Srinagar, Jan 19: National Conference (NC) president Dr Farooq Abdullah on Monday said no one ever stopped the Kashmiri Pandits from returning to the Valley.
He, however, said that the KPs have grown older with their children settled outside Jammu & Kashmir.
“If they ever return, they would come as visitors only," Dr Abdullah said while talking to reporters in Jammu on the sidelines of a two-day party session.
The NC chief said the meeting had been convened to reconnect with the grassroots. “We were here to meet our block presidents and block secretaries. We don’t often get the chance to sit together and listen directly to people’s problems. That is why we started this two-day session — to hear their woes and try to address them,” he said.
Responding to questions on the long displacement of Kashmiri Pandits, the former Chief Minister said the narrative that they were stopped from returning was misplaced. “No one has ever stopped them from returning. Who has stopped them from coming back? There are many Kashmiri Pandits still living in Kashmir, who never left when others left,” he said.
Recalling his own efforts, Dr Farooq said he had repeatedly assured displaced Pandits of rehabilitation. “I had told them that we will make homes for them and even take care of their belongings. But then we lost our government,” he said.
However, the NC president admitted that the passage of time has changed realities. “Now it is up to the Kashmiri Pandits. They have grown older, their children are studying outside, and many are settled there. I don’t think they will return to live in Kashmir, but yes, I believe they will come as visitors,” he said.
On the long-pending demand for restoration of statehood to Jammu and Kashmir, Dr Abdullah said it would come, but at its own time. “Statehood will come one day, at the right time,” he said briefly.
Dr Farooq also voiced deep concern over what he described as a growing “fire of hatred” across the country, driven by vote-bank politics. “In India today, there is a fire of hatred burning underneath. This country belongs to everyone. Unity in diversity is not a new slogan — it is the soul of this nation,” he said.
Drawing an example from Jammu and Kashmir itself, he referred to the controversy around Mata Vaishno Devi University. “A hospital was approved for a medical college there. When Muslim students came in a majority through NEET, the medical college was closed. Who closed it? And then who cries about the division of J&K?” he asked, questioning "selective outrage and communal narratives".
On Pakistan’s continued involvement in Jammu and Kashmir, the former CM said the neighbouring country's interference was unlikely to end. “Had we chosen Pakistan in 1947, we would have gone there. We chose Bharat — the Bharat of Mahatma Gandhi,” he said, before posing a sharp question-- “But is this the Bharat of Gandhi today?”
Abid Bashir
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