A few weeks ago Dr.Vijay Sazawal Sahib of US informed us after nearly twenty eight years that”
“As a result of a nearly 6-month advocacy efforts in Washington and Geneva by the Indo-American Kashmir Forum (IAKF) and the Indo-European Kashmir Forum (IEKF) in 1998, a senior official named Hiram Ruiz from the US Committee from Refugees (USCR) traveled at the behest of the UNHRC to India to visit KP refugee camps in Delhi and Jammu in mid-July 1998. I was personally involved in this effort, the purpose of which was to see if we could get IDP status for displaced KP’s.
“I will briefly summarize his comments to me after the visit. First, displaced KP’s have received better-than-average help from India, including something unheard by him in his similar trips to meet displaced communities in 60 other countries – full government salary for staying at home. Second, he noticed total dependency of KP’s on the Government and Government handouts which meant that the community has no desire to create its future on its own terms, and that to him means that there is no future as a community for KP’s. Finally, he told me that KP’s do not meet any of the criteria set in making a recommendation to grant the IDP status, and so he could not recommended KP’s for IDP status to his superiors. He discussed with me what the criteria were and also told me the answers he had received from the KP leaders (I know who they were – some are now deceased – but that is irrelevant for this discussion) were in most cases 180-degrees away from the “right answer”.
So, let the community continue to live in its own bubble”.
In response to Dr. Sazawal’s post another well known figure of the community Dr. S.N.Pandita replied to Dr Sazawal by writing:
“Your( read Dr. Sazawal) post has unsealed my eyes.
“After having been declared unqualified in 1998 for IDP status, by the international agency competent to have granted our community such a status , I am wondering how some community leaders from India made fool of the community even as late as between 2002 to 2005 and even later by blowing big trumpets that it had discovered the criterions that could earn us IDP status.
“In this regard , particularly, a well known face and a prominent voice of the community made several trips to Europe and America and gave an impression that he is the architect of this new panacea and has placed the undeniable arguments before the international bodies which will find it hard to deny us the status as IDPs.
“For several years he became our voice in international bodies and himself came to be known as crusader of our human rights.
“If truth be told, the euphoria generated by him hit the sky and the community came to believe that IDP status was a weekend away and the community’s plight there after would recieve international recognition and the accompanying privileges .
“The acronym IDP became a buzzword of community’s honourable achievement. Every one and all began referring themselves as IDPs instead by the demeaning term migrant.
“Every average commoner of the exiled community was fooled to believe that we had gained a milestone in our struggle.
“In those heady days, we thought of IDP like the secssionists had thought of ‘Azadi’- something just around the corner.
“The term IDP was traded in articles , essays and writeups so ubiquitously published in several community journals which gave an impression as if the community had entered the Queen’s Birthday Honours List.
“Even at present writing IDP is felt honourable.
“I even recall, one of my very close friends would admonish me if I used the term migrant. He would red-flag me that I should instead refer to the community as IDP.
“While today I know that IDP for us was trashed as early as in 1998, but the term reached into our ears five years later in a new composition and the trumpet of this discarded term was played at such a high decible that the community heard nothing else but IDP- IDP- IDP.
“Our ignorance was exploited to the hilt and the ideologue who trumpeted this falsity within the community came to be seen as a demigod for our deliverance.
“God sees the truth but waits”, says Tolstoy.
“Today the mask is lifted and the person who traded with a defunct hope for the community when in actuality that hope in our case was debunked half a decade earlier must be made answerable.
“I hang my head in shame for my ignorance and for having strayed into a delusional world created by a clay idol!
“What a pity, I remain a migrant while I have been hallucinated, for nearly two decades, to believe that I am an IDP.
Thank God, when I meet my Creator I will introduce myself to him as a KP migrant”.
After going deep into the details on this subject of IDP for KPs I have found from several KP individuals (both migrants and non- migrants) in Jammu that the person who mislead the community in this matter is none other than Prof. Kashi Nath Pandit.
The question that needs clarification is; was Prof. Kashi Nath Pandita not aware of Dr. Sazawal’s failed attempt?
As Dr. Sazawal further informed that he was not aware of efforts made by any other person to help KPs attain the status of IDPs.
Which other international agencies Prof. Kashi Nath Pandita was following the matter with and why did he ,like, Dr Sazawal fail in getting his community the status of IDP?
Where his reasons of failure different from those that were communicated to Dr. Sazawal?
Even if IDP were granted to us, then what would have been the status of our brethren who never left the Valley? Would they have ceased to have belonged to us?
Was then IDP only a selfish idea?
Hence, Prof. Kashi Nath Pandita alone can tell the community complete truth about IDP status for the community and what was the need to flog the dead horse.
In the absence of any clarification on this matter, there can be no doubt that IDP was an IED planted against the community.
Whether it exploded or was diffused, the present plight of the community is the best proof of IDP lollipop that we all licked all these years.
(The writer is a Jammu based environmentalist and a regular contributor to this Website.)
(Feedback at: blparimoo@gmail.com)
People must understand that truth cannot be concealed for a long time . It is only a matter of time that it comes to surface .
Prior to know about these facts I had already written to my brothern of the community to come out of illusions created by self-centred leaders and try best to preserve their cultural heritage in their homes and pass it on to their progeny and if at all some are
under the poverty line be taken care of separately by raising them above BPL
Every write up Revealation of our individual Make believe philosophies revolving around expired Status of an intellectual
Let us swear, henceforth, we will not make Stories, me and all will be truthful