‘Yasin Malik’s Verdict Is Balm On Kashmir Pandits’ Wounds’

Deepak Kachru, a Kashmiri Pandit living in Lucknow since early 90s, India must also guard against the sympathisers of terrorists like Yasin Malik

Displaced Kashmiri Pandits, as a community, had lost hope in the system and accepted the life outside their homeland as their fait accompli for three decades. However two decisions – the removal of Article 370 in 2019 by the Union government and life sentence to Yasin Malik by a special court recently – have come as a healing touch to our wounds.

The life sentence awarded to Malik is for terror funding; he is yet to face the trial for killing of innocent Kashmiri Pandits. Anything less than a death sentence for a person who has killed many innocents, including Indian Air Force officers, and raped women and children will not be acceptable to our community.

Nevertheless, there is some progress on the justice front. There are many culprits responsible for the plight of Pandits and we expect this government to hear the cases related to Kashmir in fast-track courts.

Removal of Article 370 has proved to be a relief not only for the Pandits but for the entire region and whole of Kashmiri people. There has been a substantial fall in the terror activities and support from across the border too is dwindling. Tourism and businesses are slowly reviving in the Valley. This year the tourist footfall created a record.  

Kachru says Narendra Modi has reignited hope among Kashmiri Pandits

Earlier (before the abrogation of Article 370) criminals like Yasin Malik were enjoying all kinds of support and hospitality from inside our own territory, under previous governments. In spite of theses concessions, they did not consider themselves as a part of India.

ALSO READ: Kashmir Incomplete Without Pandits, Says Khushboo Mattoo

The Narendra Modi government has taken several bold steps and ignited hope amongst Kashmiri people as a whole. Terror modules are still there but now they are picking up soft targets such as government employees, non-Kashmiris or SPOs; earlier the terrorists would attack security forces too.

The time is ripe for the government to rid the Valley of terrorism and terrorists for once and all. Bringing the guilty to book and awarding them strict punishment will go a long way in setting an example. There are many more of the ilk of Yasin Malik who must be brought to justice for their nefarious actions.

At the same time, I must say that there are many sympathisers of these anti-nationals amongst us only. Indian government and citizens must guard against these elements. The situation is in our favour and we must make the most of it in establishing the rule of law. This will send a strong message to terrorists and their handlers across the border.

As told to Rajat Rai 

‘Kashmir Files Is A Political Ploy To Demonize Muslims’

Majid Maqbool, a senior journalist from Srinagar, saysthe movie seeks to selectively exploit the tragedy of Kashmiri Pandits and promote hatred

The Kashmir Files has been released at a time when Kashmir remains besieged, post August 5, 2019, following the unilateral abrogation of Article 370 by the ruling BJP government in New Delhi and further downgrading of the former state into a Union Territory. This has been followed by a six-month long lockdown and communications shutdown and world’s longest internet shutdown, which, suddenly, disconnected people from each other and the outside world for months.

Since then the Indian State, under the current regime, has tightened its grip and sought to curb all forms of independent media, civil society engagements, and political voices across the spectrum, including the local media. This has virtually compelled them to either remain silent or toe the line of the ruling dispensation.

Draconian laws like the PSA and UAPA continue to be slapped against civil society activists and journalists and anyone who dares to raise his or her voice against the many injustices normalized in the Valley are hounded, punished and put into prison.

Predictably, the film is a brazen attempt to selectively exploit the tragedies of one community – the Kashmiri Pandits of Jammu and Kashmir. This community is shown as the only victim in the state, and the other community, the Kashmiri Muslims, is further demonized and projected as the perpetrators.

ALSO READ: ‘Kashmir Files Is A Farrago Of Disinformation’

The fact is that the film was openly promoted by the ruling party and even Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and, other BJP ministers and rightwing groups.  This was a clear message to the people of India to watch the film and thereby proves the political intent behind the making of this kind of biased cinema.

The Kashmir Files is a political project to further demonize Kashmiri Muslims and Indian Muslims at a time when they are already politically dispossessed and repressed by the State. Certainly, they are being attacked ritualistically, and are being treated as second class citizens. The assault on Muslims and their religious places during the auspicious occasion of Ram Navami, especially in certain BJP-ruled states, is a transparent pointer.

Contrary to the relentless hate politics and anti-Kashmiri propaganda by certain sections of Kashmiri Pandits in public forums and media, the besieged people in Kashmir, across all communities, Hindus and Muslims, are not consumed by so-called ‘anti-KP’ hatred. They are largely sympathetic to their condition and desire their return home without their pain being politically exploited and used by the rightwing political forces.

While growing up in Kashmir, I have never heard a single Kashmiri Muslim not fervently wanting the return of Kashmiri Pandits to their homes — however, not in separate, isolated and ghettos protected by security forces. This would only sharpen the divides and disconnects among both the communities and block all forms of meaningful individual and collective engagements. Over the years, the return of the KPs has been politicized and exploited by parties like the BJP to further their political agendas, instead of making genuine efforts for their welfare and rehabilitation. 

The film has intentionally fictionalized and exploited old, simmering wounds of the Pandits. The rightwing groups and parties have tried to further stoke anti-Muslim sentiments by invoking this film in their hate speeches to demonize and marginalize the Muslim community at large in India. Not surprisingly, the film has allegedly done good business at the box office, creating an easy template to replicate in future and a dangerous business and cinematic model of monetizing and marketing hate.

As told to Amit Sengupta

Kashmiri Pandit

‘The Kashmir Files Brings Alive Our Pain And Plight’

Ashwani Kachru, a Kashmiri Pandit staying in Gr Noida, says the movie also exposes the political and intellectual ignorance about his community’s struggle

First and foremost, I wish to congratulate Vivek Agnihotri, the director of The Kashmir Files, from the bottom of my heart. Never ever before this movie, the facts about the forced and violent migration of Kashmiri Pandits were laid out before the rest of the country so realistically.

Some of the scenes in the movie brought alive my own frightening memories of the 1990s. My house was located barely one km from the spot where four Air Force personnel were shot dead in Srinagar by terrorists. Other scenes of selective killings of Kashmiri Pandits; the horrific announcements made from places of worship against non-Muslims and; the Hindu families from the Valley living in fear… as shown in the movie, left me in cold sweat.

Agnihotri has the heart to call a spade a spade. This was not an exodus; this was a genocide – premeditated ethnic cleansing of Pandits from the crown of India. Radical Islamic groups supported from within the country and across the border distinctly targeted a peace-loving community in Kashmir and the unfortunate part is that all this happened in a free and democratic India.

Yet, no one in over three decades every talked openly about the pain and tragedy of the victims; in fact repeated attempts were made by the previous governments, terrorist sympathisers, liberal thinkers and the so-called intellectuals to misguide the people of India on this issue and to cover up the real face of a radicalised movement.

ALSO READ: ‘Kashmir Will Never Be Same Without Pandits’

I am glad, the issue is now being talked and how! The filmmakers have done justice to our sufferings by revealing the truth. Simultaneously, they have also exposed the brain-washed Kashmiris involved in our killings, a couldn’t-care-less government machinery, a section of the deaf and dumb media, and the intelligentsia.

Communal harmony is the proven culture of India since centuries and this could not be digested by terror sympathizers who want to dismantle the several thousand years old Indian secular structure.

I often wondered why those people in power kept quiet to our situation. It seems as if these people and organisations were funded to prove the terrorists in the Valley innocent. Spineless governments and judiciary never showed the courage to act against such anti-national elements.

Through your columns, let me also congratulate the state governments who have made this movie tax free, this will definitely help in conveying the message to a large section of our society.

I recently read media reports that a political leader, an ally of the Congress party in Assam, has demanded a ban on this movie. I feel the Congress party has remained at the centre of many major problems that India is facing today. Their declining vote share is a clear indication that the new and young Indians don’t want to continue with their policies any longer.

As told to Deepti Sharma

Kashmiri Pandit Family

‘Pandits Can Return Only After Kashmiris Agree To Accept Them’

Surbhi Sapru, 31, who belongs to a displaced Kashmiri Pandit family, says her return to the state is not possible unless the ruptured social fabric is restored in Kashmir

My family used to live in the Habba Kadal area of Srinagar, an area that saw mass exodus of Pandits in the 1990s. However, my grandfather had decided much earlier to leave the place, because socially active people like him had been getting targeted, threatened, much before ordinary people and in 1982 he (an educationist) decided it wasn’t safe for my family to remain there.

My brother and I weren’t born yet, so it is our parents and family who had to leave a piece of their heart and hearth behind in Kashmir. My family shifted base to Jammu, still hopeful that things might get better in Kashmir, but that was not to be; things only got worse from there.

I was born in 1990, at the cusp of change, when Kashmir’s history, geography, everything was being re-written. Even the Dogra community was against us. So when my father got a chance to settle in Jaipur, he jumped at it. Jaipur became home for us the next 14 years.

Abrogation of Article 370 did bring hope, but it is only a flicker and it is a long road before Kashmiri Pandits can think of going back ‘home’. The Jammu & Kashmir issue might be seen as a political issue but deep down it is a breakdown of the social fabric. People from different religions have coexisted in different parts of India, but in Kashmir that gets caught in religious turmoil.

Surbhi says her grandfather (left) would break down on every Maha Shivratri, which their family celebrated in Kashmir with much pomp

If the ordinary citizen understands each other, then the issue can be resolved, otherwise nothing will change, the problem will linger on. Thus both the Kashmiri Pandits as well as Muslims will have to reassure each other: Hum ek doosre ko jante hain padosi ke taur par, hum kisi teesre ki baton me nahi aayenge (We will resolve matter between us as neighbours; won’t allow a third party to mediate). While many leaders have advocated a special, safe zone for Pandits, labelled Panun Kashmir, I say why can’t Pandits stay wherever they want in Jammu & Kashmir?

We have been displaced once. If the government is talking about rehabilitation, then Pandits need to feel safe; that they can trust everyone around us in Kashmir. Let me share an incident. I had gone to our Kul Devi (family deity) temple (Kheer Bhawani) in 2016 along with my mother on a Friday. Right after the juma namaz got over, our car started getting chased by many people. Every few minutes, we would be stopped by someone or the other. Our driver, a local Sikh from Kashmir, kept on requesting people to let us go. Apparently there was some strike and they were angry that Sardarji was still driving us in his taxi and that we were Hindus.

ALSO READ: ‘Situation On Ground Is Improving In J-K’

Those angry faces, the fear that I felt that day cannot be explained in words. We also gave lift to two Ladakhi policemen midway, who were in the same predicament as us. They weren’t liked there. I was utterly surprised to see that even a 10 year old was threatening us. But how many people can you reason with? At one point a group of people pushed open the taxi door, to pull us out, and only after a lot of pleading from the Sardarji, we were let off.  Till the time this hatred among Jammu-Kashmiri citizens is there, the return of Pandits is not possible. Who knows one might be made to leave again.

I remember the teary eyes of my grandfather, on every Maha Shivaratri which they used to celebrate with great pomp in Kashmir. He told us a story that when he was posted in Gurez, a Peer Baba (holy man) had asked him to take the responsibility of educating a Muslim child. My grandfather followed his instruction and treated the boy like a son in the family. However, the family had to leave him behind. He still sometimes comes to meet us, now that we have shifted to Delhi, and my parents reminisce about the olden times.

Dadaji is no more. But his love for Kashmir flows in our veins too. But unless there is reassurance for peace on the ground, not by the political leadership, our return to homeland is not possible. I bear no hatred for any community in my heart, but also expect that we are not hated for our beliefs as well.