On January 19, Kashmiri Pandits observed 26 years of their exodus from Kashmir. A Kashmiri Pandit group on the occasion announced a grand memorial to be set up for the community members killed during the turmoil in the state. Memorial will be set up on the pattern of a war memorial to honour the sacrifices for the community”. A Kashmiri Pandit team visited Nadimarg in Pulwama district where twenty four members of the community were shot dead on March 23, 2003. The occasion also saw former Chief Minister Dr Farooq Abdullah run into controversy for curtly talking about the return of Pandits to Valley. Talking to media, Abdullah said that that no one in Kashmir will go to Kashmiri Pandits with a begging bowl and that the onus was on the community to return. On television also there were emotional prime-time discussions on the issue of Pandit return. Bollywood actor Anupam Kher released a video in which he can be seen highlighting the “brutal killings of Kashmiri Pandits” in the early nineties that led to their mass exodus. The video was played over and over again on January 19 on an English news channel. On the occasion, the community also resolved that it will hold no family celebrations on January 19 and September 14, the latter being the day when separatist militants started selective killings of the members of the community.
The day was also marked by the outpouring of the collective grief and the bitterness over the governments failure to ensure Pandit return to Valley. Some Pandit groups once again raised the separate homeland demand. While the unenviable Pandit plight is one of the saddest fallouts of the lingering tragedy in Kashmir, seeing it in isolation from the larger Kashmir tragedy in which Kashmiri Muslims have disproportionately suffered will be a great mistake. This has only drifted the communities further apart and further complicated the prospect of the return of Pandits to Valley. With bitter and competing narratives on both sides, the issue has become increasingly difficult to resolve. The pro-active role of the state to push the creation of the separate Pandit settlements has further vitiated the scene.
What has not been tried is to let the two communities to work things out through a sustained interaction of their respective civil societies. This has far better chance of succeeding than a fraught state imposed unilateral solution which threatens not only to add to the reigning political turmoil in the state but also create a permanent divide between the communities. More so, when the dominant public opinion in Valley and among Pandits too is to find a way to live together again, like we have done through centuries. But beyond the romance and nostalgia of this shared past, the challenge for the two communities is to make it happen again. This calls for formal and informal civil society contacts, and a serious public debate to discuss and deliberate various solutions and work out a consensus. The initiative has to come from two communities than the governments, either in the state or in New Delhi. This may appear a tall order but it isnt. Politics may have vitiated the climate but at social level the communities spontaneously connect with each other and over a period of time they can certainly make it happen.
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