‘Witnessed darkness… now seeing rays of positivity’: This Padma awardee wants Kashmiri Pandits back in Valley

“I had been witness to the growing darkness of terrorism. Today, I am also witness to the emerging rays of positivity there,” he said, adding that was why “nearly 6,000 of our youth (Kashmiri Pandits employed under the Prime Minister’s job package) are freely working and roaming around in the Valley”.

The youth from both the minority community and the majority community are coming closer to each other, and the latter understands that the bloodshed that took place in the Valley was wrong and should not have happened, Bhat said.

Bhat, who is in his mid-70s, has been the chairman of Vivekanand Ashram at Nagdandi in South Kashmir’s Achabal area of Anantnag district for the past 20 years, helping local farmers grow apples and walnuts using modern techniques.

“I had the pain in my heart that I could not do anything for the people when I was in government service in the Valley as I was bound by service rules,” he said, adding, “When I got free from that bondage after retirement, I decided to stay in the Valley to work for the people here instead of moving elsewhere along with my wife and children.”

After retirement, Bhat became an activist of the Swami Vivekanand Kendra, Kanya Kumari. The Kendra deputed him to work at its Nagdandi Ashram in the Kashmir Valley’s Achabal area of Anantnag district.

To convince local farmers to use modern techniques, the ashram developed a high-density apple orchard on its land. In the process, Bhat got vast tracts of unproductive barren land in Kashmir turned into high-yielding apple and walnut orchards, raising the income of local farmers.

Under his leadership, the ashram has been organising various programmes for Kashmiri Pandits living in the Valley and also for those who have migrated to connect them to their homeland. Its programmes are aimed at promoting intra- and inter-state integration from Kashmir to Kanyakumari.

The Nagdandi Ashram conducts five-day spiritual programmes and personality development courses for youth working under the PM’s employment package in the Valley.