Maximalist and extreme positions tend to get eased out of the discourse and isolated in the face of a more general accommodative approach, particularly on sensitive issues having a strong human connotation. Hardline rhetoric and postures have a brief shelf life and lose their meretricious appeal once it comes to the solid nitty-gritty of sorting out a critical problem.
The migration of the Pandits from the valley was an unmitigated social and political disaster for Kashmir, but sustained efforts over the years appear to hold the promise of paying off in undoing a tragedy of monumental proportions. Whatever the catalyst for the mass exodus might have been, every section of Kashmiri society wants the dignified and safe return of the Pandits. This has been made repeatedly clear by political leaders of all ilk, especially the separatists who have termed the community as an inseparable part of the society.
Granted that the trauma of the sudden uprooting has left deep scars on the community, but there are healing hands in Kashmir ready with the soothing balm to ease the pain of the wounds. There is total unanimity here that the Pandits must resume their lives in the valley as soon as possible. There are absolutely no takers here for the idea that an entire people must be displaced from their homes and hearths, and constrained to live lives of extreme hardship in alien climes.
It is, of course, reasonable on the part of the Pandits to seek safeguards and guarantees from the government to help in building up their lives afresh in the valley, and the administration has come out with a credible package encompassing employment and other forms of assistance to aid the process. The reintegration of the community is a momentous task, as an entire generation has grown up with a sense of being dispossessed, but the overwhelming sentiment of welcome in the valley is bound to smoothen whatever rough patches the process may entail.
There have been unsuccessful attempts by certain vested interests to sow rancour and bitterness in the displaced community against their Muslim brethren, but the cherished memories of shared lives of harmony have been too strong for such deviltry. The centuries-old bonds of amity and love have survived the separation of twenty years, and it would be hard to find a soul in either community set against a return to the good days of yore.
Predictably, some quarters have sprung up to capitalize on the collective misfortunes of the displaced by voicing untenable demands like a separate homeland. This might have sounded attractive initially, but as the true colours of its proponents became clear, the idea has begun to have less and less takers.
Today when the groups with this nefarious agenda of permanently rupturing relations between the two communities are hard pressed to muster support there are speculations that newly elected government is planning separate settlements for Pandits inside Kashmir valley. While there has been no official statement in this regard, the qualified speculation has already set out the tone for another mega confrontation. For the proposal, if carried out, espouses a segregating cause rather than a uniting one.
As stated at the outset, refractory politics has a rather limited life span, and cannot endure in the face of reason and realism. This is precisely what has come to pass with the hyped maximalism of the past. With the vitiating manipulations of vested interests on the wane, the process of reintegration of Pandit families in the cultural and societal fabric of Kashmir must begin now.
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