JAMMU, Aug 5: The displaced Kashmiri Pandit organisations held a meeting today in New Delhi to discuss the current socio-political scenario affecting their fate and future. The meeting was presided over by Virender Raina, president, Panun Kashmir (PK).
Others who attended the meeting included Sushil Hashia, president-J&K Internally Displaced Persons Welfare Society, K.K.Bhujoo, president-Kashmir Vitasta Desk, Upinder Kaul, general secretary-PK, Kamal Bagati, general secretary (Org)-PK and P.L. Razdan, senior activist of JKIDPWS. Ashwani Kumar Chrungoo, senior BJP & KP leader was the special invitee.
The meeting said that "The time has come to confront the harsh truth -Kashmiri Pandits do not need another round of tokenism, half-measures, or cosmetic appeasement. What is needed is a just and honourable political settlement that squarely addresses two fundamental demands: the recognition of the genocide of Kashmiri Pandits, and the establishment of a Homeland within Kashmir, as articulated in the historic Margdarshan Resolution of 1991.
The National Human Rights Commission's (NHRC) pronouncement of 1999 in regard to the issue of genocide of the Pandits needs to be taken to logical conclusion through a legislative process. There can be no forgetting or forgiving in regard to what was done to the Pandits in Kashmir, it said.
It is deeply painful that, decades after being forcibly exiled from their ancestral land, Pandits are still being subjected to bureaucratic indifference and administrative harassment. The cessation of relief to displaced KPs in Delhi NCR by the Government is not merely an administrative lapse, it is a reflection of the systemic neglect of a community that has suffered dispossession, death, deprivation and dispersion.
It said the homeland demand of Pandits is fully restorative. It seeks to reclaim dignity, safety and cultural resurgence in a defined territory within Kashmir, under Indian sovereignty. It seeks recognition of genocide so that the crimes against humanity of the past are acknowledged and not repeated in future.
It is time the Indian state and society rise above bureaucratic tokenism and initiate a sincere political process to correct historical wrongs. The actions taken by the Government of India on 5th August 2019 reflect the aspirations of the displaced community and these actions need to be fully stregthened with commitment and political resolve, it said.