Mumbai: “Kashmiri Pandit’s are willing to go back to the Kashmir valley provided the government gives us gated security. Give us safe land where we can resettle. The government needs to put up Industry, give us avenues for employment. Otherwise what will we do once we go back after 30 years? Who does not want to go back to one’s own native place? There has to be some hand-holding from the government, otherwise no one will want to go back just to be uprooted once again”, remarked Shakti Munshi, vice president, Jammu Kashmir Study Center (JKSC).
Speaking to thenews21.com she argued that the aim of the movement is for the rehabilitation of the displaced Kashmiri Pandits. Munshi stated that the government needs to compensate land for land, the land that was confiscated from them by the militants. The government needs to start up Industries, do some hand-holding, otherwise what are the Kashmiri Pandits going to do there after going back?
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When asked to comment upon the argument that former Jammu and Kashmir Governor Jagmohan Malhotra (or simply better known as Jagmohan) was responsible for the exodus of Kashmiri Pandit’s from the valley, Munshi termed the argument as “utter nonsense, rubbish”. She argued that Jagmohan took charge as the Governor on January 19, 1990 and took charge of the administration after then Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah had resigned. “Most of the Kashmiri Pandit’s had left the valley and he came two days later. So where is the question of he asking us Kashmiri Pandit’s to leave the valley”, asked Munshi.
She further argued “the terrorist threats, violence, acts of intimation were ongoing for many years; Jagmohan took charge on January 19, 1990, the very night the great mass exodus took place. It bears recalling that in the 1990s, mobile phones and social media were non-existent, so how did the newly installed Governor contact 4,00,000 to 5,00,000 persons unknown to him and persuade them to leave the valley, and why would they listen to him, a complete stranger? Above all, if the exodus was artificially induced, why did Kashmiri Pandits find it so difficult to return and resume their lives, even with Central Government incentives?”
Munshi rubbishes the talk that it was Jagmohan who had asked the Kashmiri Pandit’s to leave. She further stated “on that ill-fated night of January 18-19 there was a blackout in Srinagar city; electricity was cut off everywhere barring mosques that broadcasted divisive and inflammatory messages asking for a purge of the Pandit community. Those working outside the State could not contact their old parents and other relations in the valley as all telephone lines of Kashmiri Hindus were cut off. So how could anyone contact us or we were in any position to contact anyone, let alone the Governor”.
She also rubbished the talk that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) allowed the exodus to happen. She argued that had it been the case, the BJP would not have kept quite when its leader Advocate Tika Lal Taploo was gunned down by JKLF terrorists on September 14, 1989.
The situation in Jammu and Kashmir was in a mess much before that during the regime of Farooq Abdullah as his government had become dysfunctional by then. Farooq Abdullah was the Chief Minister from March 23, 1987 to January 19, 1990. It was the days when Prime Minister V P Singh government was in power from December 2, 1989 to November 10, 1990 and Union Home Minister was – Mufti Mohammad Sayeed.
The BJP withdrew support to V P Singh government after Laloo Prasad Yadav had stopped L K Advani’s Rath Yatra in Bihar. At the same time Union Home Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed’s daughter Dr Rubaiya Sayeed had been kidnapped by the terrorist. Dr Rubaiya Sayeed was released by JKLF on December 13, 1989 in exchange of release of five militants from jail.
