New Delhi: Reaching out to the Kashmiri
Pandits, Union Home Secretary G K Pillai on Sunday said internal
displacement of the community should not have happened.
Pillai, who was speaking at a one day conclave of a
prominent Kashmiri body said, "One cannot imagine a Kashmir
without Kashmiri Pandits in them," inviting a round of
applause from about 400 community members who had come for the
event.
"Internal displacement of Kashmiri Pandits should not
have happened," Pillai said during his address at the All
India Kashmiri Samaj conclave.
He also said it was not proper to use the term immigrants
for Kashmiri Pandits, an issue which speakers before him had
raised.
Pillai said that from last month, the Home Ministry has
introduced a magazine on Kashmir for its staff and that he
would do everything possible to help the Kashmiri Pandits'
cause but stressed that they will have to work as a community.
Giving credit to Kashmiris, who, he said, are known for
their intellect, Pillai stressed on the need for them to move
ahead as a community.
The conclave, attended by Pandits from across the
country and abroad, saw a number of speakers espousing their
keenness to go back and settle down in the state from where
they were forced to leave in the 90's due to militancy.
Professor Surender Munshi, one of the speakers said the
community should fight the term 'migrants' and said efforts
should be made to let people know that they are living in
exile in their own country.
He said it is also important to call themselves Kashmiri
Hindus rather than Pandits as the latter term tends to create
prejudices.
"Other Indians hardly know that Kashmiri Pandits mean
Kashmiri Hindus. There is no other caste for the Hindus in
Kashmir. It is the exodus of not Pandits but Hindus as a
whole," he said.
The speakers also said Kashmiri Pandits should be
brought under the category of minorities and should be
entitled to all rights given to such groups.
Bureau Report
First Published: Sunday, November 15, 2009, 18:33