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| Can Kashmiri Hindus go back to Valley? | | | Neha
Early Times Report
Jammu, Jan 21: The organizations of the internally-displaced Kashmiri Hindus, which observed January 19 as "Holocaust Day" in different parts of the country, including Jammu, once again resolved that day to go back to their original homeland as it belonged to them. At the same time, they also reiterated that they would take rest only after they achieved a separate homeland for themselves within the Kashmir Valley invested with Union Territory status where the Indian Constitution, barring the divisive, anti-people and anti-democratic Article 370, reigns supreme. They also used the occasion to attack the rulers of the time who allowed terrorists and their supporters to expel the minority Hindus from the valley with a view to establish their rule of Shariat. It was on January 19, 1990 that almost all the Kashmiri Hindus quit the Valley to become refugees in their own motherland.
Can the displaced Kashmiri Hindus go back to the Valley? Has the situation improved in the Valley a bit? The displaced Kashmiri Hindus cannot go back to their original habitat because the situation today in the Valley still seems not to be conducive for their return. In 1990, they had refused to join the anti-India movement and renounce their religion and decided to quit.
In the recently concluded assembly elections in the state, separatists' targets were two - the BJP and the Kashmiri Hindus. They didn't want the BJP to open its account in the Valley because they considered the victory of the BJP in the Valley as a threat to the divisive politics being played there by them. They ensured the participation of a large number of people in the constituencies like Habba Kadal, Khanyar, Amira Kadal and so on to ensure that no BJP candidate could make it to the assembly.
PDP emerged as the largest party by winning 28 seats and the BJP emerged as the second largest party by winning 25 seats but the separatists consider and continue to consider an alliance between the two against Kashmiri Muslims. Ever since December 23, when the election results were announced, the anti-Jammu forces in the Valley have been urging the PDP to form a coalition government with the defeated NC and the Congress to keep Jammu province out of power and their argument has been that the participation of BJP in the government will be participation of the fanatic Hindus. It is a different story that the PDP has not walked into their anti-BJP trap. The BJP has won 25 seats and 24 of its MLAs are Hindus and one MLA is a Gujjar Muslim.
It was on January 6 that the joint parliamentary committee recommended permanent residency status and voting rights for the refugees from West Pakistan, who are all non-Muslims. Ever since then, all the forces in the Valley have been up in arms against New Delhi. They have been opposing the recommendation tooth and nail and saying the grant of permanent residency status to them would alter the demographic profile of the state, destroy the water-bodies in the Valley. They have been putting forth such outrageous arguments, notwithstanding the fact that all these refugees have been residing in different parts of Jammu province since 1947.
The demand in Jammu for a Hindu Chief Minister from this region has evoked a very sharp reaction in the valley, with all or nearly all those who matter in Kashmir opposing the demand saying there would be revolt in Kashmir if a Hindu Chief Minister is imposed on the state. They have been arguing that J&K is a Muslim majority and, hence, the Chief Minister has to be a Muslim and that too from the Valley.
All this shows that there is no place whatsoever in the Valley for the non-believers. The people of Jammu have realized it and that's why many social and political groups have demanded trifurcation of the state into Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh states. That even the "secular" BSP of Mayawati has demanded division of the state should establish that the situation in the Valley has aggravated to the extent that no non-Muslim can think in terms of working and settling in Kashmir. All in all, it can be said that the chances of the internally displaced Kashmiri Hindus going back to the Valley are too remote. The only silver-lining is the present dispensation at the Centre, which did make common cause with the uprooted and persecuted community through the presidential address to the joint-session of Parliament last summer.
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