THE PLIGHT OF KASHMIRI PANDITS

Refugees in your own country ? Is'nt it strange ? I have yet to see even a smallest country in this world, where their own people are refugees. Yes, you can see the refugees, kashmiri pandits, in a big country like india. We talk of becoming a global power, nuclear power, sending a mission to the moon. A country which is next to china.The 6th largest army in the world. Yet, we cant protect our own people. For the last 20 yrs, kasmiri pandits are staying in exile, in their own country. Have we seen such a situation anywhere in the world ? I dont know. 3 lakh kashmiri pandits turned out of their own homeland ? 1000 pandits killed in the valley ? Their women raped, children murdered and 3000 of their properties looted and confiscated. At the time of partition, pandits constituted 9% of the total population of the valley. Today their are almost none. Stastics show, that at the time of partition, there were 30% hindus left in pakistan. Today they are hardly 1%.

I am not against muslim community. They form a formidable part of india. They are everywhere. In govt. service, pvt. sector, in services sector like IT & BPO's. they are in the army, paramilitary forces etc. They as a community are religious people, but what about their leaders and our leaders ?

We talk of secularism. Are we secular to the these pandits ? We are ofcourse secular to the minority community. Why double standards of secularism ?

The leaders have to answer this. Otherwise, communal problems will always remain. And in a communal society,a country cant reach anywhere. We cant talk of big words like upcoming global power, nuclear state with 8% GDP. It sounds strange.

Let us return the pandits, their self-esteem. Let them have their own Homeland, which they can proudly say, belongs to them. There is no harm in making Jammu, their homeland. Let it be a Union Territory like Chandigarh.