1990: When Bangladeshis were priority, not Kashmiri Pandits!

( By: K R Ishan)

At a time when migration from Kashmir  was at its peak during the first week of March 1990, the then Government of India had turned a blind eye towards the plight  of Kashmiri Pandits, leaving  them  high and dry and at the mercy of some  Jammu based social organisations. Instead, it was ironically more concerned about the settlement of Bangladeshi refugees in India during the same period!

Records available with https://kashmir-rechords.com/blog/ suggest that the then Union Home Minister Mufti Mohd Sayeed in a reply to a Parliamentarian’s query submitted that 64955 Bangladeshi refugees were accommodated in Indian relief camps as on March 5,1990. Besides 300 Chakma refugees were also provided accommodation in Mizoram.

But the Mufti had no time to even listen to Kashmiri migrants’ sufferings.  According to the newspaper reports of March 6, 1990, the Home Minister was scheduled to visit Kashmiri migrants at Jammu  but he chose otherwise!

New Home: Gita Bhawan

Finding themselves between the devil and the deep sea, Kashmiri Pandits had no option but to swarm Gita Bhawan Jammu that continued to be the  postal address for Pandits for  so many years.

It was from the Gita Bhawan where migrants were initially registered and provided a meagre relief measures.   Many had to struggle for  it or getting themselves registered  even as migrants! One such migrant had to lose his life while others were forced to resort to agitation, dharnas and processions!

It was after so much struggle and agitation that Governor’s administration  started some Adhoc measures by providing a sustenance allowance of Rs 500 per family, with a plan to send migrants back home by April 1990.  This March, Thirty four years have passed,  but……..

Bangladeshi refugees on the other hand were officially accommodated in States like Tripura and Mizoram…thanks to the efforts of the then leaders at the helm of affairs at that time! .