kashmir valley. Various forums, commissions, me-too-NGOs have propped
up to talk about how Kashmiri Hindus can be resettled back in the valley.
One such front is a four-member
Committee of National Minority Commission on rehabilitation of Kashmiri
Hindus. Former Jammu and Kashmir chief secretary Musa Raza is leading the
team. Other members of the delegation include Maulana Shafi Moonis, vice-president
Jamaat-I-Islami Hind, Dr Qasim Rasool Isyas, All India Muslim Personal
Law Board and Dr Navad Hamid, Movement for Empowerment of Muslim Indians.
The modus operandi of this front is to visit Kashmir to create an 'atmosphere'
in which Kashmiri Hindus can return to the valley with honor and dignity.
There is another facade (they call
it a NGO) 'Maytri' floated by Taj Mohi-u-Din, a minister in Mufti Mohammed
Sayeed's J&K government. The objective of this front too is to help
Kashmiri Hindus return to Kashmir.
Taj Mohi-u-Din is apparently joined
by 24 Kashmiri intellectuals -- retired judges, academicians, lawyers,
writers and some journalists. Due to security concerns, he is not yet identifying
these 24 intellectuals. His proposed plan is a cruel joke. This minister,
who had the audacity to say that only 100 odd Kashmiri Hindus were killed
during this latest ethnic cleansing of Kashmiri Hindus, needs to study
history and then remember it. As per his proposed plan, his first step
is to approach
the imams of the villages and other
Muslim leaders in the valley. This is what he has proposed:
''Once they (imams) are motivated,
they can convince the villagers through Friday congregations. The youth,
if motivated and mobilised, will go out of the way to make arrangements
for the safe return of Kashmiri Pandits.'
'Kashmiri Muslims never wanted the
Pandits out, it was just the fear psychosis.'
Has Taj Mohi-u-Din heard the venomous
threats that were blasted through mosques' loudspeakers during late 1989
and early 1990? Has he seen the advertisements published in Kashmiri newspapers
during the late 1980s and early 1990s? Does he know that those advertisements
demanded Kashmiri Hindus to leave Kashmir within 24 hours or be killed?
Does he remember the slogans in which Islamic terrorists demanded that
they want Kashmir without Kashmiri Hindu males but with Kashmiri Hindu
females? Does he remember all that? And he has the gall to say that Kashmiri
Muslims never wanted the Pandits out? And where were those Kashmiri Muslims
when their Kashmiri Hindu neighbors were getting raped and killed and dead
bodies were being thrown in the middle of the road? Where were they? Acting
like moot spectators makes them equally responsible.
It is one of the greatest tragedies
in free democratic India when it is projected that Kashmiri Hindus' return
to their own homes and hearth is dependent upon an imam in a Kashmir village.
What can be worse than that? Are we saying it has come to such a pass that
we are leaving everything to an imam? Taj Mohi-u-Din and all of us need
to look back into history and see who was responsible for the ethnic cleansing
of Kashmiri Hindus. Those people who are ignorant and need more information,
need to at least read the following books:
Under the Shadow of Militancy --
The Diary of an unknown Kashmiri by Tej N Dhar
Lost Rebellion by Manoj Joshi (at
least Pages 61 to 70)
Here is an excerpt from Manoj Joshi's
book:
'G K Muju was a lecturer at the
Medical College in Srinagar and a working committee member of the Kashmiri
Pandit Conference. In February 1990, Muju was told that his name had been
seen in hit lists passed by the militants in some mosques in the city.
The following month, his family went through a number of harrowing incidents:
people throwing stones at his house, mysterious phone calls, and so on.
On 6 March, Muju, his wife and children left. However his eighty-year old
father, a retired teacher, and his seventy-five-year old mother stayed
behind. On 6 July, some intruders entered the house and brutally knifed
the old couple to death. Nothing was taken away from their house.'
Did you notice the mention of mosques
in this piece of factual information? And who runs these mosques? Yes,
you guessed it right. 'Imam' is the right answer.
The above mentioned two books will
remind ignorant people and those who have their heads buried in sand, how
Kashmiri Hindus were mercilessly killed by Islamic zealots. And who promoted
and harbored those Islamic zealots? Some of the imams Taj Mohi-u-Din wants
to approach. Have we already forgotten the threats we heard coming out
of mosques during the night of January 19, 1990?
Some of the imams were inside those
mosques allowing all that to happen and possibly even participating in
those
threats. And we are now going to
talk to these imams to motivate them to take Kashmiri Hindus back? Is that
what we have to do?
A few days back, Hurriyat/JKLF leader
and terrorist Yasin Malik said the Pandits should keep themselves out of
the political process. He said: 'They should remain neutral in the ongoing
struggle, and lead a normal, peaceful life, without involving themselves.'
What exactly is Yasin Malik proposing?
Is he saying that he has a fundamental right of self- determination and
Kashmiri Hindus don't have a right to exercise their fundamental right
of political voice? A terrorist can have a political voice and a peace-loving
patriot cannot. What kind of standard is that?
Yasin Malik seems to be delusional.
Let us remind him that Kashmiri Hindus are the only original inhabitants
of the Kashmir valley and nobody on the face of this earth can deny them
the right to their homeland. Kashmir belongs to Kashmiri Hindus. It has
belonged to them since its inception and will continue to belong to them.
Yasin Malik and his cronies cannot take away Kashmiri Hindus' fundamental
right to live in their own homeland with full dignity, honor, security
and rights.
In my honest opinion, it has been
a grave mistake on the part of Kashmiri Hindus that they have never been
seriously politically active in the state of Jammu & Kashmir. And it
has proven to be a big disadvantage. It is about time that Kashmiri Hindus
float a serious political party and actively engage in the politics of
Jammu & Kashmir.
Kashmiri Hindus need to create their
own political clout by creating their own vote bank. The vote bank they
would create will help them in getting a seat at the negotiation table.
For all those self-styled peace-missionaries,
for any reconciliation the first pre-requisite is to bring out the truth.
In any such 'Truth and Reconciliation' commissions, you will first see
the Truth and then the Reconciliation. And the first truth that has to
be brought out is the truth about the people who are responsible for this
worst ethnic cleansing that happened in Kashmir.
The first step in any approach has
to be to convict the people who have been responsible for this ethnic cleansing.
They cannot and should not go scot-free. Anybody who forgets that and allows
it to happen will be held equally responsible for the worst ethnic cleansing
of a particular community in the recent history of India.
Decent people should not forget
that there are children in the Kashmiri Hindu community who don't have
fathers because some Islamic terrorist killed their fathers. There are
girls in this community who don't have brothers because an Islamic terrorist
killed their brothers and then hid behind an imam in a mosque. And they
were killed only because they were Kashmiri Hindus and believed in the
Indian tri-color. If somebody is giving you some other reason and you are
buying that, I would like to talk to you.
Let it be known to one and all that
Kashmiri Hindus will surely return to their sacred homeland and will return
on their own terms. Neither Mufti Sayeed nor Yasin Malik will dictate when
and how Kashmiri Hindus can return to their cherished homes and hearth.
Lastly, a little advice to Taj Mohi-u-Din,
Musa Raza, Yasin Malik et al: If there is anybody who will decide the time
and manner in which Kashmiri Hindus will return to the abode of Kashyapa,
it will be Kashmiri Hindus.
