#dnaEdit: Bridging trust

There are three dimensions to the controversy that is building around the return of Pandits to the Kashmir Valley. The first deals with the demand of the Pandits to ensure security for their community. The second relates to the BJP’s suggestion to locate Pandit returnees in satellite townships — until they are able to get back into the normal rhythm of living in the Valley alongside Muslims. The third view articulated by the PDP, which is jointly sharing power with the BJP in Kashmir, is that the Pandits cannot be re-located in a separate zone. There is yet another extreme stance struck by a small section of the Pandits, who are demanding a separate homeland for the minority Hindus in the Muslim-majority Valley. Given its potential of further radicalising politics in the troubled Valley, this view does not deserve to be taken seriously,

The issue of security of the Pandits cannot be dismissed out of hand. Tempers in the state and outside are bound to escalate in case of any stray attack on the Pandits on their return to the state. But at the same time, the answer does not lie in creating exclusive and secure conclaves for the Pandits because that might only increase their vulnerability to attacks, which in turn would only deepen the existing tensions between Hindu and Muslim communities. The issue of relocating the Pandits is indeed a difficult one; something that requires great tact and understanding on the part of all parties concerned. Community leaders must step out of their comfort zones and reach out to each other. Moderates and separatists, liberals and conservatives in the political parties as well as in civil society must join hands in this mission, if it is to succeed in any measure. State and central governments can’t be left on their own to rehabilitate the Pandits. 

For more than a decade now, leaders in the Valley, have argued that the Pandits are an integral part of the Kashmir social fabric; that their absence in the Valley is a gaping social wound. While the Pandits are bitter that the extremists were allowed to dictate the political agenda in the past, Kashmiri Muslim leaders feel that they should not have fled the Valley and instead should have shared the tribulations with their Muslim neighbours.

Pandits and Muslims offer opposing arguments for the former’s departure from the Valley. The Pandits believe that extremists drove them out of the Valley. Muslims, on the other hand, are of the view that the political fight was essentially between Kashmir and the central government, and not between the two communities in the Valley. It will not be possible to wish away these differing perceptions of each side. At the same time, no solution is possible as long as the two sides cling to their stated positions.

What is needed is for each side to have faith in the other. As long as the Pandits do not trust the Muslims, it will not be possible for them to return and live in their ancestral land, even if separate townships are created. It might be better if the BJP and the PDP, and all other political players, let civil society groups work out the modalities to enable the Pandits to return home. Political parties will want to state their maximalist positions only to gain electoral mileage. This will only end up in further vitiating the atmosphere. It is important for Muslim leaders in the Valley to reach out to the Pandits, who are in a minority there. Last but not least, the issue of the Pandits’ homecoming should not be seen as part of the political problem nor its solution.