Virtual Homeland of Kashmiri Pandits

Kashmir News Network

Mr. President, It is time to visit Mishriwalla
Lalit Koul

Mr. President, before I let you know where Mishriwalla is and why it is time for you to visit Mishriwalla, let me first of all congratulate you on your latest achievement of becoming India’s eleventh President. That is another feather in your cap. This is truly an ACHIEVEMENT. You have proven, by your sheer hard-work and perseverance, that anybody in this land of Sadhus and Rishis can achieve his/her goals if he/she has the fire in his/her belly to go for those goals.

You have also proven all those India-bashing critics, who claim that in this so-called Hindu India minorities (read Muslims) have it very tough, wrong. You have proved them very very wrong. These critics have lost their case and cause (this is their only cause for living). Your election to the highest office of the land is a testimony to India’s fairness in its treatment of its minorities (read Muslims). By no means, I wish to suggest that you got elected to this post because you are a Muslim by birth. You deserved it purely based on your own highly commendable credentials. But your election does dismiss the myth that minorities (read Muslims) in India are subjected to discrimination and are at the mercy of majority (read Hindus). It is not just your election. It is your actions as well that convey the spirit of India, the nation that has embraced people of every faith without any discrimination.

Your recent visit to Gujarat to soothe the wounds of Muslim victims of recent communal riots was a note worthy visit. Your visit must have definitely pacified some sections of society. It must have displayed the compassion you carry for the downtrodden and the victims. And that is very very necessary for the victims to recuperate.

I also understand that in very near future you are planning to visit the victims of Union Carbide Gas leak tragedy in Bhopal. That would be another visit worth the effort.

Now let me come to point of Mishriwalla. I am not entirely sure if you even know where Mishriwalla is. Thus to explain why it is time to visit Mishriwalla, I would like to give you some background.

In the days leading up to January 19, 1990, Islamic terrorists in Kashmir valley engaged in worst kind of ethnic cleansing by killing, raping, maiming and butchering Hindu men, women, children, young and old. The innocent victims fault: they believed in Hindu Way of Life and India. They believed in Indian Tricolor. Most of these victims of ethnic cleansing were Kashmiri Hindus. Unlike in Gujarat riots, Kashmiri Hindus did not retaliate. They did not retaliate because they did not and do not believe in raping women and killing children. They believed and still believe in Indian Constitution, whose supreme protector is the President of India. That makes it you, Mr. President.

All these innocent victims of modern day holocaust, escaped from the merciless killings by heading southward towards other parts of India, hoping that rest of the India will come to their rescue and will embrace them. While the general public embraced them and gave them shelter, their fundamental rights to basic security and dignity were trampled upon day in and day out. It has been 13 long years that these victims have been living like refugees in their own country in despicable conditions in various refugee camps set up around Jammu and Delhi. One of these refugee camps is in Mishriwalla, a small town on the outskirts of city of Jammu.

It is shameful that in these past 13 long years, none of the public servants who have taken an oath to uphold the Constitution of India have cared to visit these victims and fight for their cause. While everybody from top to bottom, including you Mr. President, has visited Muslim refugee camps in Gujarat, nobody has ever paid any attention to Kashmiri Hindu refugees. Why is it so? Is it because 700,000 plus Kashmiri Hindus do not make a nice big vote bank? Is it because Kashmiri Hindus have already pledged their allegiance to India and thus can be taken for granted? Is it because Kashmiri Hindus do not play the card of “Aazaadi”? Or is it because Kashmiri Hindus are not Muslims?

Since your position is non-political and you have the power to influence public policy, I am hoping that you will rise to the occasion and not just play to the galleries. I am hoping that you will not make any distinction between Hindu victims and Muslim victims.

Since you did not waste any time in visiting Gujarat, I am sure you can make up time for Mishriwalla as well. You have taken an oath to uphold the Constitution of India and protect fundamental rights of all those who believe in Indian Constitution. And that is exactly what Kashmiri Hindus do. They believe in India and its constitution. But the sad fact is that in spite of their sacrifices for India and their unflinching commitment towards India, it is these victims who have been denied their fundamental rights. After 13 long years in these unbearable camps, they cannot even exercise their right to franchise. There is no bigger tragedy than losing right to vote in a democracy like India.

Mr. President, you have already visited Muslim victims in Gujarat.

And now it is time for you Mr. President to visit Mishriwalla and fight for the victims of worst ethnic cleansing perpetrated by Islamic terrorists. One more reason you should visit Mishriwala is because you are above politics and petty communalism, unlike the so-called people's representatives who have shown total apathy to the plight of Kashmiri Hindus. If your secular and moral credentials are to remain intact, you must urgently bring to the notice of the sleeping politicians the festering sore of Kashmiri Hindu camps in Jammu and elsewhere.

And please bear in mind that unlike Muslim victims in Gujarat, these Kashmiri Hindu victims have pledged their unmitigated allegiance to India and its constitution. For Today, For Tomorrow and For Ever.