37 Years of Exile: The Vanishing Voice of the Kashmiri Pandit

Today is yet another 19th of January. We, the #Hindus who survived a genocide in #Kashmir enter the 37th year of our exile. And, on this day, we are back, again talking about it. You may wonder why.

There was a time when channels would plan their prime time shows for this day several days in advance. When the anchors would revisit the horrific experiences we went through, while in Kashmir, and the apathy, once we were driven out of there. They would interview the survivors still rotting in the refugee camps. They would bring up the cases that the courts were dragging their feet on. They would also shame the politicians who allowed the jihadis a free pass, and then, grill those who even decades later are unwilling to do anything about it.

That would happen even till 5-6 years ago. Not anymore. All the leading anchors have moved on from this issue. Even their channels have lost interest. Kashmir, exiled Hindus of Kashmir, Hindu plight in Bangladesh, or, for that matter, the plight of Hindus anywhere, is missing from the prime time shows. Even shoulder-prime or afternoon bulletins now prefer a new VandeBharat train flagged of by the PM to the latest of the everyday murders and mob-lynchings of Hindus in Bangladesh.

A hasbeen channel did even better. They went all the way to Srinagar to celebrate the dawn of “love and peace” in Kashmir. An elaborate concert was organised around a celebrity singer from the Hindi films. A few local performers too were thrown in. The usual suspects in Kashmir called for a boycott. I was invited on-air, live, from Delhi and asked to comment. The leading lights at the channel must have thought that with the Jihadis opposing the concert, a Kashmiri Pandit has to naturally support the concert. I only had to ask how would tens of thousands of Kashmiri Hindus, still rotting in the refugee camps, and the lakhs scattered all over the world, unable to go back to there homes in Kashmir ‘celebrate’ such “love and peace”. Why humiliate us like this, I asked. And, in less than a minute I was hurriedly told, thank you sir, it is over for you. In a matter of days, a Kashmiri #Jihadist, Dr. Umer, blew himself up, along with 15 others at the Red Fort, in Delhi. The same channel was proudly reporting from the homes in Kashmir, of the entire network of doctors who had amassed over three tonnes of explosives.

That precisely is the drift about Kashmir in the newsrooms today. There is no follow-up news on that network doctors that got fortuitously unravelled in time, by a sheer accident of a few posters, diligently followed up by the J&K police. There’s no news on where that investigation is leading us to. Or, why is our government so keen to hide the Pakistan connection. Nothing new to report on?

No updates on the network of jihadi doctors but the doctoring is on. A doctored ‘love and peace’ in Kashmir is critical for tourism in the new summer season. Because, a flood of tourists in Kashmir is for our government the ultimate proof of normalcy there. Conjuring up “normalcy” is the top priority. In this elaborate make-up for Kashmir, for the Modi government, we the exiled Hindus are like a fly in the ointment.

They may hide the fact that the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) remains promulgated in the entire Jammu & Kashmir. Isn’t that the biggest proof that there is no normalcy whatsoever in Kashmir? If that isn’t enough, why are there no less than 65 battalions of Rashtriya Rifles battling insurgency in the UT of J&K? They are needed, also to sanitise the routes and arenas where the tamashas are held to pretend normalcy. Is that normal? But then, the Indian Army will not call for a Press Conference to remind us all, that so many of them are deployed exclusively to battle Jihadi insurgents in Kashmir.

That responsibility is ours. We the Hindus of Kashmir, survivors of a genocide, languishing in the refugee camps, living in slum like conditions, scattered all over the world, fighting a losing battle for justice, struggling to hold on to an identity that faces extinction, must stand up to be counted. We must call out the hoax of a make believe love peace and normalcy in Kashmir. And, we will. Even with our limited means, our mounting challenges, and an apathetic government now turning irritable if not hostile, we will bash on regardless. And, the 19th of January is a very good day to tell our story. On this day, our Kashmir was snatched away from us.