Headlines
Pandits deeply divided over possible return to Kashmir
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By Sheikh QayoomJammu, April 30
While politicians debate the
possible roadmaps for a return of migrant Pandits to Kashmir Valley, the
community remains deeply divided over the issue.
H.N. Jattu, 81,
president of the All India Kashmiri Pandit Conference, feels this is
not right time to return to a place from where Pandits fled in thousands
after separatist violence erupted in 1989. Speaking in this winter
capital of Jammu and Kashmir, India's only Muslim-majority state, Jattu
told IANS: "The present political atmosphere in Kashmir is against the
return of the Pandit community.
"Talking of our return after 25
years is not a joke," said Jattu, who has been associated with the
politics of Pandits for 65 long years. "It would be like another
uprooting of the community since we invested every penny we had at
places where we live today."
Jattu says that unless Article 370
of the Indian constitution - which gives special status to Jammu and
Kashmir - was abrogated and laws passed by parliament become directly
applicable in the state, the return of the Pandits would be a political
gimmick.
"Let (Prime Minister) Narendra Modi ensure that Kashmir
becomes a part of India in the real sense, and we will return to the
land of our ancestors," Jattu said.
There is a serious difference
of opinion among the older and younger generations of Pandits on
whether or not a return should even be spoken about now.
"For my
wife and I, it is nostalgia. It is roots, it is memories, it is faith
and it is everything else," said G.L. Daftari, 67, a retired State Bank
of India officer who too lives here.
"But for my son who is
working in a private company in Delhi and who has to leave at 6 in the
morning and return at 11 at night, where is the time to think about
roots?
"I would like to return to live for whatever little is
left of my life, but my son and daughter need economic guarantees
besides security and political certainty," Daftari told IANS.
Political
assertion seems to override emotional issues for those members of the
community who formed groups and forums to agitate for the cause of the
Pandits in the early 1990s.
Kuldeep Raina, general secretary of
Panum Kashmir, rejects the idea of composite townships, clusters and the
return of migrant Pandits to places where they lived before 1990.
"We
adopted a resolution in December 1991 called 'Marg Darshan' seeking the
creation of a union territory to the north and east of Jhelum River
with free flow of the Indian constitution," he said.
"Article 370
should be abrogated. Anybody who believes in the free flow of the
Indian constitution should be allowed to live in that union territory,"
Raina told IANS.
Asked if the idea of a union territory would
have takers among the young in the community who have found assimilation
and employment in different parts of India and abroad, he said, "There
should be economic guarantees for such youths for their career
development."
What elders like Jattu, Daftari or Raina believe is
Greek to the ears of the young Pandits who have hardly any memories of
the eclectic culture their parents were born in.
"What return are
you talking about? I earn around Rs.2 lakh a month. You want me to give
the so-called eclectic culture a try by giving up a secured career?"
asked a young IT Kashmir Pandit professional working in Bangalore who
obviously did not want to be named.
Other younger Pandits may not
be so cynical but they also do not want to discuss the return of the
community with any seriousness.
"A bird in hand is worth two in
the bush. We have been thrown out. The basic dispute would take
centuries to resolve. I do not believe the return is ever practical or
possible", said Sanjay Koul, 29, another IT professional working outside
Jammu and Kashmir.
Kashmiri separatists say they are not opposed
to the return of Pandits to the Kashmir Valley but there must be no
separate townships for them.
(Sheikh Qayoom can be contacted at [email protected]