There are always multiple thoughtful and willful lies in election manifestos. ‘Return of Kashmiri Pandits’ to Kashmir is a “common and uniform lie” in all the election manifestos of the political parties contesting the elections in the union territory of Jammu and Kashmir.
The mainstream political parties like the National Conference, the Congress, the Bharatiya Janata Party, the People’s Democratic Party, the People’s Conference and even now the Jamaat-e-Islami candidates (who are contesting as independents) make it a point that “return of Kashmiri Pandits” is one of their important agendas.
Despite being an “influential community” in terms of opinion-making, the Kashmiri Pandits have not been able to make any “political impact” anywhere since their exodus. Political parties have only milked their plight to their advantage.
The community remains unrepresented in the legislatures, both the state as well as the parliament. The community has had no “political voice” for a long time anywhere.
In the aftermath of the exodus from Kashmir in 1989-90, the community mostly identified itself with the Bharatiya Janata Party. That relationship continues even now. It was not because the BJP had any “special love” for the community. It was only because the Kashmiri Pandits, having been the “frontline victims” of Kashmir militancy that has its roots in radical Islamic extremism, found the BJP’s policies and approach more appealing.
Otherwise, right till the time of exodus, the Kashmiri Pandits in Kashmir, mostly identified with the Congress. This was because the Gandhi family, first Pandit Nehru and then his daughter Ms Indira Gandhi had special bonding and affinity with the community.
The Congress valued the Kashmiri Pandits and their security so much that when anti-Pandits riots took place in the Anantnag district in 1986, the party withdrew support to the GM Shah ministry and the government fell. Although there were many more reasons for the withdrawal of the support, the anti-Pandit riots triggered the fall of the government.
That was the last time the Kashmiri Pandits found themselves among the top priorities of the governments. Many Kashmiri Pandits still believe that had Ms Indira Gandhi been alive and in the government, they would never have been forced to leave Kashmir.
The tragedy with the Kashmiri Pandits is that they were not able to tell their story as what happened to them. It took over thirty years for the people of the country to learn the truth after the release of the Hindi movie, “Kashmir Files”. In fact, they suffered even worse than what was shown in the movie. And the irony is that many people and political parties disputed what was shown in the movie.
The 2024 elections are very crucial for Jammu and Kashmir. It is quite unlikely that any of the Kashmiri Pandits may get directly elected to the legislature although some parties, including the BJP, have fielded few of them. However, there are two seats reserved for them through nomination. That is probably the only thing they have got during the last 34 years.
The question is whether they will end up returning to the valley, their homeland for hundreds of years. There are multiple factors that will determine their return. The token announcement by political parties in their election manifestos is not going to serve any purpose.
It will be practically impossible for the displaced Kashmiri Pandits to return to their original places. The situation and circumstances on the ground have drastically changed. During 34 years a new generation has grown up, which has no idea as to who the Kashmiri Pandits were and that they belonged to the same place and rather they really “existed”.
There is a demand for a separate ‘Homeland’ within Kashmir, by ‘Panun Kashmir’, a representative organisation of Kashmiri Pandits. This demand is facing stiff resistance from local Kashmiri Muslims as well as political parties like the Congress, the National Conference, the PDP, the People’s Conference, Jamaat-e-Islami and others. The BJP has maintained an ambiguous stance as it has neither endorsed the demand nor opposed it.
The token mentions their return notwithstanding, no political party has any concrete and practical proposal for the return and rehabilitation of Kashmiri Pandits to Kashmir. They just continue to remain the footnotes of history and elections.
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