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| It's not surprising; it was destined to happen | | Sikh Exodus From Kashmir | | RUSTAM
JAMMU, Aug 12: The minority community of Sikh in Kashmir yesterday threatened to quit the Valley in the event of the state and central governments not conceding its demands. The threat was administered by the All-Party Sikh Coordination Committee (APSCC) chairman, Jagmohan Singh Raina, at Srinagar. He also disclosed that APSCC will organize a national-level "Ethnic Sikh Conference" on August 17 and 18 "to show to the world forum how Sikhs of J&K are being deliberately neglected socially, politically and economically by the Government of India and the state government under a well thought-out plan". According to him, those who are expected to take part in this proposed conference will include "prominent Sikh leaders and intellectuals from the state and Members of Parliament, including Pratap Singh Bajwa, Sukhdev Singh Dendisa, former member parliament Mr. Ahluwalia; various leaders from Delhi and Punjab; Sikh human right activist; and leaders of All India Sikh Students Federation (AISSF) and other Sikh Parties from the state and other parts of India". The number of Sikhs who reside in different parts of the Valley is roughly 60,000.
Administering threat that the Sikh community would quit Kashmir sooner than later, Raina said: "The slow migration of Sikhs has already started and more (Sikhs) will leave if the situation remains unchanged in Kashmir". "Sikhs have migrated from Villages to city and have become refugees in their own state…Sikhs, who have always played a key role in the development of Kashmir as well as Jammu are (being) crushed by the policies of the government. The government always resorts to delaying tactics and (its policies) are always anti-Sikh," he further said.
The upshot of his argument was that the Sikhs constitute a persecuted lot in Kashmir and that they would be left with no other option but to quit the Valley if remedial measures are not taken forthwith to protect them against exclusion by others. (The meaning was clear. He obviously referred to those who forced the minority community of Hindus to flee the Valley in early 1990.) "Sikhs are not only a minority in the country, but also in the state but they have not been accorded the minority status which is their right," he also said, adding that the major long-pending demands of the Sikh community in Kashmir include protection, justice and fair play, reservation for Sikhs, grant of minority status and appointment of Punjabi lecturers in colleges. Not major demands by any yardstick.
It was not the first occasion when the Kashmiri Sikhs threatened migration. It has been happening since more than two decades. Hence, what Jagmohan Singh Raina said could not be construed as big surprise. In fact, it was no surprise at all. It was destined to happen one day or the other because the situation in Kashmir has been such. The Government of India and the authorities in the state have never ever acted against those who have been seeking to purge the Valley of all minorities since October 1947. Take, for example, the case of Kashmiri Hindus. They quit Kashmir and became refugees in their own country because neither the Government of India nor the authorities in the state acted against those who were conspiring against the minorities with a view to converting Kashmir into a one-community region. Earlier, thousands of Dogras had migrated from Kashmir to Jammu.
Raina and other Valley-based Sikhs should not expect any support from the authorities, as they are biased. They have to fend for themselves. They should remember that the authorities in India consider only one community a minority community, which constitutes majority in Kashmir. It does so for vote-bank politics. It is indeed disgusting that the custodians of the Indian state continue to act in a fashion that enabled fanatics to get rid Kashmir of Kashmiri Hindus, who were more numerous as compared to the Sikhs.
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