Chandrabhaga Bridge: the Bridge of Confidence

The Pandits will raise security issue, and rightly so. The PM’s announcement does not speak anything of the why of exodus. It does not either speak of how it plans to uproot the causes.

A sensitive issue, as it is, is better handled in camera than in open. But the causes must be identified for future policy planning.

We presume that the recent visit of Congress President to Jagti habitat near Nagrota, and the in - put of the State Chief Minister must have strongly contributed to the formulation of a very realistic approach to the entire issue of return and rehabilitation of the IDPs from Kashmir, and hence the wisely drawn package as announced by the PM.

But all said and done, can we avoid repeating the rhetoric that a minority’s best protection is the goodwill of the majority group? It is the corner stone of any democratic dispensation. This task has to begin first in the minds and then in the actions of Kashmir leadership, dissident and separatist segments and all sections of upright civil society in the valley.

The cantilever bridge over Chandrabhaga should also become the bridge of confidence among the people of the state.

Many intricate issues will crop up when the ramifications of displacement are examined closely. A way out has to be found. With good will on all sides and with a sincere intention of alleviating human misery, the package can yield desired results.

Once conditions of return are met on the ground, and the displaced humanity is resettled in identified localities and habitats, and general goodwill generates spontaneously, the hitherto less meaningful slogan of Kashmir as India’s secular model, will become a reality in letter and in spirit. The country and the State both need to rebuild that image as quickly as possible.

We hope the Pandits will not miss the bus. Their twenty-year long struggle has begun to be accepted for redress. The package closes the path of confrontation but opens the path of negotiations.

However, they will be justified in saying that the Prime Minister’s announcement does not touch on the important question of the Kashmir Hindu minority given constitutional and legal safeguards and space in sharing and contributing to nation building process. Their proportionate and genuine representation in all organs of the State has to be formally authenticated. This will give them a sense of belonging and cooperating with the national mainstream in the huge task of building the nation.

We hope that in his wisdom, the Prime Minster, being in full know of the shortcoming of a miniscule religious minority in a democracy, academically nicknamed “majoritarian tyranny” will propose a reassuring measure for political empowerment of the Kashmir Valley Hindus along the same philosophy that lies behind Article 370 of the Indian Constitution.

(The writer is the former Director of the Centre of Central Asian Studies, Kashmir University)