Apology to Hindus a MUST!

Apology to Hindus a must and the first step for creating harmony amidst cultural conflicts

It was a grand global news when Pope reversed the Catholic position and apologized to Galileo for wrong done to him.

It was a grand event when the Prime Minister of Japan paid a visit to Korea to apologize to the Koreans for atrocities committed during the Second World War, repeatedly expressing grief for causing destruction and pain to Koreans.

Similarly Mikhail Gorbachev apologized to Poland for atrocities committed by the Soviet Stalinist's. Chancellor of Germany could apologize to Jews for their persecution by Hitler. Germans have apologized to Japanese.

The government of the United States even paid compensation to the Japanese who were put in concentration camps after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor during World War II. The United States agreed with Iran to pay up to $131,000,000 to families of each of the Iranian passengers of an Iran airliner shot down by a US warship in 1988.

The American Vice-President Al Gore apologized for sheer use of Islamic word "Jihad". Gore had accused Republican party leaders of waging a "Jihad" on environmental protection policies and a news item to this effect had appeared in "Washington Post". He was accused of hurting Muslim sentiments which resulted in massive display of anger in the Muslim world.

In Islamabad student leader Malik Usman Awan sought a court order to direct Pakistan's Interior Minister Nasirullah Babar to apologize for calling a school a haven for rebels, though one of the suspects of bombing of Egyptian Embassy in Pakistan was found there.

"Thousands of Christians will march through Europe to Al-Quds (Jerusalem) to apologize to Muslims for the massacres and tragedies of the crusade wars" said Islamic Voice, February 1996. "Christians had to express their regret for the miseries caused to the Muslims during occupation of Jerusalem hundred of years back" the paper adds.

But the Kashmiri and Doda based Hindus witness remorseless attitudes on all sides. Even an apology seems out of question which is a must and the first step in confidence building.

Wrong committed to peace-loving, innocent and loyal citizens, at any time remains wrong forever. Its implications disturb even the unborn and distant future till it is adequately corrected.

Wrong done to the Kashmiri and the Doda based Hindus stand well attested not only at National level but at the International level also.

Several Congressmen including Lantos, Smith, Wolf and Congresswoman Pelosi of United States have recently expressed their concern on the plight of the Kashmiri Pandits. About them on of the Congressmen has thus spoken:

"They are Hindus who have been made refugees in their own country. They are also a proud people with a special place in the history of India and the sub-continent.

I might note that as India struggles to forma a new government in the wake of the historic defeat suffered by the Congress Party, the Pandit community has made enormous contributions to Indian culture, including Jawaharlal Nehru.

And I am shocked by the human rights abuses that have been perpetrated in Kashmir against the Hindus. Indeed the Pandits have been the target of a campaign of ethnic cleansing.

Many of them have been forced from their ancestral homeland and now live in squalid camps. Their future is uncertain.

I believe the Pandits are truly the forgotten people of Kashmir.

The State Department recently included a mention of the Pandits plight in the annual "country reports" on human rights. That is at least a start of recognition of a human rights problem. "The Congressmen further said:

We must not look at the other way while Pandit people are killed, raped, abducted, brutalized and exiled. We must not accept the fact that they have been exiled in their own country.

We must pay attention to the plight of internally displaced people, a status that is becoming to our new world.

I urge other members to look below the surface of the conflict in Kashmir and focus on the human cost.

In the refugee camps there is growing sense of unease, even panic, at the though of being forgotten by the rest of the world.

As we have shown in Bosnia and other places, the US is not the type of country that turns its back on people who are in dire straits." Continuing his speech the Congressman added:

"That hope is what keeps the Kashmiri Pandits and other internally displaced from lapsing into despair at their predicament. They look to the West for the hope of a better future, we must not look the other way."

It is, however, unfortunate that the genuine human rights concern in the minds of many US Congressmen pales into insignificance as so called American National interests matter more than any principle or value system no matter how sacrosanct and lofty. Refused to give Pakistan the status of a terrorist state is a case in point.

To a question as to who is responsible for the plight of the mauled Hindu minority in exile since 1990 the following three parties have been pin-pointed by a study group in J & K.

(1). The obstinate Government of India in New Delhi which right from 1947 never bothered to curb disruptive tendencies as a government of a responsible independent nation determined to strengthen the territorial integrity of India. Simplistic measure of economic packages backed up with corruption, drug and narcotics smuggling, flow of foreign money, penetration of insurgence in the administration, succumbing to the demands of foreign agents, encouragement to the free play of the theo-fascists proves counter-productive anywhere and everywhere. Its results in India are now too conspicuous to be ignored.

(2). Pakistan came into existence in 1947 in spite of the poor demographic o Muslims in undivided India for the single reason that Muslims would not coexist with Hindus. Pakistan has been openly claiming Kashmir ever since and tacitly rest of India by planting ISI agents, equipping them with arms, arms training and incredible funds constantly generated by drug chieftains. Pakistan banks on the Muslim population of India and the help of those Indians who have sold themselves to Moscow and Beijing and are bent upon to de stabilize their own nation for self interests.

(3). The Islamist forces in the valley who have shown no change of heart in respect of native Hindu population till this day.

The study in most disturbing words explains that the Kashmiri Hindus as an ancient cultural entity and ethnic group is facing real extinction devoid as it is of such decency and civility as displayed by the Pope, some Japanese, German, Russian and American leaders for the misdeeds of their predecessors.