Tuesday, April 23, 2013

'Refugees in their Own Homeland : The Travails of Kashmiri Pandits'- On 20th April, at Vivekananda International Foundation


The event organized by the ‘Patriots Forum’ on the theme ‘The Travails of Kashmiri Pandits’ at Vivekananda International Foundation on 20th April for the most part tried to externalize the issue of exodus of KP’s and see it not only as a crisis for  a bunch of people but as a serious threat to the sovereignty of the entire nation.

Emphatic speaker Dr. Subramanian Swamy stressed the need for revoking Article 370 in Kashmir and also explained patiently how this can be achieved simply by Government provided there is a political will to do so. After bursting the myth of Article 370 he went on to explain how an entire nation and especially KP”s, the minority community, has been compromised by  decisions taken by leaders like Nehru and likes of him.

Taking over from there Prof. R.K Ohri’s slide presentation titled ‘Kashmir: Nehru’s Self Inflicted wound’ historically contextualized the problem and brought out various incidences of political mischief played to suit vested interests.
The point was stressed by Dr.Ajay Chrungoo who quoted relevant passages from government documents suggesting that right from early days Indian State was well aware of the magnitude and intensity of the problem but decided to look the other way. Moreover serious efforts were being made to deny the reasons that led to the exodus  and the people who were forced to leave their home and hearth were simply termed as ‘Migrants’ , clearly a shrewd misnomer. The denial by none other than the Indian State amounts to betraying of a group of people and Dr.Chrungoo equated such a callous attitude with ‘double killing’,

After the down right denial of what had happened in 1990’s efforts were made by the scholars in the valley to distort history in a hope to wipe out vestiges of hindu past from Kashmir. This was the theme taken by Dr. Shashi Shekhar Toshkhani who talked about ways in which the efforts were being made to deny the civilizational connect Kashmir had with rest of India. He aptly used the term ‘Cultural Genocide’  to explain the situation and he stressed  the need to stop as well as counter this serious misinformation campaign.

The talks were summed up by Mr. K.P.S Gill by suggesting that KP’s should demand a separate Union Territory status in Kashmir. He further stressed that there are so many countries in the world whose population in less than displaced Kashmiris. To achieve such an end he emphasized that KP need to first acquire a serious intellectual space which will ultimately lead to a much desired political one.

Overall it was a thought provoking session with a common thread going through it and for us probably the lesson was to be united and demand unanimously a serious political space if we seriously want to undo the wrong done.