'We stayed back and suffered': J&K-resident Pandits resent the govt's primary focus on their migrant kin

Srinagar: After finishing his education and landing a job, Anil Vikas Bhat got married to a girl in Mumbai. A Kashmiri Pandit, his family is one of the many Pandit families that continue to live in Kashmir despite the political turmoil around. Life, however, took a sad turn when, having spent five years in Mumbai, the choice between his wife and hometown stared bleakly at him.

“Our marriage lasted for less than two years. We ended up in court,” Bhat told this reporter. “She never wanted to be in Kashmir. Spending even a week here became intolerable to her. On the contrary, my roots were questioned. I was even accused of working with militants and separatists”.

To Bhat, the turmoil faced by his community has also meant a deep personal loss. Breakout of insurgency in Jammu and Kashmir led to large scale migration from the Kashmir Valley. Besides, the families who migrated from the Valley, many families migrated from different hilly areas of Jammu. Although Bhat’s family didn’t migrate and have no regrets even today, the choice of staying back has taken its own toll.

The Centre recently okayed a Rs 2,000-crore package for Kashmiri migrants. It contains 3,000 state government jobs and transit accommodations for the displaced members of Kashmiri Pandit community, the financial implication of which would be borne by the Government of India. According to official estimates, there are about 62,000 registered Kashmiri migrant families residing in Jammu, Delhi, NCR and other parts of country. All of them are categorised as migrants.

Inside Wasoo, one of the transitory accommodation facilities near the National Highway 1A, about 8 km from Anantnag town, Kashmiri Pandit residents are not happy with the implementation of the rehabilitation policy on ground. A gated settlement with nearly 189 pre-fabricated structures built on two sides of an Army camp and guarded by the J&K police round the clock, the residents of the colony feel caged and regret having returned to the Valley.

Although there have been no incidents of violence against them, they are rarely allowed to venture outside the colony. Many people left high salaried jobs before coming back to Kashmir but they feel exploited. More than 50 persons have married inside these camps over the last five-and-a-half years but the newly-weds find little privacy due to congestion.

“It’s like living in a jail. Our freedom has been snatched. If we want to live side by side with our old neighbours, we are told that there is a threat to our lives. The real threats are the governments which have played politics over our condition,” a Pandit, who wished to remain anonymous, said.

The feeling of insecurity and loss is deeply embedded among Kashmiri Pandits, who preferred to stay put in their homes, braving the threats and political uncertainty, at the height of political unrest in the Valley. According to many Kashmiri Pandits, the Centre’s package, which has divided the community as ‘migrants’ and ‘non migrants’ is tantamount to “rubbing salt on wounds”.

Soon after the package was announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 7 November, many Kashmiri Pandits , terming the package as ‘mere eye wash’, protested at Srinagar’s Lal Chowk. Pandit RK Bhat, president of Youth All India Kashmir Samaj (YAIKS), which organised the protest, said the government, by announcing the package for rehabilitating 75,000 migrant families, has ignored the Pandits who stayed back in Kashmir Valley.

“The harsh reality is that so far during the last eight years, the government could not even rehabilitate 2,000 Pandit youths who had volunteered to serve in Kashmir. Not even five percent of the package announced by the previous government has been spent so far, which exposes the designs of political parties,” he added.

Sanjay Tickoo, convenor of Kashmir Pandit Sangharsh Samiti (KPSS), a group spearheading the cause of resident Kashmiri Pandits, regrets their community has been divided into ‘migrated’ and ’non migrated’ classes.

“All the focus of the government and the political parties is concentrated on the Kashmiri Pandit community which left the valley in early 90’s. Those who did not leave the majority community and suffered with them, their problems are not being considered,” he told Firstpost.

Kashmiri Pandits are not the only community brimming with anger over the announcement of package for the “migrant” Pandits. According to Jagmohan Singh Raina, chairman of All Parties Sikh Coordination Committee Kashmir, the Sikh community has equally suffered in the past two decades of turmoil.

“Sikhs migrated from 126 villages during 90s and they are now living in towns and city. Their orchards and houses were left unattended and the worst part is that the government hasn’t offered them even a penny,” he said.

According to Raina, almost 30,000 members of the Sikh community have left the Valley due to the callous approach of the government towards them. He says the state government’s recent decision to provide relief to the migrants of the hilly areas of Jammu at par with the relief being provided to the Kashmiri migrants has created a stir within their minority.

“Jobs for Punjabi language are lying vacant and our government is sleeping on the matter. The feeling of dejectedness is now pushing our youths to migrate out of the valley which militancy failed to do. Pandits will take the jobs from the new package and leave the Valley again,” Raina fears.

For Bhat it is becoming difficult to reconcile with the harsh realities surrounding him. “I look at my classmates, friends and those who migrated from Kashmir. They have achieved something in life but those who stayed back lost everything”.