Recent killings of Pandits in Kashmir are a cruel reminder of the genocide that happened in 1989-90 in the Valley. Kashmiri Pandits cannot forget the horror that gripped them when loudspeakers from mosques blared “Ralive, Tsaliv ya Galiv’’ (convert, leave or die). They had to leave the Valley. Overnight, they became refugees in their own country. They lived under inhuman conditions in the camps of Jammu and Delhi. In each refugee camp, 9-15 members of a Pandit family huddled together under one roof. They perished, cherishing fond memories of places which they had frequented in the valley at one time. One wonders why the nation’s conscience was not stirred. (Read More)
Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru lent support to Sheikh Abdullah, blindly trusting his secular democratic objectives. But gradually it was revealed that beneath the ideological grandstanding, Sheikh had an agenda related to his personal ambition to become the unchallenged ruler of the state. With this purpose in view, sometimes, he played the communal card and sometimes took recourse to change partners in national politics. When Sheikh launched the “Quit Kashmir’’ movement in 1946 to turn the Maharaja into a mere constitutional head, he was arrested. Nehru stood by him. But as soon as Congress decided to work separately with its own organisations in the state, the Sheikh issued a ‘Fatwa’ that it would be a sin to offer the funeral prayer, “namaz-e-janaza”, for Muslim members of the Congress Party. (Read More)
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