Ujwal Jalali
New Delhi, Jan 20: More than a year after the abrogation of Article 370, the Kashmiri Pandit community is in dilemma over their ‘early’ return to the valley.
“We wish we were a vote bank to influence the policy decisions of the government on Kashmir that would have led to our return to our homes”, a disheartened community member told UNI as the citizens and original aborigines of Kashmir completed 31 years of pain and mistrust on Tuesday.
The Pandit community hardly finds itself a vote bank to invite the attention of the policy makers to their plight as their populace is scattered in different parts of the country.
Chased out of their homes three decades ago, the Kashmiri Pandits, whose plight sells like hot cakes in the political firmament, observed the trauma of their exodus by holding meetings at various places across the country and highlighted the plight of community members, particularly those living in camps in the aftermath of their displacement.
The KPs accused political parties of ‘exploiting’ their plight, to their favour as every government in power has been since then promising for the safe return and rehabilitation of the community but is yet to deliver it.
The abrogation of Article 370 on August 5, 2019 was considered as a hammer stroke by the government to solve the decades-old Kashmir crisis, however, now after one and a half year of its revocation, the hope seems to have faded away.
“We still have high hopes from Prime Minister Narendra Modi,” a Pandit leader remarked.
A community organisation – Kashmiri Pandits Reconciliation, Return and Rehabilitation – claimed that the government had not done much to mitigate their sufferings.
“The safeguarding of the aborigines is enshrined in the Constitution of our country. Hence, the government must protect the Kashmiri Pandit community by allocating a certain budget towards this, ” KPRRR Chairman Satish Mahaldar said while speaking to UNI at Jantar Mantar, here, where several community members staged protest demanding rehabilitation of the community.
He urged the Centre to formulate a concrete plan and take steps accordingly, for the safe return and rehabilitation of Pandits in Kashmir.
Mahaldar further said that while exercising the delimitation process, the Kashmir pandits migrants name has to be incorporated to restore denied democratic rights.
Later, the Pandit leaders submitted a memorandum listing demands of Relief & Rehabilitation to Prime Minister Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah.
Wish we were a vote bank to influence Govt’s policy decisions: KPs
