Indian Home Minister Rajnath Singh, in a\nstatement on April 9, 2015, disclosed that Chief Minister of Held Kashmir Mufti\nMuhammad Sayeed had \u201cassured the Union Government to provide land in the valley\nfor setting up Composite Townships for settlement of Kashmiri pandits.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Again on April 28 he reiterated in lower\nHouse of Representatives (Lok Sabha) that Mufti Sayeed had \u201cpromised to earmark\n50 acres of land as first instalment for the resettlement of Kashmiru pandits.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The two policy pronouncements clearly\nillustrate that the initiative to resettle Kashmiri Pandits has been taken by\nthe BJP government in New Delhi with the support of the People\u2019s Democratic\nParty (PDP) led by Mufti Sayeed. Publicly Mufti Sayeed contradicted the\nstatements as he claimed on the floor of the assembly that no land would be\nmade available in the valley for creation of separate settlements for the\nKashmiri Pandits. However, his assurance to the Indian Ministry of Home Affairs\nfor providing land belies his claims and rather shows his complicity and\ncollusion. Land in Srinagar and Anantnag — the nerve centres of the freedom\nmovement — has reportedly been identified to build exclusive Pandit townships.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A closer look at the Agenda of Alliance —\na document that forms the basis for the PDP-BJP coalition government in IHK —\nsuggests that a tacit understanding on such construction has already been\nreached between the two parties. Though the document does not mention the\nnature of resettlement or rehabilitation of the Pandits yet it does not reject\nthe idea of setting up composite townships. It says: \u201cProtecting and fostering\nethnic and religious diversity by ensuring the return of Kashmiri Pandits with\ndignity based on their rights as state subjects and reintegrating as well as\nabsorbing them in the Kashmir milieu.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Thus, the move for resettlement of the\nPandits is in fact translating the Agenda of Alliance into reality, which will\nhave far-reaching implications in the polity of the held valley.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kashmiri Pandits are a small minority in\nKashmir. A large number of Pandits had migrated from the valley in the 1990s,\nencouraged by the then governor of Jammu and Kashmir, Jagmohan, when the\nfreedom struggle ignited was in the initial stage — to portray it as a\nHindu-Muslim conflict. It may be mentioned that Jagmohan later became a cabinet\nmember in the then BJP\u2019s government headed by Atal Bihari Vajpayee which shows\nthat the party had specific goals in the state as it was instrumental in the\nPandits\u2019 migration. Still a sizeable number of Pandits continue to live in the\nvalley, as many of those who had migrated to other Indian towns also returned\nto their homes later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There exists no second opinion as far as\nthe return of the Kashmiri Pandits to the valley — with dignity — is\nconcerned. They are an inseparable part of the Kashmiri society and have every\nright to resettle in their ancestral houses. Kashmiris across the board,\nincluding the pro-freedom leadership, are ready to welcome them with open arms\nand open hearts. However, they have concerns regarding the establishment of\nseparate composite townships for the Pandits in a bid to advance the political\nagenda of the BJP in the valley.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Portraying that the Pandits will be under\nconstant threat in their ancestral homes and that the establishment of\ntownships is necessary for their safety and security seems to be a phobia\ncreated by the BJP to advance its questionable agenda in the valley. As a\nmatter of fact, a considerable number of Pandits still live in the valley and\nenjoy the same rights and comforts as the Muslim majority and are well treated\nand protected by the Muslim brethren of the valley.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With the resettlement of the Kashmiri\nPandits in designated townships, the BJP aspires to make political gains: the\nparty seeks to create a strategic support base and electoral pockets for its\nown designs to influence and re-shape the state\u2019s political structure and\ncreate an electoral base and bring political equation to its advantage. The BJP\nhas already mentioned in its vision document that three seats will be reserved\nfor the Pandits out of 46 seats of Kashmir Valley in the state assembly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If the BJP succeeds in implementing its strategy, it may then harp on the proposal of creating a Union Territory (UT), an administrative division in the Indian Union, for Kashmiri Pandits. While such a proposal will be neither viable nor acceptable to the Muslims of the valley and hopefully the majority of the Pandits will also not buy the idea, it may not be out of question for the BJP to take it up in the future to advance its political designs in the occupied valley. The return and resettlement of Kashmiri Pandits to their ancestral places is their fundamental right but establishing separate composite townships in the name of \u2018full dignity, security and assured livelihood\u2019 may make things complex and jeopardise communal harmony in the state. The Pandits and other saner elements in PDP need to realise the potential fallout of such misadventure by the BJP. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Courtesy: The News<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Indian Home Minister Rajnath Singh, in a statement on April 9, 2015, disclosed that Chief Minister of Held Kashmir Mufti Muhammad Sayeed had \u201cassured the Union Government to provide land in the valley for setting up Composite Townships for settlement of Kashmiri pandits.\u201d Again on April 28 he reiterated in lower House of Representatives (Lok […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,16,15],"tags":[32,33],"class_list":["post-15","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hindutva","category-iok","category-kashmir","tag-ihk","tag-indian-pakistan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sliklight.me\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sliklight.me\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sliklight.me\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sliklight.me\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sliklight.me\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sliklight.me\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16,"href":"https:\/\/sliklight.me\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15\/revisions\/16"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sliklight.me\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sliklight.me\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sliklight.me\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}