Return of KPs

Abdul Rashid Khan
The day the central government announced the decision of returning the Kashmiri Pandits to valley, their home land, many statements and counter statements were issued by various political parties, groups and individuals separately, at Jammu and Srinagar. One fails to understand as to why there is so much furore over the return of natives to their mother land. It is their and their forefathers land and have every right to come and settle here. I will not go in details how and why the families of this minority community migrated to other parts of the country. The logic is that no body wants to leave his home and become refugee in his own state. There must be some coherent reasons and compulsions which forced them for their displacement. Unfortunately they had to leave their homes and hearth in distress. Their migration is a tragic and sad story. Every human being needs to have a feel of concern for each other. I had my education with my pandit friends at school, college and the university level.  Even the head of our Khalsa High School at Magarmal bagh was a Kashmiri pandit known as Prithivi Nath Khoda. How could we forget, an ace class disciplinarian and a good administrator, like him. The able teachers like Janki Nath ji and Rughunath ji have laid such an indelible impression on our mental horizon that they are always in my heart and mind. I always miss my Pandit batch mates with whom  I have spent the beautiful and memorable  days of university life. I still carry the same love and respect for my economics teacher Mr M.L. Misri of J&K university, who had always treated us as his friends. He was such a lovable and  affectionate person that some time he would invite few of his favourite students to his Zadu house near Barbar Shah for a cup of tea. I miss Mr. M.K. Teng (now a changed man) who taught me the basics of political science in S.P. College Srinagar and would play a host as and when we visited his house at Safa Kadal. We still hold our pandit teachers in high esteem as they had always been our true guides. Thusu’s our next door neighbor at Magarmal bagh would always impress us by their politeness and humbleness. It is but natural that even shifting in distress from one place to another may be with in the city, is very painful.
If we go through the genesis of the Kashmir history after 1990, there have been innumerable tragic incidents where the members of both the communities have suffered the torture and the killings. But the majority community had no alternative but to bear and live with it. The families of minority community preferred to suffer out side the valley. It is not the question of how much one has suffered  but the reality is that both have been the victims of this ugly situation. The rigging in the elections of 1987, was exploited by the other side of the country which led to this situation.
It is now unfortunate that some leaders are politicizing  this issue for their petty political gains. The patron of the PDP is agreeing to the proposal of Central government in Delhi without doing any home work and again retracting from it while returning to Srinagar.  This has lead to the confusion and apprehension in the minds of the members of the majority community. The Kashmiri people are intelligent enough to understand the jugglery of words. The state government has to be very prudent and careful to deal with this sensitive issue and advise the central government accordingly. The saner elements in both the communities are eager to meet and embrace each other. It is the time that the saner elements must prevail upon the less saner elements so that the atmosphere in valley as well as outside Kashmir is not vitiated. The media has to play a positive and constructive role to make the  plan easy and possible, in case the families of the minority community  sincerely wish to return their native place. We need not to talk of separate zones and townships as this will definitely go against the centuries old secular traditions of valley and the spirit of amity and brotherhood, the most valuable asset we have inherited from the past. The Government could develop residential housing colonies like Sanantnagar and Chinihimit in the districts of valley to settle these people so that they would reside and live together with the members of other community. However the authorities could take measures for the over all  protection of these colonies. The government can also assist the displaced Pandit families, in the shape of cash and material for construction of their houses in these residential colonies besides giving them the plots of 7 marlas each. The families belonging to rural towns who have still their farm land intact could be settled there at their original native place, taking care of their security also. As the time is the best healer, the members of both the communities could live with same spirit of amity and revive their old age bondage of brotherhood. One needs to understand and feel that our land of Sufis and Rishis could hardly accommodate  any kind of extremism.
The plan of connecting Phalgam and Sonamarg with the railway line has  again put many people in suspicion that Mufti Sahib is bent on refreshing the memories of 2008 and fulfilling the agenda of Saffron party. Will Mufti sahib please talk straight and not in double language for some time so that the people under stand him clearly. The idea of connecting these tourist resorts by railway line will not only give rise to many suspicions but could also be hazardous for fragile environment and the eco friendly balance of the area besides adding to the noise and air pollution of these places. We need not to disturb the natural beauty of tourist resorts as the foreign as well as the domestic traveler who come from the busy metropolitan and cosmopolitan cities would like to enjoy the serenity of Lidder valley and feel relaxed,  away from the madness of the traffic rush and machine life.
(The author is former IGP)

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