Dr. Ajay Chrungoo
We, the exiled and genocide-victim Hindus of Kashmir, have been commemorating Sep 14 as ‘Balidan Divas’ Since 1990, all across the world wherever we exist. We make the following unanimous submission to your goodself to seek the attention and consideration of your goodself to the following :
Article 370
The neutring of Article 370 and removal of Article 35-A as well as reorganisation of Jammu and Kashmir into two Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh, were hailed and described as Epochal liberating acts by Panun Kashmir.
We were in the fore-front of the struggle against draconian Article 370 which was an acceptance of the principle of the two-nation theory on the territory of India, and kept Pakistan alive in Jammu and Kashmir. It not only kept the people of Jammu and Kashmir outside the constitutional organization of India but the very enactment of this provision was a negation of the vision of India based on the principles of democracy, equality and justice.
Hindus of Kashmir considered Article 370 as the worst legacy of colonial period and a subversive space to allow imperialist interference. Our participation in large numbers and our contribution towards the Praja Parishad Movement and then in the making of Bhartiya Jan Sangh is quite well known.
Hence when in August, 2019 under your stewardship Article 370 was neutered and Article 35-A removed along with the reorganisation of Jammu and Kashmir, it was hailed it as a decolonizing act and a decisive blow to the imperialist manoeuvres.
We the Hindus of Kashmir expected the Government of India to describe this epochal event in these many words and in the same spirit rather than as a mere act of providing better developmental initiatives to the people of Jammu and Kashmir. And in fact, the decision of the Government of India to remain ambiguously silent on the dangerous implications of Article 370 viz. a viz. principles of equality, pluralism, secularism and nation-building kept us baffled.
In fact, the Government of India has been under attack by the votaries of Article 370, within and outside India, by describing the decision of neutering of Article 370 as an attack on democracy and secularism and as the ushering in of an era of religious facism. This ambiguity has kept alive such a tirade alive. And how can the Government of India think that such a political restraint of not telling the real reasons for doing away with Article 370 would serve the national interests and help the process of nation-building?
This faulty vision of the state (discussed above) has transformed Government of India into a prime force of the Denial of Hindu Genocide in Jammu and Kashmir.
It appears that the Government of India fears that by formally accepting the crime of genocide committed against Hindus of Kashmir might further alienate Muslims of Kashmir and obstruct political rapprochement with them. And rapproachment with the perpetrator being a strategic necessity, Denial of Hindu Genocide in Kashmir is accorded the importance of a national security measure.
We hope that you are aware that two successful religious cleansing campaigns have been launched in Kashmir during the BJP rule.
Both the cycles of religious cleansing succeeded in forcing the paltry number of a few thousand Hindus living in Kashmir to run away. And isn’t it a fact that both the Central Government in New Delhi and the Government in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir coerced these helpless victims to return by threatening to stop the salaries of the employee class.
We believe that brandishing the threat of starvation and destitution to the victims of Genocidal attrition can not be a strategy to stand up to Genocidal attrition.
More disturbing is the fact that various leaders of the Government have tried to trivialise the gravity of the situation of these selective genocidal killings of scores of Hindus living in Kashmir by targeting all its segments, those who had returned to Kashmir for employment, those who lived in Kashmir, Kashmiri speaking, non-Kashmiri speaking, those belonging to SC and ST segments, daily wagers, hawkers etc.
After each selective killing GoI continued, in fact intensified its declarations that situation has become normal in Kashmir at a time when terrorists struck repeatedly on the other end of Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir in Rajouri and Poonch killing Hindu civilians and security personnel.
Sir, like your predecessors your Government also chooses to describe the total war of Jihad as mere terrorism, deny the Genocide of Hindus of Jammu & Kashmir and call religious cleansing as migration.
The approach has been destructive of the Hindus of Jammu & Kashmir.
This approach allows the spill over of jihad to the rest of India. And the Jihadi ferment is fast spreading. The happenings in Nuh in Haryana are not any isolated happenings.
Government of India’s policy of enforcing return of Hindus of Kashmir is by implication a policy of Denial of Genocide of Hindus of Kashmir.
Many experts describe Denial of Genocide as the last stage or climax of Genocide. Hindus of Kashmir are caught up between Genocide and Denial of Genocide.
Government of India’s policy about Hindus of Kashmir/ Kashmiri Pandits is not a policy for their rehabilitation but a policy of enforcing them to return and live in a Muslim order which allowed the Genocide to be unleashed upon them.
Perpetrators of Genocide always seek to ensure the destruction of victims to become permanent and irrevocable. They seek to reshape the reality. In many cases the perpetrators start the process even before the actual acts of genocide. Even the possibility of mobilisation of public opinion by the leftovers of the genocidal destruction so that they reassert again is sought to be destroyed.
Immediately after genocidal destruction the perpetrators start the integration of the historical territory of victims into the territory of perpetrators. Burning and destruction of Hindu property and religious places started along with genocidal killings of Hindus in Kashmir. Fraudulent encroachment and unleashment of distress sales was also the part of territorial effacement of the Hindus of Kashmir and converting their habitat into the habitat of the perpetrators.
The change of demographics of the land of Kashmir is nakedly evident. The destruction of the architectural heritage of victims and renaming of places in favour of the cultural and architectural wishes of perpetrators has been going on unimpededly in Kashmir even during the BJP rule.
Expropriation of the economy of victims to launder the wealth of victims into coffers of perpetrators is a part of Genocide and Denial of Genocide. The victim population without the recognition of what has befallen upon them become perpetually insecure and their physical extension into future is constantly put to question.
Some considerations:
* Denial of Genocide leads to duplication of Genocide and helps in its spread. It also consolidates the Genocide into an irrevocable reality. So recognition of Genocide of Hindus in Jammu & Kashmir is an imperative necessity not only for the survival of the Hindus in Kashmir but also for putting a halt on the expansion of this genocidal Jihadi war into rest of India.
* There is an imperative necessity that the Government of India makes a law on the prevention and punishment of the Crime of Genocide and create a tribunal as per this law to bring the perpetrators of genocide to justice. Panun Kashmir has already submitted the relevant Genocide Bill to your good self for your due consideration.
* Reorganization of Jammu and Kashmir is still a half measure. There is an imperative necessity to separate Jammu from Kashmir and divide Kashmir once again to carve out a Union Territory East and north of River Jhelum for the rehabilitation of Hindus of Kashmir so that they don’t suffer one more genocide and religious cleansing. Converting Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir once again into a state will be far more destabilising and will certainly give separatism a new lease of life.
* Recognize jihad as a war form and start dealing with terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir in its real ideological context and content.
* Relocate Hindus living in Kashmir outside Kashmir before one more gruesome tragedy happens with them.
* Realize that all terrorism and separatism is not coming from Pakistan. It is nursed and cultivated locally and grows from within the civil domains in Kashmir and Jammu.
(The author is Chairman Panun Kashmir)
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