On behalf of Kashmiri Pandits |
Shriman ji, Namaskar....!
On the occasion of their new year day, Kashmiri Pandits - the victims of genocide in Kashmir acknowledged the warm ‘Navreh’ greetings from you, MoH Amit Shah and the President of BJP Nitin Nabin. Many other important dignitaries also conveyed their congratulations and greetings on the occasion mostly through the regular media and the social media. It goes to the credit of those who conveyed their greetings and also to the credit of those who acknowledged them with graciousness though undergoing their 37th year of exile.
The Kashmiri Pandits are living as refugees in their own country continuously for 36 years now. About them, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) declared in its decision in June 1999 that “acts akin to genocide were committed against the Kashmiri Pandits......and a genocide type design may exist in the minds and utterances of the militants and terrorists in Kashmir”. The Commission added that “the Kashmiri Pandits have not been given due understanding and relief that they deserved”.
The Delhi High Court in its judgement referred to their displacement as Ethnic Cleansing. The J&K High Court in an important judgement described the displacement of the Kashmiri Pandits from Kashmir due to terrorism as “a migration that can’t be compared with any other migration. It was an unparalleled migration”. The Amnesty International, Global Human Rights Defence and several other human rights bodies expressed their disappointment with their displacement due to religious bias, terrorism and violence aimed at them.
The unfortunate part of the story is that they were neglected by their own governments in the state and also at the centre. Though they received a lot of attention, consequent upon their forced mass exodus, by the organizations like RSS, VHP, BJP and other nationalist organisations, however this attention was limited to humanitarian support and assistance. What was lacking was the support at a political level, media and narrative level and also helping them to get support for their survival issues.
Their human rights issues were consciously and deliberately given a twist by their own governments, political parties, the so-called intellectuals and human rights activists and a wrong & vicious narrative was created and spread about them, their life in the valley of Kashmir and the genocide that they were made victims of by the terrorism in........