What Have We Done for Kashmiri Pandits? J&K Statehood Restoration Must be Priority: Kapil Kak (Retd)

Asianet News English

Retired Air Vice Marshal Kapil Kak, a Kashmiri Pandit himself, speaks candidly about the plight of Kashmiri refugees still displaced within Jammu and Kashmir and why restoring J&amp;K statehood must be India's highest priority. He stresses the importance of consulting J&amp;K residents before making 'radical' constitutional changes and warns how Pakistan has exploited the lack of local engagement. &nbsp;<br>&nbsp;

Transcript

00:00My question to you is when we look up for the map of India, there is so much of distortion and not

00:06only in media outlets but also at government level of certain countries, at military level

00:11of certain countries. Do you think that India needs to start this sort of a campaign for countries to

00:16understand that this is an integral part of India? Maharaja Haris Singh handed over Kashmir

00:21and integrated, exceeded it to the dominion of India. So do you think that we need to have this

00:26some sort of diplomacy going on in that sector also for countries to understand and recognize

00:32POK as an integral part of India? No, there is no doubt that I mean the whole world knows that Pakistan

00:40invaded initially through radars and directly through forces J and K which are exceeded to India.

00:48But we need to also flag four or five points here. Number one, Jammu and Kashmir exceeded

00:56it to India subject to article 370. Now, integration is emotional. Integration is not a policy measure.

01:06The people of Jammu and Kashmir must feel that they are a part of India and they must feel that in their

01:13hearts and minds. Unfortunately, this may be a perspective different from many people in India.

01:22Unfortunately, the decision to unilaterally remove article 370 against the wishes of the people of India.

01:30You are talking about Kashmir being an integral part of India. The Kashmiris say we are an integral part of India.

01:37Kashmir's constitution, article 1 of JNK's constitution, which has been now abolished on 5th of

01:46August 2019, says Jammu and Kashmir is the state of the Indian Union. These are the people of India,

01:54JNK, who are saying. But unfortunately, whatever was promised to the JNK people, especially the Kashmiris,

02:03their attempts, it's not just current dispensation from 2014, but even earlier,

02:09JNK, through what I would call a quad. You puppetize the regime, then JNK. How did you do that?

02:20Through massive rigging of election. After the arrest of Sheikh Abdullah in 1953, 9th of August,

02:29all elections were rigged until 1997, when Faruk Abdullah came back to power after the horrible

02:38insurgency, which took so many lives, 40-50,000 lives, weather of terrorists, weather of civilians,

02:45weather of our security forces. What was that? I mean, we cannot, we can't brush away what we went through

02:53from 1990, the tragedy of the Kashmiri pundits. I'm a Kashmiri pundit. 3 lakh people are refugees in their

03:04own country. Why? And what have we done about them? This is a 35-year-old story. So, it's a very complex

03:16issue. The third is that, fine, now you are moving forward. The separatism had gone out. People began

03:23to see the power of the Indian rupee, the size of the Indian market, of which they were apart,

03:29not that Kashmiris had never felt themselves apart. But then targeting of Kashmiri students in colleges

03:36and universities everywhere in India as a result of Article 370, abrogation,

03:46thereafter, denial of statehood. There is no, I mean, I can understand, okay, it is an ideological

03:54position of the ruling party. It has the majority, takes a view and says, okay, we will abolish

04:01Article 370. You may have a ruling party four years of now or five years from now, which means,

04:08which means, sorry, we will revert to 370 being an Article of the Constitution. That can also happen.

04:15We are a democracy. But what is permanent is democracy, federalism,

04:23government, not doing anything to a people of 14 million people, are residents of state of Jain.

04:33They must be consulted before you take a radical step like that. And that is what Pakistan has exploited.

04:40That is why the international understanding of Jammu and Kashmir, your words and your question,

04:47that is why that has happened. There is less understanding because the whole world has seen

04:53that this was not something India should have done. Consultation process, but they're not saying it openly.

05:01That's another point because that's diplomacy. But if you see the press, you see the international press,

05:07the situation on Kashmir, what I have told you has been addressed in that. Third point, I was talking about

05:13those two issues. One was privatization of regimes. Two was, second was denial of democracy.

05:22Because if you rig elections, where is democracy? Third is insurgency resulting out of this

05:28as also a stealthy constitutionalism. Because all that had been promised under Article 370 to the people

05:38of JNK was gradually clawed out from its moorings. Articles which were not to apply to JNK of the Indian

05:46Constitution actually applied to JNK. That created this whole impulse of what could be termed for whatever

05:55better word, separatism. But that separatism is also gone. After all, don't forget, we've just had

06:01elections in 2024 and you have a ruling party, the national conference coming with nearly 41 out of 90

06:12seats. Whereas the ruling dispensation at the center, that has only 28 seats in that state.

06:20And rightfully, the national conference formed the government. But what is the point of that government,

06:25which is supposedly meeting the aspirations of people of JNK who have voted them, being unable to do

06:33anything for them. Because this dual structure of a union territory with law and order and major things

06:40lying with the left and governor, as conveyed by the ruling dispensation at the center, it's creating new

06:48resentment. And I'm not hesitating to say it in front of you, Hina or your viewers. There is new resentment

06:55in JNK, particularly among the youth. They feel humiliated. They feel they've been denied their freedoms

07:03and rights to democracy, rights to protest. The media is not free. So, it will take us a while. So, what is it?

07:11I'm not ending on a grim no-mean. I want to convey to you, yourself, to your viewers,

07:20that the government of India needs to be more proactive, more creative, more imaginative,

07:30and more democratic, not just in terms of what the center does in the rest of India,

07:35but also what the center's policy are in Jabun Kashmir. Restoration of the statehood of JNK should be

07:43the highest priority because there has been no major setback to security situation in JNK

07:54as a result of coming in of a democratic party,

07:57culturally elected by people, being in power. So, I have tried my best to explain to you

08:06how the JNK issue is an extremely complex issue. It will need support of the people of JNK.

08:13It will need an imaginative policy by the center and the rest of Indian people for whom Kashmir is theirs.

08:21Kashmir is not just territory. Kashmiri is also people of Kashmir. And you know how they are all over.

08:29You go to any corner of India, there's always a Kashmiri presence, either a carpet seller,

08:34a paper machine seller, or a hotel, or business. It's all in their hands. So, there's so much a part of

08:42us, as you rightly said, an integral part of India, but they must be emotionally and psychologically

08:50made to be an integral part of India.

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