Why Kashmiri Pandits seek justice before return and rehabilitation

Jewish writer and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel, in his 1986 Nobel Lecture, said, “There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest.” His words aptly encapsulate the endeavours of Kashmiri Pandits for their rights and justice. Since the 1990 ethnic cleansing, the Pandits, individually and collectively, never stopped speaking about the atrocities faced in Kashmir and protested the injustices meted out by successive governments. The State Investigation Agency (SIA) of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) in a public notice dated 7 August 2023, sought information from the people “to unearth the larger criminal conspiracy” in the case of the killing of retired Sessions and District Court judge, Neelkanth Ganjoo, by terrorists on 4 November 1989 in Srinagar. In 1968, Ganjoo sentenced J&K Liberation Front (JKLF) founder Maqbool Bhat to death for the murder of J&K Police (CID) officer Amar Chand in 1966. The Supreme Court of India upheld the death sentence for Bhat in 1982. Subsequently, Bhat was hanged in Delhi’s Tihar jail in 1984. Maqbool Bhat was the torchbearer of Islamist terrorism in J&K, and his organisation, JKLF, spearheaded the insurgency against India with support from Pakistan. The JKLF, like many other terror groups, targeted Hindu Pandits leading to their forced exodus from Kashmir in 1990. Ganjoo’s murder was one of the initial targeted killings of Pandits by the Islamist terrorists in Kashmir in 1989-90. Among others, terrorists killed Tika Lal Taploo, Lassa Kaul, Prem Nath Bhat, Sarwanand Kaul ‘Premi’, Bal Krishna Ganjoo, Sarla Bhat, and Girija Tickoo. The reopening of the investigation in Ganjoo’s case is a welcome step by the J&K administration. This case should be the beginning of the process of justice for the beleaguered community and not merely a one-off move. Justice for Pandits ought to be the first and foremost step – the return and rehabilitation of Pandits later with a concrete plan (not merely an employment package that turned out to be a failure). In July 2017, the Supreme Court rejected a public interest litigation (PIL) seeking a fresh probe into the killings of Kashmiri Pandits. The apex court said, “We decline to entertain this petition under Article 32 of the Constitution of India, for the simple reason that the instances referred to in the present petition pertain to the year 1989-90, and more than 27 years have passed by since then. No fruitful purpose would emerge, as evidence is unlikely to be available at this late juncture.” This was followed by the rejection of the review petition in October 2017. Although the Supreme Court closed its doors for Kashmiri Pandits, it did not stop the Government of India from addressing the issues faced by the community. The Narendra Modi government has the mandate and the might to rectify horrific wrongdoings in J&K, including justice for Pandits. The Modi government displayed sheer audacity by invalidating Article 370 of the Constitution of India on 5 August 2019. The government can show the same boldness for justice to the Pandits whose right to a home in Kashmir is still lost. Notwithstanding the socio-political climate in India, Pandits have not let the Islamist project reach finality in Kashmir. When the narrative builders kept brewing falsehoods to obscure the gory reality about Kashmir, the Pandits kept disproving those falsehoods. The most prevalent untruth was/is that then J&K governor, Jagmohan Malhotra, was responsible for the exodus of Pandits from Kashmir. Such barefaced lies originated from the Muslim society of Kashmir and got backed by the intelligentsia and commentariat of India. When the voices from Kashmir, the old and the new, obfuscate on jihad that has engulfed thousands of lives – Hindus, Muslims, and Sikhs – in Kashmir, it is the resurfacing of the same propensity that suppressed the story of Pandits in the last three decades. They, however, forget that Pandits have always sought refuge in Goddess Saraswati – more so in trying times. It has given Pandits the fortitude to dispel myths about Kashmir despite most of the political-academic-media ecosystem working against them. Since Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came into power in 2014, the question of justice for Pandits remains unaddressed. Assurances are given to the minority community from time to time, though. The politics in J&K and the ensuing optics have taken precedence over justice for Pandits. BJP must keep political compulsions at bay if it is serious about providing justice to Pandits. It is high time the Government of India appoints a commission to set the official record straight about what happened to Kashmiri Pandits in Kashmir. How many Pandits were killed by the terrorists in Kashmir? There is not any definite answer. The official record still says that only 219 Pandits got killed in Kashmir from 1989 to 2004. The community estimates put the figure at more than 1,000. Also, the killings after 2019, in post-370 Kashmir, are a new addition to this indeterminate list. It is the responsibility of the government to remove any room for ambiguity. American writer James Baldwin says, “If one really wishes to know how justice is administered in a country, one does not question the policemen, the lawyers, the judges, or the protected members of the middle class. One goes to the unprotected – those, precisely, who need the law’s protection most! – and listens to their testimony.” The Pandits are still alive to present testimonies even though a generation is lost and another is on the verge of fading away. Postscript: The Modi government introduced the J&K Reorganisation (Amendment) Bill 2023 in the Lok Sabha on 26 July 2023. It states that “a large number of people migrated from their ancestral places of residence” and “migrants were moved to Jammu” apropos ethnic cleansing of Kashmiri Pandits. Did Pandits migrate from Kashmir? No, they were driven out at gunpoint by the Islamist terror groups. Were Pandits moved to Jammu? No, Pandits were not moved to Jammu – there was no state support. Why is the government’s language so shoddy? The author is a writer and political commentator. He is the co-editor of book on Kashmir’s ethnic minority community titled A Long Dream of Home: The Persecution, Exodus and Exile of Kashmiri Pandits, published by Bloomsbury India_. He tweets_ @VaradSharma_. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely that of the author. They do not necessarily reflect_ Firstpost_’s views._ Read all the  Latest News,  Trending News,  Cricket News,  Bollywood News, India News and  Entertainment News here. Follow us on  Facebook,  Twitter and  Instagram.