| Displaced Kashmiri Pandits deserve and demand share of MP,s /MLA,s Development Funds | | | Early Times Report
JAMMU, Oct 7: For thirty-five long years, the displaced Kashmiri Pandit community has lived as exiles in its own country, scattered across Jammu, Delhi, and beyond. Even today, our wounds remain unhealed, as injustice continues in the denial of our rightful political representation and share in development.and other benefits.
When a citizen is displaced from his place of birth, democracy expects that he should be allowed to vote where he resides so that the representative he elects will ensure his development, basic amenities, and welfare. But what happened with Kashmiri Pandits is a cruel joke. Instead of allowing us to vote in Jammu, Delhi, or other places where we have been forced to live, we were compelled to cast our votes in our old constituencies in the Valley, where we do not live anymore. This arrangement may have served the interests of political parties, but it has served no purpose for us. We do not live there, we do not benefit from the constituency development funds of MLAs and MPs elected from those seats, and we remain voiceless where we actually live today.
Our present reality is harsh. In migrant camps and scattered colonies, our people struggle every day with poor roads, broken drainage systems, inadequate water supply, and lack of proper health and educational facilities. Our relief colonies have no proper civic amenities, our youth remain unemployed, our elderly languish in despair, and our families continue to live a half-life between humiliation and uncertainty. Meanwhile, the MLAs and MPs who take our votes from Kashmir Valley spend their constituency development funds in areas where we do not live and cannot benefit. This is not democracy; it is mockery. It is not representation; it is exploitation.
It is for this reason that we demand that a rightful share of development funds be earmarked for us. At least five to ten percent of the constituency development funds of all MLAs and MPs of Kashmir, who receive votes from displaced Kashmiri Pandits, must be set aside and deposited with the Relief Commissioner's office at Jammu and Delhi. These funds should be exclusively used for the development and welfare of our displaced community whether for infrastructure, civic facilities, schools, health centers, or youth welfare. If this is not done, then the other just alternative is to allow displaced Kashmiri Pandits to cast their votes and contest elections at their present places of residence so that the representatives we choose will work for us and bring us the benefits of development.
Our demand is not charity. It is justice. It is our constitutional right. For over three decades, our votes have been taken but our voices silenced. Our democratic rights have been reduced to a ritual that yields us no benefit. We have been deprived of representation where we live, and denied development where we are forced to survive. We are victims of genocide and forced displacement, and if democracy is truly about the people, then it is high time that the government, the Election Commission of India, and political parties correct this injustice.
Development must follow the people, not empty constituencies. Since we no longer live in the Valley, our share of development must reach us in Jammu, Delhi, and elsewhere. Our demand for five to ten percent of the CD funds is not only logical and justified, but also a moral obligation upon the State and the Nation. If democracy means anything, it must mean justice for the most victimized community of Independent India.
It is time to end this long discrimination. It is time to treat displaced Kashmiri Pandits as equal citizens of this country. It is time to recognize our sacrifice and our suffering, and to give us our rightful due. Our demand is simple, just, and undeniable: let the development linked to our votes come to us where we live today, and not be lost in places where we no longer reside. This is not only our right, it is the test of India's democracy. |
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