Swarn Kishore Singh
It was the winters of 2003, I was in my village in Pogal (District Ramban, J&K), excited for the celebrations of Shivratri; little knowing that the celebrations and other preparations would be marred by some spoilsport. At around 10 pm, fierce firing began and there was good amount of exchange of fire which went on for around four hours in bits and pieces. Nonetheless it wasn’t the first time I was experiencing this and considering the track record of the Village Defence Committee of my village, I did go to bed much before the firing stopped. In the morning what I saw just from my window was something unreal. At a little distance from my home, there was a person who was tied with ropes and surrounded by some local VDC members and police officials (after a major massacre in a nearby village, Kunda, a police post was set up in the school of my village). When I enquired a little, I got to know that after the intense gun battle last night, the VDC members of my village had caught hold of one of the terrorists and handed him over to the police officials in the morning only; strange and raw but brave!
In the month of January, 1990, a population of close to one million Kashmiri Hindus was forcibly exiled from different parts of Kashmir at gunpoint with that all popular dialogue, “Raliv, Galiv ya Chaliv”. In the next phase to cleanse the terrains of Jammu division of its Hindu population, just a day prior to independence day in 1993, around 16 Hindu men were killed in Sarthal area of Kishtwar while they were traveling in a bus. This massacre was planned just to terrorize Hindus and consequently trigger Hindu migration from the mountains of Jammu division. This incident had shattered the morale of Hindus living in the terrains of Jammu division and consequently it did trigger migration of Hindus to some extent. Although it can’t be denied that it is duty of the state to ensure security of its every citizen but logistically it isn’t possible for any state to deploy security personnel alongside every citizen. This time the danger was so imminent that the Union Government was left with no option but to mobilize and armor the civilians too in addition to deployment of armed forces to ensure no such massacre is repeated and ensure the life and liberty of the Hindus living in the mountains of Jammu division is secured.
Village Defence Committee was a scheme which was introduced in this pursuit only by the Union Government in the aftermath of Kishtwar killing to provide the residents of remote villages with weaponry and also train them to defend themselves. Every member was provided with a gun (.303) and 100 rounds of ammunition. The members of Village Defence Committee used to be ordinary villagers who could have a normal day job after being trained to use the weaponry to protect their own self and companion villagers as and when need be. Precisely Village Defence Committee was initiated to fight terrorists using ordinary villagers as manpower.
The direct repercussion of this scheme was an immediate halt of spreading of terrorists in the terrains of district Ramban, Reasi, Udhampur, Doda and Kishtwar, Rajouri and Poonch and therefore arresting of migration of Hindus from hills. These groups acted as first line of defence against terrorists, a sort of buffer before security forces could reach to their rescue in such treacherous terrains. Although the weapons given to VDCs weren’t that very sophisticated but it proved good enough to protect the villages and combat any onslaught of terrorists.
Village Defence Committees have been very instrumental in combating militancy, infact they were feared a lot by the terrorists. Their impact can be easily evaluated by the fact that no sooner Village Defence Committee was introduced in any village, no major killings took place thereafter therein. The members of VDCs were locals who were well acquainted with local topography and this contributed to their effectiveness.
Lately this scheme which proved to be very crucial in ensuring Hindus didn’t migrate from the terrains of Jammu division and stay in their village with a secure mindset, has been an eyesore for Kashmir based political parties and their mouthpieces in Jammu, be it National Conference or People’s Democratic Party. Mehbooba Mufti and her party, PDP is on record saying that VDC needs to be disbanded, she had a problem with the new scheme of Village Defence Guards too.
In year 2022, in order to revive this scheme of Village Defence Committee, union home ministry renamed and revived the older scheme and named it as Village Defence Guards with increased remunerations and removing of ambiguities with regard to the payments thereof. But this didn’t go well with the political parties who don’t find presence of Hindus in the terrains of Jammu politically convenient. Not only politicians but some bureaucrats too resist this scheme; for example an officer posted as SSP of a hilly district, Ramban in Jammu division ensured a gun is taken back from a VDC member for some flimsy grounds that too when that VDC member had lost his father and uncle in a terrorist attack in his village only. Further that VDC member was threatened by that SSP with lodging of a FIR in case he resists her excesses. Pretty unfortunate!
Although the Union Government has taken certain steps in revival of this scheme but still a lot remains desired only. Firstly Union Home ministry should direct Director General of Police, J&K Police and his constabulary to cooperate with the Village Defence Guards and refrain from creating a regressive environment against them. There are still some groups of VDC members who aren’t covered under this new scheme, they need to brought at par. There is a startling disparity in payment of honorarium to different members of VDCs, this warrants a thorough consideration as well. Also there should be reservations for VDC members in recruitment of Jammu & Kashmir Police if not in other paramilitary forces and if reservations for VDC members is too high a task then incentivizing the VDC members in their recruitment process shouldn’t be that big a deal.
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