- CANARDS GALORE
This communal
carnage and forced exodus was followed up with a
virulent compaign 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 rrajority Kashmir valley of a Hindu
maiority India.
ii) the Kasnmiri
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. Infact 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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