25 Years of Exile, 25 Years of Denial

Yesterday (3^rd May’2015), displaced Kashmiri Pandits  staged a protest at Jantar Mantar demanding immediate steps for their rehabilitation and return to their homeland and prosecution of all those involved in the killing of Kashmiri Pandits in the 1990s by reopening the cases. They have been forced to stage the protest after Hurriyat Conference and the political parties in Kashmir are opposing a township planned by the Modi led Central Govt in Kashmir valley for resettlement of the Pandits.

25 years ago in January 1990, death was what a whole community of about 500,000 Hindu Pandit population faced and hundreds  of them  were killed, hounded and eventually the whole community was thrown out of their homes of thousands of years.  This genocide and ethnic cleaning of the Kashmiri Pandits in the Kashmir valley, was perpetrated by Islamic terrorists backed by Pakistan and widely supported by the local Muslim majority population.  But even after 25 years of this tragedy, neither Rahul Gandhi  nor Arvind Kejriwal nor Mulayam Singh Yadav nor Mayabati nor Nitish Kumar nor Lalu Yadav nor Sarad Pawar nor Karunanidhi nor any of the communist leaders or their political parties could find time to remember this humongous tragedy and show solidarity with the Kashmiri Pandits & meet them to share their grief.  But these politicians conveniently find time to stage protest in Jantar Mantar  with the muslim groups in solidarity against Gaza conflict, with which we Indians have no connection. Neither the main stream secular media showed this protest in their prime time nor had any debate on this tragedy.  Not surprising, as this population of Kashmiri Pandits don’t determine winners or losers in any election and also are not backed by Fatwa following, fundamentalist, jihadi  religious zealots. Therefore, these  so called secular politicians and their parties, who were competing with each other for appeasing the Muslim community when 4000 people were displaced during Muzaffarnagar riot can conveniently afford to forget some 500,000 of their country men,  who are living as refugees for last 25 years in their own country of origin. An entire population have been uprooted from the land of their ancestors and left to fend for themselves as a weak-kneed Indian state shamelessly pandered to Islamic terrorists and separatists who claim they are the final arbiters of Jammu & Kashmir's destiny. A part of India's cultural heritage has been destroyed, a chapter of India's civilisation history has been erased. Had this tragedy occurred elsewhere in Hindu majority India and had the victims been Muslims, the same vote hungry political parties backed by pseudo secular  historians, intellectuals and media would have described it as 'ethnic cleansing' and 'genocide.'  They would have made films with horror-inducing titles and  filed cases after cases in the Supreme Court of India.  Govts. run by them also would have constituted judicial commissions after commissions and SITs.  The “secular media” would have demonstrated remarkable rage in reporting the smallest detail. But, this tragedy has occurred in Muslim majority Kashmir valley  and the victims are all Hindus, that too Pandits. What has been lost and erased is part of India's Hindu culture and civilisation. Therefore, these “secular politicians” can afford to make  bold, blatantly false statements that the Kashmiri Pandits had "migrated on their own" and their 'displacement is self-imposed' orchestrated by the then Governor Jagmohan.  The National Human Rights Commission, after a sham of an inquiry, refuses to concede that what had happened is 'genocide' or 'ethnic cleansing,' though facts add up to no less than that, never mind that 500,000 lives have been destroyed. And that there is no room for plural society in highly Islamised Kashmir valley. And, our  jhola-wallah brigade of secular activists rudely turn up their noses to the plight of Kashmiri Pandits- Hindu sorrow inflicted by Islamic terror, stinks.

Did any Muslim Group ever condemned the mass genocide of Kashmiri Pandits? Which incident took place first-  Babri Masjid, Godhra or Kashmiri Pandit’s  genocide? Why Hindus can’t retaliate for any incident  & why Muslims create so much of fuss even if one Muslim is killed, that too even if he were a proven terrorist? On every 6^th  December- media, pseudo secular intellectuals and political parties celebrate black day but even after 25 years why does no secular political leader has the guts to accept  what actually  happened with Kashmiri Pandits? What is even more unfortunate is the fact that a man-made calamity of such a huge scale has not been given the same media coverage and not aroused the same public sentiment as the Babri Masjid demolition, Godhra riot (though they conveniently forget the train burning which killed dozens of Kar Sevaks which triggered the riot) or the Muzaffarnagar riots have.  It is ironic that not a single judicial enquiry commission has ever been set up to investigate the exodus and killings of Kashmiri Pandits. The killers have not been punished and rather they are roaming freely in Kashmir and have many supporters in the valley. The root cause of all problem of India today is these so called pseudo-secular intellectuals, historians, politicians and the highly biased media. Do we have the heart and mind to look back at India's wretched history of secular politics and consider the terrible price the nation has paid at the altar of appeasement?