Canards Galore
This communal carnage
and forced exodus
was followed up with a virulent campaign of vilification
and disinformation against the Kashmiri Hindu community with the twin objective
of covering up the true communal-fundamentalistic character of the so-called
freedom struggle of the terrorists and securing total ruination and annihilation
of this ethno-religious minority. This propaganda offensive was backed
up by canards floated across the length and breadth of the country that:
i) the Kashmiri Pandits migrated out of the valley
because they were touted by Mr. Jagmohan, the then Governor of Jammu and
Kashmir, who promised them relief, ration and land. That those who were
gunned down, hanged or tortured were informers and enemies of the "freedom
struggle". This canard took such deep roots inside and outside the valley
that the poorly informed public even of cosmopolitan cities like Delhi
and Bombay who go by the common knowledge that in India Hindus are in majority
and by corollary the majority in Kashmir valley are Hindus, failed to understand
why Kashmiri Hindus had to flee their homes and hearths. Only the committed
demographers in the country realise that Kashmiri Pandits (Hindus) are
a minority in the Muslim majority Kashmir valley of a Hindu majority India.
ii) the Kashmiri Pandits are over-represented
in Central and State Government Services and private Jobs and that this
was a major source of irritation with the disenchanted Muslim youth, who
out of frustration took to arms to fight for their justful rights. This
canard has been supplemented and reinforced by distorted statistics and
the thread has been skillfully taken over by some self-proclaimed humanists
and over-zealous politicians of the country who want to prove more secular
than their credentials allow. In fact they found it a useful tool to convince
themselves and the world that terrorism in Kashmir was not an armed subversion
aimed at the secession of the State from the union of India but an act
of frustration of a handful of "disgruntled and misguided youth". This
ill conceived notion though countered by the exiled Kashmiri Pandits, fell
on deaf ears and did not get the attention of the media which were only
vying with each other to score points for the terrorists and their cause.
It did not take long for the communal, fundamentalistic and subversive
character of terrorism to emerge in its true colour.
iii) the Kashmiri Hindus because of their merit,
cunning and influence would become usurpers and take over educational institutions,
professional colleges, trade, industry, Government jobs etc. in Jammu,
Delhi and other places where they have taken refuge. This disinformation
caused tremendous confusion, panic, over-reaction and even hostility in
the host towns which were ill equipped to accommodate such a sizeable-
influx of refugees, especially in Jammu where seventeen camps have been
set up in the suburban dingy areas, Stiff resistance was put up even for
admission to the exiled students in various educational institutions; jobs
were denied to the youth and all doors were closed for the rehabilitation
of professional and non professional personnel of the community. A community
which prided itself in its academic excellence and high professionalism
is idling and rotting, for the last six years.
While torture, persecution and killing were going
full steam side by side with the canards floated against the fleeing community,
the marauding terrorists started loot, plunder and arson of the properties
and estates left behind by Hindus. They desecrated and destroyed their
temples, confiscated their stores and stocks, stole their kind, harvested
their crops and encroached upon and annexed their lands. Till date more
than three thousand Hindu houses have been blasted or razed to ground.
The remaining have been looted, vandalized or occupied.
Terrorists' propaganda.
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