Opinion Reconciliation, not revenge, is the way forward in Kashmir

The present government at the Centre has given Kashmiri Muslims reasons to believe that there is a relentless campaign to tarnish the image of the entire community, which was not even part of the conspiracy hatched against the Kashmiri Pandits from across the border. A fair probe into the events that led to the mass exodus of Kashmiri Pandit families would help to rebuild the broken trust and bond between the two communities. That, in turn, could end the othering of the Muslim majority.

As a political activist, I have found that there is unanimous feeling among Kashmiris that a fair investigation could help to identify the perpetrators of violence and lead to their prosecution. This, they believe, would bring justice to the sufferers, and, perhaps, lead to closure in a tragedy that has hurt everyone.

Since 1990, the Congress or Congress-led governments have been in office for 15 years while the BJP-led NDA has ruled for 13 years. No government showed any interest in closure in this great tragedy. The Hindu Right weaponised it to polarise Hindu voters even if that meant destabilising efforts to bridge the gap between the two communities and facilitate the return of Kashmiri Pandits to the Valley. It has further helped the ruling regime use an iron-fist policy towards Kashmir.

Now, to the question of whether The Kashmir Files is an unbiased attempt at narrating the plight of Pandits.

I, a Kashmiri Pandit, left a well-paying corporate job in Delhi to return to the Valley to rebuild what I had lost 32 years ago, without any support from the government. So it is my imperative to dissect what has gone wrong after the release of the film, which the prime minister and his cabinet want the world to watch in order to know the truth about Kashmir.

For me, there are three takeaways from the film. The first is the targeting of institutions like JNU. I now see friends and relatives in WhatsApp groups making a case for silencing the “JNU-types”.

The second is the perpetuation of an unending cycle of hatred for Muslims in general. Videos have surfaced on social media, where post the screening of the film, viewers are accusing the Muslim community of sympathising with terrorists and are calling for boycott of tourism in Kashmir. The ruling regime has consistently equated Muslims with terrorism in election campaigns. We saw this recently in UP. Since the unconstitutional abrogation of Articles 370 and 35A, the BJP has lost considerable ground in J&K. The BJP and its allies were decimated in Kashmir in the DDC elections whereas their vote share declined by 19 per cent (as compared to the 2019 general election) in Jammu. The Kashmir Files may help the party revive the Hindu vs Muslim narrative and consolidate Hindu votes in Jammu. The pain and misery of the Kashmiri Pandits is being exploited to push a political narrative.

The third takeaway is the matter of justice to Kashmiri Pandits, their return, rehabilitation and reconciliation. These have now been pushed to the background. The promoters of the movie within the Pandit community and influencers, like the Global Kashmiri Pandit Diaspora who in their vision document talk about restorative justice, have conveniently missed the issue of reconciliation between Kashmiri Muslims and Pandits. This departure from their official position of restorative justice, about which they had written to the Union home minister, raises doubts about the real intention of those who live abroad and show little interest in returning to their roots. By smartly co-opting the movie, the ruling regime has showcased itself as a victim of terrorism and thus helpless in providing justice to Kashmiri Pandits. This way the government has subtly conveyed the message that the atmosphere in the Valley is still not conducive for the return of Pandits and that its militaristic approach in Kashmir should not be questioned. It has also allowed the government to evade tough questions about its failure in providing a blueprint on the rehabilitation of Pandits and justice to the victims of militancy.

Any discussion on the impact of the insurgency on Kashmiri Muslims and Pandits tends to slide into mud-slinging about who has suffered the most. While Kashmir Pandits have lost their homes, Kashmiri Muslims remain jailed in their houses. That’s what three decades of armed insurgency has given the collective Kashmiri society. Many events shown in the film are true and as cruel or gruesome as depicted. But an honest and unbiased discussion about the violence inflicted on Kashmiri Pandits becomes impossible if bigots are to pick these and turn them into material for propaganda. What the minorities in Kashmir underwent in the 1990s is now being experienced by the minorities in the rest of India today, minus the armed insurgents. In both cases, the majority was unable to protect the minority. Also, claims and counter claims such as “only 200 of yours were killed while 1,600 of ours were killed” does not make a discussion. That a bloodbath took place is a fact.

We Kashmiris need to unlearn hate and learn to respect each other’s trauma. People from both communities, or anyone for that matter, should be allowed to tell stories without apologising for the crimes meted out by the Indian state on Kashmiri Muslim civilians or by Pakistan-sponsored militants on Hindu minorities in the Valley.

Reconciliation is the way forward, not revenge. That’s one crucial message missing in The Kashmir Files.

This column first appeared in the print edition on March 28, 2022 under the title ‘A narrative that divides’. The writer is spokesperson, PDP