A Complete Strategy for Return of Kashmiri Pandits
A PM’s package for Kashmiri Pandits was announced in 2008, but this did not succeed in facilitating the return of the community. This was because the problem was visualized in purely financial terms. If the revised package now visualized by the Govt. merely touches the financial parameters, it is bound to fail.
The preconditions for return:
The govt. has to realize that the atmosphere in the valley has to be made conducive for return. The members of the community have to be convinced that the Govt. is empathetic to their basic concerns. This can happen by taking the following steps which constitute the essential preconditions for return:
One: Govt should convene a Joint Session of the two Houses of Parliament and declare a National Policy on Kashmir. Unless the Pandits are confident that the accession of J&K to the Indian union is final and irrevocable, they would not like to go back.
Two: It should declare that Kashmir is an integral part of India, abrogate Article 370 of the Constitution and state emphatically that it will not hold talks on Kashmir with Pakistan. It should compel Pakistan to dismantle the infrastructure of terror. It should reiterate that India will take all steps to recover the territory illegally occupied by Pakistan and China.
Three: The separatists should be told once and for all that there is no question of india relinquishing its hold on Kashmir. Thus there will be no talk of self-rule, autonomy, joint management, porous border and so on.
Four: Govt. should announce the setting of a Commission of Inquiry under a Judge of the Supreme Court of India to probe the circumstances that led to the ethnic cleansing of the Kashmiri Pandit community, so as to counter the disinformation campaign launched by anti-national forces and fix responsibility for the mass exodus in 1990. The report of the Commission should be placed before the Parliament within a definite time-frame.
Five: Govt. should announce that all the cases of murder ,rape and other heinous crimes shall be probed by Special Investigation Teams of the CBI. All the prime suspects, especially those who have confessed to the crimes, shall be jailed under a Special Law and shall remain in detention till they are cleared of the charges by special courts to be constituted for their trial.
Six: A political space should be created for the community by:
Amending the Constitution to create two seats of MPs in the Rajya Sabha for Kashmiri Pandits, to be filled by the President by nomination,
Amending the law to provide for three constituencies in exile in the Legislative Assembly of the State, to be filled by members of the community voting wherever they may have settled temporarily,
Seven: Minority status should be conferred on members of the community and suitable reservation in admission to educational institutions and recruitment to services under the State Govt should be provided. Benefit of the scheme for grant of scholarships to minorities should be granted to students of the community.
Eight: The status of Internally Displaced Persons should be conferred on members of the community, so that they become entitled to all the facilities and benefits enumerated in the Geneva Convention.
Roadmap for Return
There has to be a complete roadmap for facilitating the process of return. This will consist of the following milestones:
Milestone 1: Dealing with those still in the valley
The 4000 persons who have remained in the valley have suffered because they have not been granted any of the facilities made available to the migrants. They should be immediately made eligible for registration as migrants, cash grants, rations, reservation in admission to educational institutions, medical grants, scholarships, recruitment to jobs under the State and Central Govts. etc.
Milestone 2: Giving us back our own:
The community has lost everything: land, under agriculture and horticulture, houses, shops, cattle, vehicles, cash, household articles, industrial units, and other sources of income and livelihood. These have been snatched away from us by force, coercion, threat, fraud and misrepresentation. In some cases, the State govt. has deliberately acquired our lands for ostensibly public purposes.
All such deals should be set aside and declared to be null and void by a special Act of the legislature. The said property, land, shop, commercial establishment, industrial unit, house, etc. should revert back to the original KP owner without recovery of any amount paid to him.
All encroachments on the land and property of the KPs should be vacated within three months.
Milestone 3: Access to economic opportunities
Unless the members of the community have an access to economic opportunities, they would not be able to survive. This should include access to jobs under the State and central Govts. and their agencies under a time -bound programme. At least 10,000 jobs should be provided within one year. The following considerations must be kept in view:
The jobs should be respectable and suiting the qualifications of the person .
The age limit, if any, prescribed for the job shall not apply.
The employee should not be required to file any affidavit whatsoever.
The jobs shall not be confined to the valley. The migrant employees shall be entitled to transfers , promotions etc as per rules and practice obtaining for normal employees.
The migrant employees shall be posted initially in clusters or large agglomerations, especially in district headquarters, towns etc. In no case will they be posted in isolated vacancies in far-flung , remote and inaccessible areas.
Special care shall be taken for female employees. They shall normally be posted only at district headquarters, towns etc. If their husbands are also employed, the couple shall be posted at one place.
Knowing the apathy of the State Govt. and its agencies towards the migrants, it shall be incumbent on the Central Govt. to take the lead in this campaign by organising mass recruitment drives through its own agencies like the railways, banks, paramilitary forces, audit office etc.
Apart from jobs, economic opportunities should be created in self-employment avocations like agriculture, horticulture, handloom, handicrafts, tiny and small industries, shops and commercial establishments etc. This would depend on the past background and experience of each beneficiary and their stated preference. Special campaigns shall be launched by the concerned agencies of the state and central govts. to give the initial push to such economic activities, by giving special concessions to the beneficiaries. They shall initiate training camps as also pursue their applications for loans with banks and other financing institutions.
Milestone 4: Restoring the cultural space
Kashmiri Pandits would like to return to their traditional homeland with familiar institutions and landmarks.
In this context the passage of the Temples and Shrines Bill is of tremendous importance. The following precautions should be taken while pursuing this important point:
The draft of the Bill , as prepared by the community, should be passed.
In case delay is expected in pursuing the normal route, it may be done through an Ordinance.
The encroachments on temple lands and properties should be got vacated. All alienations of land and properties belonging to temples should be declared null and void.
Special grants may be sanctioned for the repair and renovation of the temples.
Transit accommodation should be built around the temples, so that migrants can stay there while awaiting the construction of their own houses or flats.
Tourist accommodation should be built around large, important and popular temples, so as to promote religious tourism in the state. This will also integrate the state with the rest of India.
The changes that have been arbitrarily made in place names should be reversed and the original names restored.
Kashmiri as written in the Devanagari script should be recognised at par with the Kashmiri written in the Nastaliq script. As the State Govt. has more or less consigned Kashmiri to the limbo, a National Council for the Promotion of the Kashmiri Language should be set up by the Central Govt.
Milestone 5: Giving physical space to live in;
The KPs have to be given physical space to live in. In order to suit the requirements of different categories of people, various options should be kept open. These should include:
Going back to their own houses. Govt should provide a suitable grant to reconstruct the house.
Allocation of a plot of land in a planned residential colony where they build their own house. The cost could be met by a subsidy and loan.
Allocation of a flat in a multi-storeyed building complex. This should be given free of cost. It could be a single building or a colony or township .
While a ghetto culture should not be encouraged, KPs should initially be housed in building complexes where their security concerns could also be addressed.
Creation of an Implementational Framework
The entire PM’s package will remain merely on paper if a proper implementational framework is not created. The following suggestions may be considered in this context:
A National Coordinator for Kashmiri Pandit Welfare should be appointed in the Ministry of Home Affairs in the rank of Special Secretary. He should be charged with all matters concerning the welfare and rehabilitation of Kashmiri Pandits throughout the country.
Funds for Kashmiri Pandits should not be provided as a kind of afterthought under “security related expenditure”.There should be budget provisions under the relevant heads of expenditure. Separate budget provisions should be made for each head of expenditure like relief, scholarships to students, medical grants,grants for entrepreneurs and persons running commercial establishments, construction of transit accommodation around temple complexes,financial assistance to unemployed youth, grants and loans for housing complexes etc.
The Home Minister should head a Committee to oversee the implementation of the Prime Minister’s package. This committee should meet once in three months.
Chief Minister J&K should head an Implementation Committee at the State level to tackle the implementational problems. This should meet once a month.
A Relief Commissioner’s Office should be set up at Delhi so as to issue migrant certificates, State Subject certificates, voter ID cards etc.
A PM’s package for Kashmiri Pandits was announced in 2008, but this did not succeed in facilitating the return of the community. This was because the problem was visualized in purely financial terms. If the revised package now visualized by the Govt. merely touches the financial parameters, it is bound to fail.
The preconditions for return:
The govt. has to realize that the atmosphere in the valley has to be made conducive for return. The members of the community have to be convinced that the Govt. is empathetic to their basic concerns. This can happen by taking the following steps which constitute the essential preconditions for return:
One: Govt should convene a Joint Session of the two Houses of Parliament and declare a National Policy on Kashmir. Unless the Pandits are confident that the accession of J&K to the Indian union is final and irrevocable, they would not like to go back.
Two: It should declare that Kashmir is an integral part of India, abrogate Article 370 of the Constitution and state emphatically that it will not hold talks on Kashmir with Pakistan. It should compel Pakistan to dismantle the infrastructure of terror. It should reiterate that India will take all steps to recover the territory illegally occupied by Pakistan and China.
Three: The separatists should be told once and for all that there is no question of india relinquishing its hold on Kashmir. Thus there will be no talk of self-rule, autonomy, joint management, porous border and so on.
Four: Govt. should announce the setting of a Commission of Inquiry under a Judge of the Supreme Court of India to probe the circumstances that led to the ethnic cleansing of the Kashmiri Pandit community, so as to counter the disinformation campaign launched by anti-national forces and fix responsibility for the mass exodus in 1990. The report of the Commission should be placed before the Parliament within a definite time-frame.
Five: Govt. should announce that all the cases of murder ,rape and other heinous crimes shall be probed by Special Investigation Teams of the CBI. All the prime suspects, especially those who have confessed to the crimes, shall be jailed under a Special Law and shall remain in detention till they are cleared of the charges by special courts to be constituted for their trial.
Six: A political space should be created for the community by:
Amending the Constitution to create two seats of MPs in the Rajya Sabha for Kashmiri Pandits, to be filled by the President by nomination,
Amending the law to provide for three constituencies in exile in the Legislative Assembly of the State, to be filled by members of the community voting wherever they may have settled temporarily,
Seven: Minority status should be conferred on members of the community and suitable reservation in admission to educational institutions and recruitment to services under the State Govt should be provided. Benefit of the scheme for grant of scholarships to minorities should be granted to students of the community.
Eight: The status of Internally Displaced Persons should be conferred on members of the community, so that they become entitled to all the facilities and benefits enumerated in the Geneva Convention.
Roadmap for Return
There has to be a complete roadmap for facilitating the process of return. This will consist of the following milestones:
Milestone 1: Dealing with those still in the valley
The 4000 persons who have remained in the valley have suffered because they have not been granted any of the facilities made available to the migrants. They should be immediately made eligible for registration as migrants, cash grants, rations, reservation in admission to educational institutions, medical grants, scholarships, recruitment to jobs under the State and Central Govts. etc.
Milestone 2: Giving us back our own:
The community has lost everything: land, under agriculture and horticulture, houses, shops, cattle, vehicles, cash, household articles, industrial units, and other sources of income and livelihood. These have been snatched away from us by force, coercion, threat, fraud and misrepresentation. In some cases, the State govt. has deliberately acquired our lands for ostensibly public purposes.
All such deals should be set aside and declared to be null and void by a special Act of the legislature. The said property, land, shop, commercial establishment, industrial unit, house, etc. should revert back to the original KP owner without recovery of any amount paid to him.
All encroachments on the land and property of the KPs should be vacated within three months.
Milestone 3: Access to economic opportunities
Unless the members of the community have an access to economic opportunities, they would not be able to survive. This should include access to jobs under the State and central Govts. and their agencies under a time -bound programme. At least 10,000 jobs should be provided within one year. The following considerations must be kept in view:
The jobs should be respectable and suiting the qualifications of the person .
The age limit, if any, prescribed for the job shall not apply.
The employee should not be required to file any affidavit whatsoever.
The jobs shall not be confined to the valley. The migrant employees shall be entitled to transfers , promotions etc as per rules and practice obtaining for normal employees.
The migrant employees shall be posted initially in clusters or large agglomerations, especially in district headquarters, towns etc. In no case will they be posted in isolated vacancies in far-flung , remote and inaccessible areas.
Special care shall be taken for female employees. They shall normally be posted only at district headquarters, towns etc. If their husbands are also employed, the couple shall be posted at one place.
Knowing the apathy of the State Govt. and its agencies towards the migrants, it shall be incumbent on the Central Govt. to take the lead in this campaign by organising mass recruitment drives through its own agencies like the railways, banks, paramilitary forces, audit office etc.
Apart from jobs, economic opportunities should be created in self-employment avocations like agriculture, horticulture, handloom, handicrafts, tiny and small industries, shops and commercial establishments etc. This would depend on the past background and experience of each beneficiary and their stated preference. Special campaigns shall be launched by the concerned agencies of the state and central govts. to give the initial push to such economic activities, by giving special concessions to the beneficiaries. They shall initiate training camps as also pursue their applications for loans with banks and other financing institutions.
Milestone 4: Restoring the cultural space
Kashmiri Pandits would like to return to their traditional homeland with familiar institutions and landmarks.
In this context the passage of the Temples and Shrines Bill is of tremendous importance. The following precautions should be taken while pursuing this important point:
The draft of the Bill , as prepared by the community, should be passed.
In case delay is expected in pursuing the normal route, it may be done through an Ordinance.
The encroachments on temple lands and properties should be got vacated. All alienations of land and properties belonging to temples should be declared null and void.
Special grants may be sanctioned for the repair and renovation of the temples.
Transit accommodation should be built around the temples, so that migrants can stay there while awaiting the construction of their own houses or flats.
Tourist accommodation should be built around large, important and popular temples, so as to promote religious tourism in the state. This will also integrate the state with the rest of India.
The changes that have been arbitrarily made in place names should be reversed and the original names restored.
Kashmiri as written in the Devanagari script should be recognised at par with the Kashmiri written in the Nastaliq script. As the State Govt. has more or less consigned Kashmiri to the limbo, a National Council for the Promotion of the Kashmiri Language should be set up by the Central Govt.
Milestone 5: Giving physical space to live in;
The KPs have to be given physical space to live in. In order to suit the requirements of different categories of people, various options should be kept open. These should include:
Going back to their own houses. Govt should provide a suitable grant to reconstruct the house.
Allocation of a plot of land in a planned residential colony where they build their own house. The cost could be met by a subsidy and loan.
Allocation of a flat in a multi-storeyed building complex. This should be given free of cost. It could be a single building or a colony or township .
While a ghetto culture should not be encouraged, KPs should initially be housed in building complexes where their security concerns could also be addressed.
Creation of an Implementational Framework
The entire PM’s package will remain merely on paper if a proper implementational framework is not created. The following suggestions may be considered in this context:
A National Coordinator for Kashmiri Pandit Welfare should be appointed in the Ministry of Home Affairs in the rank of Special Secretary. He should be charged with all matters concerning the welfare and rehabilitation of Kashmiri Pandits throughout the country.
Funds for Kashmiri Pandits should not be provided as a kind of afterthought under “security related expenditure”.There should be budget provisions under the relevant heads of expenditure. Separate budget provisions should be made for each head of expenditure like relief, scholarships to students, medical grants,grants for entrepreneurs and persons running commercial establishments, construction of transit accommodation around temple complexes,financial assistance to unemployed youth, grants and loans for housing complexes etc.
The Home Minister should head a Committee to oversee the implementation of the Prime Minister’s package. This committee should meet once in three months.
Chief Minister J&K should head an Implementation Committee at the State level to tackle the implementational problems. This should meet once a month.
A Relief Commissioner’s Office should be set up at Delhi so as to issue migrant certificates, State Subject certificates, voter ID cards etc.
A document prepared with deep thought, fore-sight and concern.
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