Author: V Sundaram
Publication: News Today
Date: May 6, 2006
URL: http://www.newstodaynet.com/2006sud/06may/1805ss1.htm
During the last 15 years, as indeed not very
different from our tragic national history ever since the Arab conquest of
Sind in the 8th century, innocent and unarmed Hindus are being mercilessly
murdered by the Mujahedins of compassionate Islam in Jammu and Kashmir. The
eminent journalist K. Easwaran Nambudiri has rightly observed: 'Desecrated
temples, decapitated idols, obscene graffiti on temple walls; bulldozed houses
and destroyed locality of minority Hindus; burnt pages from sacred Vedic texts;
couples being dragged to death after being tied to a jeep and appeals by 'non-communal'
Muslims to surgically remove the 'cancer' called Hindus'.
I am not quoting from a work of fiction written
by Easwaran Nambudiri. He has written these words about an exhibition titled
'SAKSHATKAR: An encounter with truth', the photo exhibition organised by Panun
Kashmir at the Open Palm Court Gallery at the India Habitat Centre in New
Delhi which graphically depicted the various facets of religious cleansing
of Kashmiri Hindus in the Kashmir Valley. The exhibits clearly brought out
the grim but real pictures from Kashmir. The treacherous and calamitous events
that led to the exodus of Kashmiri Pandits from Jammu & Kashmir, their
struggle to survive in make-shift refugee camps and recreate a dignified life
for themselves in exile were laid bare in the exhibition.
On display at the exhibition were the painful
and heart-rendering photographs of a Hindu couple from Herman in Pulwama who
were tied behind a jeep and dragged till death with perhaps pseudo-secular
concern and compassion from the mighty Government of India.
What was their only crime against the unstated
unspecified and unwritten provisions of the pseudo-secular Indian Penal Code?
Their only avoidable unfortunate crime was: They were Hindus. I am using the
adjective 'avoidable' deliberately in this context because if only they had
resorted to the pseudo-secular expedient of converting themselves to compassionate
Islam, they would have been congratulated by the Union Minister for Home Affairs.
The Union Minister for Minorities A R Antulay would have gone by a special
Air Force Plane to Jammu & Kashmir and presided over the conversion function
with these magical inaugural words: 'I am very grateful to Allah, the Magnificent
and the Ever-compassionate, for giving this unique opportunity of presiding
over a function where ignorant infidels kafirs have voluntarily come forward
to embrace the tenets of Islam. Do you know that by one simple act of spontaneously
embracing Islam,, you have become automatically eligible to live in Jammu
& Kashmir? Is this not a glorious moment in the long and chequered history
of India and indeed mankind?'
At the exhibition on atrocities against the
Hindus and all things Hindu in Jammu & Kashmir, there were also photographs
of the Shivalingam of the destroyed Basantbagh temple in Srinagar, the decapitated
idol of Adi Shankara at Khojbagh in Baramulla, the desecrated Shiva idol outside
the Raghunath temple at Fatehkadal in Srinagar, the desecrated and destroyed
idols of Shiva temple at Hoonpura in Srinagar, the bulldozed three-storey
magnificent Guptganga temple in Baramulla and a leaf from the sacred text
in the burnt library of Tarbuni temple in Navakadal.
Many of my friends who are good historians
told me that all the photographs in the Exhibition were reminiscent of the
brutalities of Aurangzeb, Nadir Shah and Taimur. All the credit for organising
this Photo Exhibition in New Delhi should go to Dr Ajay Chrungoo, Chairman
of the Panun Kashmir in all the six districts of the Valley. He and his men
have presented this exhibition after conducting a detailed field survey in
order to bring out the brutal facts relating to calculated Islamic terrorism
in Jammu & Kashmir.
What is amazing is the fact that all these
photographs were not taken by professionals but by the victims themselves
who could barely manage to get hold of a rudimentary camera to document their
tragedy to the outside world, and posterity.
And for those psedudo-secularists in the mafia
of mass media in India and more particularly the English Press, who wax eloquently
about the peace-loving and fraternal feelings of the ordinary Kashmiri Muslims
towards their Kashmir Pandit brethren, there was a letter from one Mir Niaz
Ahmed of Zaina Kadal, Srinagar which appeared in the local Daily Alsafa. 'I
claim to be a rational and non-communal Muslim but at the same time, I sincerely
feel that we Kashmiri Muslims should try our best to thwart any attempt by
Pandits to return to the Valley. Pandits have been a cancer and once this
cancer is removed, it should not be allowed to re-appear', he says.
After the recent inhuman killings of 34 unarmed
innocent Hindus in Doda district in Jammu, our National Security Adviser M.K.
Narayanan declared with solemn and sanctimonious bumptiousness: 'Despite these
killings, the peace process with the Mujahedins of Pakistan would continue'.
Against this background, we can never be in doubt about the mindset that guides
the separatist movement in Jammu & Kashmir. The objective behind the expulsion
of the Hindus from Kashmir is to create a religious monolith at a place which
has nurtured and nourished pluralism and co-existence through the Ages.
At the venue of the SAKSHATKAR exhibition,
a brochure was distributed. The following words from that brochure clinch
the issue for all mankind: 'Terrorism breeds a culture of intolerance. It
is never revolutionary in content. It is anti-freedom and a crime against
humanity. It can't be legitimised under any pretext. Genocide is its ultimate
expression. Peace in Kashmir will remain elusive if the peace initiatives
don't incorporate a comprehensive and permanent reversal of the genocide of
Kashmiri Hindus, as its cardinal principle'.
FACT, the Foundation Against Continuing Terrorism,
thanks to the efforts of Sunil Bakshi, Director of the Indo-European Kashmir
Forum organised an exhibition and screened a film on the plight of Kashmiri
Hindus called 'Terrorism Unleashed' at one of the most prestigious venues
in London, the Commonwealth Club, Northumberland Avenue, just off Trafalgar
Square in June 2004. Pyara S Khabra, a British MP, inaugurated the exhibition.
He highlighted the forced exile of Kashmiri Hindus from their homeland due
to the continued threat of terrorism and said the Indian government must create
a safe haven in Kashmir for the return of Kashmiri Hindus.
Pledging his support to Kashmiri Hindus, he
assured all present that he would highlight the plight of Kashmiri Hindus
in the House of Commons, the British parliament. What Francois Gautier has
noted about the attitude of Amnesty International in London in this context
should be a matter of shock and concern for all of us. He has said: 'We also
witnessed first hand the basic hostility of Amnesty International to the plight
of Kashmiri Pandits. Sunil Bakshi had repeatedly sent invitations to them
three weeks before the exhibition. I personally called the head of Kashmir
at Amnesty International several times as well as Ingrid Massage, the director,
Asia & Pacific Program of Amnesty. First she told us they only reported
on first hand facts. I replied these were photographs and statistics which
nobody could dispute. Finally, after ten phone calls, she said she had too
many files on her desk and that she had no time to come, although the exhibition
was a few blocks from her office. So much for Amnesty's sense of justice'.
Two months after the London Exhibition, the
same exhibition under the caption 'Exhibition on Kashmir Killings' was conducted
in Houston, USA in August, 2004. Heart-rending pictures depicting the tragic
plight of Kashmiri Pandits, their selective killings, mass cremations, exodus
and refugee life since 1990 due to terrorism in Kashmir drew thousands of
people at this exhibition. London is still steeped in pre-colonial barbarism
and colonialism. America, despite Bush's fundamentalism, is a land of democracy
and humanism.
We should not view this exhibition not only
as a depiction of the forced exodus of Kashmiri Pandits but also as a depiction
of the destruction of a civilisation and culture. It is indeed an assault
on Hindu civilization and 'Sanathana Dharma'.
To conclude in the beautiful and most inspiring
words of non-communal(!) and non-saffron(!!) Francois Gautier: 'Poor India!
Nobody will ever understand the harm that has been done to thy social, religious
and cultural fabric by merely ten centuries of bloody Muslim invasions. Muslim
invaders looted thy country; they killed thy men, raped thy women, razed thy
temples, broke thy statues and enslaved thy children. This onslaught was so
intense, so bloody, so terrifying remember Hindu Kush India that it has left
a permanent scar on thy psyche: Thy sons and daughters have become as Mahatma
Gandhi saidcowards; they shy away from confrontation, panic easily, stay indoors
at the least sign of trouble, lack total civic sense and let independent India's
New Barbarians still defy and defile thee!'
The irony is that those the UPA Government
in New Delhi dressed with brief authority are in a state of coma voluntary
death watching the macabre killings of Hindus in Jammu and Kashmir and the
rest of India with a detached pseudo-secular poise and calm, if not glee!!
(The writer is a retired IAS officer)
e-mail the writer at vsundaram@newstodaynet.com
