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| Return call to Pandits seems cosmetic | | | When the JKLF Chief,Mohd.Yasin
Malik, invited displaced Kashmiri
Pandits to return to the valley he was not the first separatist leader to do so.Other separatists,both moderates and hardliners,too have extended their invitation to the Pandits,who had fled the valley in the wake of Pakistan sponsored militancy,in 1990.This change in the mindset of the separatists has been witnessed during the last over two years.The reason being that the separatists have felt encouraged to invite Pandits to return to Kashmir because of marked improvement in the security scenario in the state. Whether Pandits admit it or not it is a healthy change and it may revive the spirit of traditional brotherhood between the two communities. Those who see in these invitations as a change in the mindset of the separatists argue that had they not been in favour of the return of Pandits to the valley they had no political compulsions for undergoing the change.There are analysts who believe that three factors have motivated the separ atists to urge Pandits to return to Kashmir.
First being that the separatists have belatedly realised that the exodus of the minority community in the wake of Pandit killings had utlimately soiled the image of not only the separatists but of the Jihadis and the muslims.But one cannot be sure of the possibility for preventing over 3.50 lakh pandits from fleeing Kashmir had the separatists campaigned against those who had masterminded the exodus.It was so because besides muslims even the separatists’ lives had been endangered by the acivities of gun wielding youths.Secondly,the separatists have become aware of the fact that since more than 80 per cent of the displaced families have sold their immovable assets it was not possible for them to return on the assurances of the Government that it would provide financial assistance to them for building houses.It was so because no family can build even a small dwelling with the meagre amount the Government has decided to dole out. Thirdly, majority of Pandits, belonging to the 60-80 age group,who were very keen to return to Kashmir, had died during the last 21 years of exile.Their wards are well settled in areas outside the state and in some foreign countries.
For this segment of the youth the state does not have the means for providing them lucrative jobs.This way if the separatists have started extending invitation to Pandits to return one can call it an exercise aimed at erasing the level of the tarnished image which was the result of the forcible exodus of the minority community.Even the state and the central Governments have been found lacking in their zeal for rehabilitating the displaced people. Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, had formulated an employment package for the unemployed educated Kashmiri Pandit youths which was linked to their return to the valley.Under this package 6,000 jobs in the Government sector had to be created within the valley.The centre was to meet the wage bill of 3,000 employees and the state had to foot the wage bill for the remaining 3,000 employees.The state Government refused to meet the wage bill for 3,000 posts on the plea of financial stringency and as far as the central quota was concer ned about 2,000 KP youths were recruited in Government departments within the valley. Nothing has been done to fill the remaining 4,000 posts during the last over one year.This way Government’s efforts for motivatting Pandits to return to Kashmir seems to be as much cosmetic as the one being pursued by the separatists.In fact not only the separatists but the majority community in Kashmir should initiate specific measures for encouraging Pandits to return to Kashmir.
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