January 19 is the sad day when the Hindu minority community in the Kashmir Valley-known as Kashmiri Pandits to which our first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, her daughter Indira Gandhi, his grandson Rajiv Gandhi and the ruling Congress party's de facto Prime Ministerial candidate for the 2014 elections, Rahul Gandhi, belong, was virtually driven out of their ancient homeland, many years ago. Although it was the first and the only case of its kind when Hindus, the majority community in India, but a minority group in the Muslim majority State-J&K in the Indian Union, had to flee their homes due to a campaign of persecution and a dark shadow of death and destruction hanging over them, thanks to the intolerance and hatred of a majority of their Kashmiri Muslim brethren and co-citizens, sharing the same language and heritage. Hardly any one, including the media. is really bothered about the suffering and deprivation experienced by these displaced Kashmiri Pandits, many of whom are still languishing camps in Jammu.
It was a young Kashmiri Pandit, Rashneek Kher who reminded an Indian Express columnist Ms Tavleen Singh when she was visiting the valley recently, about the tragic anniversary of the Kashmiri Pandits' exodus from their beloved homeland, urging her to write about it. He told Ms Singh that his own home had been burnt down and he had lost relatives in the violence. Kher also told her that the hostility of ordinary Kashmiri Muslims made it impossible for those Kashmiri Pandits living in terrible condition in Jammu camps to return to their homes in the valley, as most of them might have been destroyed and illegally occupied.
Writing about this horrible story of Kashmiri Pandits' travails in their own country, Tavleen Singh regretted how false secularism practiced by some political parties like the Congress and the Samajwadi Party, lulled Indian media into indifference vis-a-vis the cruelty to the Kashmiri Hindus; they tend to perpetuate the blinkered, one-sided view that the Muslim community is the only victim of communal violence. Judging from the Congress party's vote-bank politics, one has no doubt that this party is the foremost culprit in promoting the sense of victimhood in the Muslims, instead of bridging the divide between the two largest communities-the Hindus and the Muslims in the country, since independence.
Hinduism is the most tolerant and broadminded faith with ancient traditional values of respect for all faiths. Hence, the Constitution-makers did not think it necessary to specifically mention secularism in its Directive Principles. It was only during the Emergency, the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, with dictatorial powers, added "secularism" to the Constitution through an amendment. But, unfortunately, this psuedo-secularism has become the bane of communal harmony.
It was a young Kashmiri Pandit, Rashneek Kher who reminded an Indian Express columnist Ms Tavleen Singh when she was visiting the valley recently, about the tragic anniversary of the Kashmiri Pandits' exodus from their beloved homeland, urging her to write about it. He told Ms Singh that his own home had been burnt down and he had lost relatives in the violence. Kher also told her that the hostility of ordinary Kashmiri Muslims made it impossible for those Kashmiri Pandits living in terrible condition in Jammu camps to return to their homes in the valley, as most of them might have been destroyed and illegally occupied.
Writing about this horrible story of Kashmiri Pandits' travails in their own country, Tavleen Singh regretted how false secularism practiced by some political parties like the Congress and the Samajwadi Party, lulled Indian media into indifference vis-a-vis the cruelty to the Kashmiri Hindus; they tend to perpetuate the blinkered, one-sided view that the Muslim community is the only victim of communal violence. Judging from the Congress party's vote-bank politics, one has no doubt that this party is the foremost culprit in promoting the sense of victimhood in the Muslims, instead of bridging the divide between the two largest communities-the Hindus and the Muslims in the country, since independence.
Hinduism is the most tolerant and broadminded faith with ancient traditional values of respect for all faiths. Hence, the Constitution-makers did not think it necessary to specifically mention secularism in its Directive Principles. It was only during the Emergency, the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, with dictatorial powers, added "secularism" to the Constitution through an amendment. But, unfortunately, this psuedo-secularism has become the bane of communal harmony.
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