It is duty of every Indian to be a friend of Kashmiri Pandits

03 February, 2013

Kashmiri Pandits are now refugees in their own country. We feel ashamed of our elected representatives and administrators, who failed to address this grave humanitarian problem.

The story of exodus of the Kashmiri Pandits from the Kashmir valley is a tragic story, indeed. Colonel Tej K Tikoo, who wrote a book on this migration, “Kashmir-Its Aborigines and their Exodus”, has mentioned that in its long history, the valley witnessed this seventh exodus of Kashmiri Pandits to the rest of India.

On reading the Colonel's book, I was so saddened that I observed UPVAS, a kind of forced abstinence from food and drinks. This was a way of showing sympathy for fellow Indians who had lived in the most picturesque valley where Kalhan had written Rajtarangini, history of the Kashmiri people and rulers, during the period of the Hindu rule. I had no other way of showing solidarity with an ethnic entity that may be fast disappearing from the Face of earth. The Parsis are another such community, which is losing its existence, but the reasons are different.

Among the worst sinners, who failed in their duty to protect the Kashmiri Pandits, are the political rulers sitting in posh offices in New Delhi. They just abdicated their responsibility to protect the Kashmiri Pandits.

We must hang our heads in shame for masquerading as Avataars of Shikhandi of Mahabharat. We must beg forgiveness of God for playing that kind of double role and failing to protect our hapless brethren and sisters.

The political situation may show an improvement off and on. It will be the duty of every right-thinking Indian citizen to be the friend, philosopher and guide of the migrant Kashmiri Pandits and counsel them to return home.

Simultaneously, the social workers and some government officials must visit the valley in advance, do some spade work by identifying the property that migrants had left behind, have it made liveable at government cost and then escort the migrant families to settle down in the ancestral village or town.

It would be in the fitness of things to watch the progress on ground of such noble projects, make suitable amendments for future and let the Kashmir Valley regain its name of being the heaven on earth.