Reconciliation, not revenge, is the way forward in Kashmir

The current authorities on the Centre has given Kashmiri Muslims causes to consider that there’s a relentless marketing campaign to tarnish the picture of the complete neighborhood, which was not even a part of the conspiracy hatched in opposition to the Kashmiri Pandits from throughout the border. A good probe into the occasions that led to the mass exodus of Kashmiri Pandit households would assist to rebuild the damaged belief and bond between the 2 communities. That, in flip, may finish the othering of the Muslim majority.

As a political activist, I’ve discovered that there’s unanimous feeling amongst Kashmiris {that a} honest investigation may assist to determine the perpetrators of violence and result in their prosecution. This, they consider, would convey justice to the victims, and, maybe, result in closure in a tragedy that has harm everybody.

Since 1990, the Congress or Congress-led governments have been in workplace for 15 years whereas the BJP-led NDA has dominated for 13 years. No authorities confirmed any curiosity in closure on this nice tragedy. The Hindu Proper weaponised it to polarise Hindu voters even when that meant destabilising efforts to bridge the hole between the 2 communities and facilitate the return of Kashmiri Pandits to the Valley. It has additional helped the ruling regime use an iron-fist coverage in the direction of Kashmir.

Now, to the query of whether or not The Kashmir Information is an unbiased try at narrating the plight of Pandits.

I, a Kashmiri Pandit, left a well-paying company job in Delhi to return to the Valley to rebuild what I had misplaced 32 years in the past, with none assist from the federal government. So it’s my crucial to dissect what has gone improper after the discharge of the movie, which the prime minister and his cupboard need the world to observe in an effort to know the reality about Kashmir.

For me, there are three takeaways from the movie. The primary is the concentrating on of establishments like JNU. I now see associates and kinfolk in WhatsApp teams making a case for silencing the “JNU-types”.

The second is the perpetuation of an endless cycle of hatred for Muslims basically. Movies have surfaced on social media, the place publish the screening of the movie, viewers are accusing the Muslim neighborhood of sympathising with terrorists and are calling for boycott of tourism in Kashmir. The ruling regime has constantly equated Muslims with terrorism in election campaigns. We noticed this just lately in UP. For the reason that unconstitutional abrogation of Articles 370 and 35A, the BJP has misplaced appreciable floor in J&Ok. The BJP and its allies have been decimated in Kashmir within the DDC elections whereas their vote share declined by 19 per cent (as in comparison with the 2019 basic election) in Jammu. The Kashmir Information might assist the occasion revive the Hindu vs Muslim narrative and consolidate Hindu votes in Jammu. The ache and distress of the Kashmiri Pandits is being exploited to push a political narrative.

The third takeaway is the matter of justice to Kashmiri Pandits, their return, rehabilitation and reconciliation. These have now been pushed to the background. The promoters of the film throughout the Pandit neighborhood and influencers, just like the International Kashmiri Pandit Diaspora who of their imaginative and prescient doc discuss restorative justice, have conveniently missed the problem of reconciliation between Kashmiri Muslims and Pandits. This departure from their official place of restorative justice, about which they’d written to the Union residence minister, raises doubts about the true intention of those that stay overseas and present little curiosity in returning to their roots. By neatly co-opting the film, the ruling regime has showcased itself as a sufferer of terrorism and thus helpless in offering justice to Kashmiri Pandits. This manner the federal government has subtly conveyed the message that the environment within the Valley continues to be not conducive for the return of Pandits and that its militaristic method in Kashmir shouldn’t be questioned. It has additionally allowed the federal government to evade robust questions on its failure in offering a blueprint on the rehabilitation of Pandits and justice to the victims of militancy.

Any dialogue on the affect of the insurgency on Kashmiri Muslims and Pandits tends to slip into mud-slinging about who has suffered essentially the most. Whereas Kashmir Pandits have misplaced their properties, Kashmiri Muslims stay jailed of their homes. That’s what three many years of armed insurgency has given the collective Kashmiri society. Many occasions proven within the movie are true and as merciless or grotesque as depicted. However an sincere and unbiased dialogue in regards to the violence inflicted on Kashmiri Pandits turns into unimaginable if bigots are to choose these and switch them into materials for propaganda. What the minorities in Kashmir underwent within the Nineties is now being skilled by the minorities in the remainder of India immediately, minus the armed insurgents. In each instances, the bulk was unable to guard the minority. Additionally, claims and counter claims akin to “solely 200 of yours have been killed whereas 1,600 of ours have been killed” doesn’t make a dialogue. {That a} massacre came about is a reality.

We Kashmiris have to unlearn hate and study to respect one another’s trauma. Folks from each communities, or anybody for that matter, ought to be allowed to inform tales with out apologising for the crimes meted out by the Indian state on Kashmiri Muslim civilians or by Pakistan-sponsored militants on Hindu minorities within the Valley.

Reconciliation is the way in which ahead, not revenge. That’s one essential message lacking in The Kashmir Information.

(The author is spokesperson, PDP)