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.
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