A few of weeks back we all saw this little girl Sheen Pandita in fiery discomposure demanding justice for her father Ajay Pandita Bharti’s, gruesome murder. By the way “Sheen” in Kashmiri means snow and “Naar” means fire. So to read the title that I have written in Kashmiri actually means “Snow turns fire”.
It was heart wrenching to see the brave little girl saying that, she will not rest till she and her family get justice. She will go and fight these terrorists herself, those who killed her father and that she was not scared of anyone. It is this spirit of hers that needs a salute. Otherwise what can she really do, can she fight these gun trotting terrorists herself? She extolled the Indian populace and the government who were throwing platitudes at her by calling her India’s daughter, to not forget the dharma of a parent towards their daughter. Her demand is nothing extraordinary, she just wants justice for herself and her family. That is all.
But let me tell you thousands of such Sheens from Kashmir had vowed to fight and get justice for their loved ones who were raped, murdered, dismembered through the years of Islamist terrorism in the Kashmir valley. And three decades later, has any of these Sheens got justice?
It is a big no, zero, zilch, cipher, whatever you may like to call.
What is the crime of a community that peacefully lived for thousands of years in the land of Kashmir or Sharada, where they only furthered knowledge, be it philosophy, art, science, economics or anything else. Mata Sharada is the other name of Mata Saraswati, the goddess of knowledge and learning, she is the presiding deity of Kashmir. What was our crime that we have had such unprecedented genocides and forced expulsions over centuries from our own land that we inhabited for more than 5000 years?
About 700 years back we gave refuge to Shah Mir, a persecuted Muslim out of empathy for anyone and everyone irrespective of their beliefs, because we believe in “Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam”. But the same person with his intrigue, cunningness, manipulations and help from outside became the foundation for the persecution of the very same people who gave him refuge in the first place. Yes, it is the mistake, when we believe that the whole humanity is our family and open our home to anyone and fail to recognize that on the other hand the same person is only scheming to finish you off, to take your home completely. “Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam” seems to be only a one way street and not recognizing that there is no reciprocity, is the mistake, and yes we Kashmiris are guilty of that.
A few months back because of some news reports, a conversation with a friend of mine turned towards radical Islamist issues and how it was impacting the demographics of certain regions. During the discussion I was recounting to him the plight of Kashmiri Hindus and what they had to go through in 1989-90. While I was explaining this to my friend, he started to get louder and tells me that I have become a rabid Islamophobic, disregarding all sensitivity and without understanding or realizing the pain that I have gone through being a Kashmiri Hindu and my genuine concern for other Hindus.
Mind you, he is not some random person that I just met. He and I have been good friends for more than two decades and share a very close bond of friendship. Whenever I see incidents or situations like what happened in Kashmir that resulted in total annihilation of one community, I feel it pertinent to point the same to my fellow friends so that they understand the trajectory it is going to take in future for their own safety and security. But, here was a friend abusing me for telling him the reality that would befall his home state, sooner than later.
Why would a friend behave this way is quite intriguing, did he suddenly lose my trust or faith in me? No, not really, the actual reason is that the so-called secularism of this country has made people put blinkers when it comes to one community. The truth is sacrificed at the altar of secularism. They have been indoctrinated into a narrative that they fail to see the reality and with the result the casualty will be our future generations. The same woke people will hold placards and protest vociferously for “Black lives matter” and rightly so, but you will never hear them even squeak, forget outrage when a Hindu is butchered in cold blood, because that would be communal.
Couple of years back when the same Sheens went back to Supreme Court to demand justice for the hapless Kashmiri Hindus on whom heinous genocide was perpetrated in late 80’s and early 90’s, they were told by our learned Justices that so many years have passed and hence it is not possible to open those cases now. So time washes away the sense of justice and its need, is it?
I think, Kashmiri Hindu genocide and their expulsion from their own land will go down as one of the saddest events of the last century and it continues to be so even now, whether we recognize it or not. Did we pick up guns and resort to violence? No, not at all, because we believed in our country, its justice system, its people to fight for the fellow citizens in solidarity and above all because at the root we are a very peace loving community. But what was the result? Our local authorities failed us, our governments failed us, our judiciary failed us, our media failed us and finally the larger Indian populace failed us.
Around the time when Ajay Pandita was murdered, on several TV debates when the so-called secularists, intellectuals, leftists and Islamists were asked to respond to this gory murder, they simply said that the government had failed to provide the security to these Hindus. If you truly understand what its real import is, you will be shocked to your wits. It means that when Hindus become a minority in any state, they will need police protection for the safety of their lives and their property. How many police will be needed to protect every Hindu, is it even humanly possible?
But then the larger question is, why should a Hindu need protection from their Muslim brothers, what happened to “Kashmiriyat”, what happened to “Ganga Jamuni Tehzeeb”? Like everything else, this also is only a one way street, right? And this is the solution our so-called thinking elite, those who have distorted our history, those who have corrupted our systems, those who have infiltrated and adversely affected our media and those who have denigrated our Sanatana Dharma, have to offer for the safety of Hindus. It is a raging shame that we, as the most ancient and cultured civilization have reduced ourselves to.
Till we only try to treat the symptoms and not the cause, we will find no lasting solution and are doomed to repeat the Kashmiri genocide and forced exoduses around the country where the demographics change.
Finally, am I hopeful that Sheen will get justice?
Based on my own life experiences, sadly no. Because for real justice, we will have to go down to the roots of the problem, for that it needs serious commitment and resolve and I believe we as people, have neither.
