‘Not weapons, but ink is our power’

Ajay Joshi

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, March 18

With the hope of getting a well secured identity, the city-based Kashmiri Pandit community organised a ‘yajna’ in the city. To keep the existence of Kashmiri Pandits alive, Harmukh Kashmiri Welfare Samiti, Jalandhar organised a meet of Kashmiri Pandits today in the premises of The Punjab Photographers’ Association at Mission Chowk.

Hundreds of community members showed up on the occasion, that is celebrated as “Navreh” (New Year’s Day) and participated in a “Yagnya” for world peace and welfare of mankind. Performance of this “Yajna” is an annual tradition of the community for the last many years.

MK Kaul, the president of the community said, we believe in the power of “Pen” and “Prayers” and not weapon. Therefore, to spread peace and non-violence, the whole community members gather every year together for the well-being of the humanity. Whatever up-heavals the community had to go through years back be changed. Therefore, with the hope of getting recognition from the society, all the members sit together and pray for the wellbeing of the community across the country. Reportedly, Jalandhar has a total population of around 800 Kashmiri Pandits who started residing here after the riots of 1990s but somehow managed to bring peace into their lives. For the community people the sense of belongingness still lacks as the Kashmiri residents do not enjoy the rights that residents of any state enjoy.

Kulbhushan Ganjoo, the member of the welfare samiti said, “The Kashmiri Pandit community residing in other states of the country are provided various privileges by but no such provisions are provided to them by Punjab government.”

MK also stressed that, the community believes in non-violence and for peaceful gatherings they land for building Kashmiri bhavans to maintain their culture among their people. Other than this, there struggle is on for the past many years for getting an effective voters ID card, as the members said, they haven’t voted for the past 40 years and their adult children also don’t possess any voter card. For them, the process of getting a voters ID is very tedious. They further said though some of the members were casting their vote as Punjabi citizens, but we do not want to lose our identity.

Addressing the gathering, Shri D N Bazaz, Patron of the Samiti, commended the community for its resilience after the debilitating exodus of 1990 from Kashmir Valley. Battling the devastating feeling of being refugees in their own country, he said, the community had overcome the back-breaking hardships and bounced back by the virtue of its inherent strengths and capabilities, hard work and perseverance. Help from the various governments in this nearly thirty years of exile has been less than what was required. He hoped that adequate and effective steps would be taken for the rehabilitation of Kashmiri Pandits in Kashmir, their homeland, without further delay.