"Rotten Apples"

Tere Mandi,Mere Mandi-Rawalpindi,Rawalpindi!
(your marketplace, my marketplace-Rawalpindi,Rawalpindi).

Not many months ago this slogan was the flavour of the season in Kashmir. The road to Rawalpinidi seemed no less important than the road to Heaven and POK was supposedly the gateway to the heaven. There was a mad rush to get to the gates of the heaven. So mad was the rush that many lost their lives on way to the heaven. Whether they went to heaven thereafter or not is another question.

Rawalpindi, “in the land of pure”, was seen as the destination for the Kashmiri Muslim produce. From the sacred soil of Kashmir whatever is produced should be consumed by the sacred sons and daughters in the pure land. Thus went the adage. That the road to the land of pure via the heaven would be open for Kashmiri Muslims was a foregone conclusion. As always, only the faithful were to send their goods. For the infidels the doors to heaven were locked much before they were born into infidelity. That the land of Kashmir bore infidels was itself an insult to the land. The land was cleansed of them.

The faithful and the pure were ready to merge.

Thus the goods and goodness began assimilating, disseminating and trading. The faithful on both sides avowed their love for each other. 'Allah is benign and merciful!' said one as he bit into a juicy Kashmiri apple. The bonhomie was unbelievable but true. Trucks were moving at frantic pace to deliver the sacred goods to the land of pure. Who the hell wants money for this? This is my gift for my brothers and sisters said a trader from Shopian.He had already despatched 6 truckloads of apples, apricots and pears to the land of pure via the gates of heaven.Gates of heaven…mind you.

Many months later the infidel had this to read, ”No Money from PoK,so no apples:Kashmiris”.

The newspaper report quoted the President of Fruit growers association of Sopore (the apple belt of north Kashmir) saying, ” "We were eagerly waiting for the beginning of cross LoC trade, even dispatched thousands of apple boxes to PoK in the start. But, so far growers have not received a single penny in lieu of the apples,.After three months, we don't know what happened to apples in PoK,".

Many months later as separatists close offices ,bicker with each other, suffer ignominy and bite dust the apples may well be rotting like the separatists themselves.

(The writer is co-founder of the Kashmiri Pandit Group-Roots in Kashmir. He can be reached at rashneek@gmail.com)

No Pandit in J&K Assembly

Aurangzeb Naqshbandi, Hindustan Times

The ruling National Conference- Congress coalition in Jammu and Kashmir is willing to walk the extra mile to give representation for Kashmiri Pandits in the state cabinet.

But as, for the first time, no Pandit got elected to the state assembly, Chief minister Omar Abdullah and Congress president Sonia Gandhi have reportedly agreed to bring someone from the community to the upper house and appoint him to the cabinet.

The move will be a political reassurance to the community, which has been at the receiving end of militancy, leading to the displacement of about 90 per cent population of Kashmiri Pandits from the valley.

The recent elections saw the rout of all the 47 Kashmiri Pandit candidates in the fray. Now, several organisations are demanding “adequate space” for the community in the politico-administrative set-up.

“Why should we ask for it? We are not beggars. The powers that be should create an adequate space for us. We have given blood for the last 50 years,” Kashmiri Pandit Sangarsh Samiti president Sanjay Tikoo told Hindustan Times over the phone from Srinagar.

He is among the few hundred Kashmiri Pandits who decided to stay back in the valley after the outbreak of militancy in the late 1980s.

Pooja Shali, a Mass Communication student, said it is equally important that Kashmiri Pandits possess a fair representation in the cabinet. “But, this should not be at a titular level,” she added.

Echoing her views, Roots in Kashmir co-founder Aditya Raj Kaul said, “we would be glad if a true representative of the Pandit community, and not someone who will only be of an ornamental value, is chosen.”

CM Omar Abdullah already promised that he would give representation to the community in his cabinet. “It is a large community and requires representation in both the cabinet and the legislative council,” he said soon after his talks with Congress president Sonia Gandhi on government formation.

However, Jammu-based Panun Kashmir convenor Dr Agnishekhar has a different take. “For the first time in its political history, NC did not give mandate to a Kashmiri Pandit. This makes one suspicious about their intentions and designs,” he said.

Omar is likely to induct former chief secretary Vijay Bakaya in the cabinet. He was part of the committee that drafted the NC’s ‘Vision for Governance’ document.

The names of two Kashmiri Pandit leaders – Makhan Lal Fotedar and Ashok Bhan – are also doing rounds for the coming elections to four Rajya Sabha seats from the state. Bhan, a senior Supreme Court advocate, has good rapport with all shades of opinion in the valley and had been instrumental in bringing many senior separatist leaders to the negotiating table.

While the ruling alliance is unanimous in giving representation to Kashmiri Pandits, a section of Congress leaders from the state have impressed upon the party high command to leave a Rajya Sabha seat for him in case he decides to enter the fray.

Courtesy: Hindustan Times

Hate us for this too..

“Without raising their voice, they decided to pool money from their meagre resources to perform the last rites of Asiya Bi's deceased brother…”

When Asiya got the news of her brother's death she was consoled by Kashmiri migrant women all through the night. Her only son Ajaz Ahmad Mir stayed back in the hospital to bring back his uncle's dead body for last rites…”

“The last rites were performed by Kashmiri Pandits with the help of few local Muslims at a local graveyard in Janipur…”

“After performing the last rites Shambu Nath said, "Asiya Bi has been living in their neighbourhood and it is their responsibility to share each others grief and sorrow. Kaul said, "When we came to know that Ghulam Mohi-ud-Din died in the hospital on Sunday evening, we started making arrangements to perform his last rites. In the absence of Muslims in the vicinity, we decided to perform the last rites and collected money to ensure all rites were performed without facing shortage of money…"

By Mohit Kandhari, Jammu, The Pioneer

Link - The Daily Pioneer

Thus continues a legacy of compassion, generosity and efforts to unite. Like always the Kashmiri Pandits decided to lend out a helping hand even if it meant making an excruciating effort for last rites of some people from the majority community- some fanatics of which destroyed their culture, traditions and lives. A way of life in the midst of crisis, the Hindus in Kashmir still remain expectant of a peaceful future. Watching the massacre of their brethren by their own neighbours, Pandits are undefeated.

Weapons are still not an option; retaliation still not an excuse; vengeance still not a preference. We, as a community, might remain ambiguous of our future but we still store resilient hope close to our hearts.

We, as a community, maintain a dignified separation between fanatics and innocent followers of religious faith. A certain writer Suhail Showkeen might echo frightful thoughts where he believes that Islam and Kashmiriyat/Secularism/Nationalism contradict each other.

Link - Sarai Reader's List (The web edition of Greater Kashmir for strange reasons, no longer has this article listed in its archives.) However, the educated community of Kashmiri Pandits regards its culture as equal to the sovereignty of our state. Maybe he (like the seperatists) ought to take an advice or two from us.

However, Kashmiriyat remains a misnomer to us having witnessed slaughter like a torrid chain every decade. The word is enforced in the press as if there has never been a problem between the communities before terrorism emerged in 1990. However, if there’s such a term at all, the minority Hindu community is a model of that exemplary strength unseen in today’s Kashmir.

The potency of those few family members who arranged for the last rites of their Muslim neighbours goes on to prove their efforts to formulate a Kashmiriyat never heard before:- ‘amity to reject successive violence’. The writer would like to believe that there have been efforts from the Muslim side too, even though I am yet to see from my own eyes to judge.

As separatists try and shift their tag from an Islamist foundation to a secular hypothesis, they have a long way to go before they prove their false argument.

Till then the angelic souls (like mentioned in the article above) are performing their duties without screaming out their secularism.

Sometimes little efforts can do for the state what the jingoistic communal revolutionaries have failed at.

We have the ability to bring out that change… and we are not afraid to flaunt it. Like always.

The author Sonzal is based in New Delhi.

19 years to the 19th day of 1990: Exodus of Kashmiri Pandits

I wake and feel the fell of dark, not day
What hours, O what black hours we have spent…
- Gerard Manley Hopkins

19th January 1990. Kashmir was breathing still; Kashmiri Pandits lay hidden like frightened pigeons in their own nest. Today on behalf of my fellow brothers and sisters, I wish to revisit the pain of my separation from my own home 19 years ago, when the cruel hands of Allah-Wallahs butchered members of my community for being idol worshipers, for rejecting the call for unholy Jihad and for siding with their own nation India. The Islamic murderers played dire warnings from their Mosques which pierced each nerve of anybody who held a Hindu name. As the sun turned pale, exhortations became louder, and three taped slogans repeatedly played their terror: 'Kashmir mei agar rehna hai, Allah-O-Akbar kehna hai' (If you want to stay in Kashmir, you have to say Allah is great); 'Yahan kya chalega, Nizam-e-Mustafa' (What do we want here? Rule of Shariah); 'Asi gachchi Pakistan, Batao roas te Batanev san' (We want Pakistan along with Hindu women but without their men).

The roots of this unparalleled tragedy are immersed in 1986 with a well-planned strategy to execute Hindus from the valley. By 1990, the population saw their age old temples turned to ruins and lives at risk. As Pakistan stepped up their campaign against India, new Islamic terror outfits suddenly mushroomed in the state. As Jamait-e-Islami financed all madarsas to poison them against the minority Hindus and India, Pakistan further dictated youth to launch Jihad against India. A terror strike so meticulously planned that its unprecedented display was terrifying. As camps in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (POK) began to provide training to innumerable Muslim men, India witnessed the emergence of the bloodiest Kalashnikov culture in the valley. The victims- innocent and non-violent minority- the Kashmiri Pandits.
-
The Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah, abandoned his responsibilities and the administration, the state and people lay like cattle on an open road. The hidden fact of rigged elections in 1987 had by then become a lucid statement. Today 22 years later, Omar Abdullah takes position of the same majestic throne, though I wonder how efficiently he would carry forward the state of affairs. Will he like his father ruin the backbone of the state and leave the minority Hindus helpless as always, or will he rise above politics, religion to create space for Pandits in their valley? The unanswered question lingers on.
-
When Farooq Abdullah escaped underground, Jagmohan took reigns as the governor of the state. Though not very competent to handle an already ruined socio-political situation, he as a mark of remarkable leadership helped Kashmiri Pandits receive safe shelter. Jagmohan charted out an exceptional strategy to counter Islamic fanatics and also opened his Durbar (Office) to public irrespective of time. He visited families of the martyred Hindus. About one such meeting with the family of Satish Tickoo, murdered by communal JKLF goon Bitta Karate , he wrote an outstanding excerpt in his book, ‘My Frozen Turbulence in Kashmir’- “In Habba-Kadal, except for the long row of our vehicles, nothing was seen on the streets. The afternoon rain appeared to have soaked the houses with depression. The few windows that were open were without even the usual dim light. The dark clouds overhead completed the picture of gloom… The house of Tickoo was like a shattered nest. Everything lay scattered. The grim atmosphere around told the tale more vividly...”
-
He further wrote, “As I was about to leave, Satish’s uncle who was a bit vociferous and assertive, insisted that I should go upstairs and see the family deity. I agreed. A calm majestic figure was soon visible. It looked so imposing even in the darkness… With tears in their eyes, the family members thanked me and the accompanying officers. We were all moved over the sad plight of the family”.
-
However one excerpt that mirrored my anxiety of 19 years was composed in words by Jagmohan, “Looking at the compact and enmeshed houses, and the by-lanes which acted like fine threads of a well-knit fabric, I wondered how these families, who had all their Gods and Goddesses here, and had deep roots in the soil, could leave and settle in distant and unfamiliar lands. Sometimes life is unaccountably cruel. And we human beings have, perhaps, no option but to suffer – suffer in silence, or wail”.
-
Satish Tickoo was not the lone martyr who fell to the bullets of so-called revolutionaries. Tika lal Taploo, Nilkanth Ganjoo, Sarla Bhat, and countless others followed the target list of JKLF and other Islamic Terror outfits backed by Pakistan financially, psychologically and politically. An absent government, collapsed administration, and a petrified community saw despondency set in. As the moonlight of January 19, 1990 wore itself out, despondency gave way to desperation. Tens of thousands of Kashmiri Pandits across the valley decided to take an agonizing decision, to flee their homeland and save their lives and religion from rabid Jihadis…
-
..Thus took place a 20th century Exodus.

Pandits left the valley, with an approximate statistics of more than three lakh and fifty thousand. Almost a thousand Pandit men, women and children were slaughtered to death in 1990 alone by these revolutionaries of Islam. Surprisingly on paper, official figures clogged at only 209 killed! Alas! Soon the J&K government shall disown the whole Pandit community as aborigines of Kashmir.

In this 19th year, a few hundred frightened Pandits still live scattered across the valley in far flung areas hoping against hope for peace and their brethren to step on the snow once again.

This 19th year embarks upon a history of bullets to makeshift camps in Jammu with torturous summer heat to snake and scorpion bites and finally dreadful diseases. Seven camps in Jammu are an uninhabitable asylum for around 50,000 Kashmiri Pandits. The only perceptible change is an upgradation of some to permanent structures.

My heart bleeds when I watch communal turned pseudo-secular Kashmiri separatists grab the headlines while the plight of the Pandits remains a non-issue. It isn’t the so-called Azaadi that the people of Kashmir desire. They long for an immediate crackdown on terrorists, an end to the separatist elements and those unbearable puppets in the Valley- all for normalcy to return. Though sidelined for now, the political patronage they enjoy could soon take the voices from the Hurriyat and JKLF spreading propaganda of terror and hatred to the frontlines of politics.


An entire community uprooted from the land of their ancestors is today struggling for its identity. The weak-kneed Indian state shamelessly panders to Islamic terrorists and separatists who claim they are the final arbiters of Jammu and Kashmir's destiny. A part of India's cultural heritage is destroyed; a chapter of India's civilization has been erased. And, our jhola-wallah brigade of ‘secular’ activists unabashedly turns their back to the plight of Kashmiri Pandits. To them I believe, ‘Hindu sorrow, inflicted by Islamic terror’ is a truth perhaps too harsh to accept. Thereby hangs a tragic tale that is completely wiped out from public memory.

I am reminded of a stanza by a Jewish poet: ‘...without identity in a street nameless to me, I am a stranger: I am longings, I am fears. I am child longing to belong to his lost childhood and not be outside the present, always withdrawn, apart...’

I’m as old as the terrorism in the Valley. In these 19 years, the only time I felt the breeze of my land was through the closed windows of my airplane. She beckons me and I am too desperate now to grab its serene quilt. My mother nature has summoned me, and I shall answer her call soon, very soon.


Till then, in this 19th year of exile like the unanswered questions of our human rights …my struggle for existence also continues.

The author Aditya Raj Kaul is an activist based in New Delhi. He studies Political Science at the Delhi University.He can be reached at kauladityaraj@gmail.com

In Search of Home-Aditi Bhaduri

These Hindu women fled Kashmir in 1990 and now live in Mutthi Camp. Photograph by Aditi Bhaduri.

In Search of Home:Kashmiri Hindus dream of their ancessteral land.

It has been a momentous year for Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir. It began with the state government's controversial transfer of land to the Hindu Shri Amarnath Shrine Board, and ended with the just concluded elections. 2008 saw mass demonstrations and protests erupt in Kashmir, as much against the Indian state as local politicians and leaders. When elections were announced for November-December, they were met with astonishment. What followed, however, has left many in Kashmir and in India surprised.
Ignoring calls by secessionist leaders to boycott the elections, threats from militants and braving the harsh winter weather, Kashmiris turned out in droves to vote. Seen as a verdict in favor of democratic politics by the valley's population, the elections saw a 62 percent voter turnout, without any credible reports of rigging or coercion by the state authorities.
There was however another surprise in this year's elections. Kashmir's forgotten minority – the Kashmiri Hindus – also made their presence felt. When militancy erupted in the Kashmir valley in the late 1980s and early 1990s, the first casualty was a tiny community of ethnic Kashmiris belonging to the Hindu faith, comprising roughly eight percent of the population. Known to swear their allegiance to the Indian state, this community became the first target of Islamist militants who engaged in targeted killings of the community's prominent members. Threats were issued to either convert to Islam or leave the valley—and most of them, numbering around 300,000—fled Kashmir to the safer havens of the nearby Hindu-dominated region of Jammu.
Almost 20 years later, with repatriation to Kashmir still only a dream, the community has created its own political party. The Jammu Kashmir National United Front (JKNUF) has fielded 15 Hindu Kashmiri candidates in various assembly constituencies across the valley—an attempt to highlight the community's suffering.
So how has this community fared, especially its women? What is the reality of their lives and how will the election results impact them? To find out, I travelled to the bloated camp of Mutthi on the outskirts of Jammu, one of the many camps that has housed thousands of these displaced Kashmiris since they fled their ancestral lands in 1990.
I met Chandra Dhar, 35, one of the thousands of Kashmiri Hindu women who fled Kashmir and continue to live in exile in Mutthi. Chandra's story epitomizes the struggle of many who live in the camp.
Chandra left her native Kashmir when she was 15 years old. She left thinking that the communal tensions and violence that had erupted would be over within a few months and she would return home. Almost twenty years later, Chandra Dhar, now 37 and married with two children, continues to live in Mutthi Camp where her children are now growing up – the second generation of Kashmiri Hindus living in displacement camps. She is hesitant to show me her home – a tiny one-roomed tenement which serves as a bedroom, living room and kitchen.
Her husband is away and her father-in-law and child are sleeping squeezed together on the small cot that takes up much of the space. So we sit outside in the mellow sunshine, on newspapers spread out on the ground in front of the door. Nearby, an open sewer runs its course. Children from the camp run around us, playing with paper planes – the narrow alley is their playground. Slowly, Chandra tells me how she came to be here, far from her beloved Kashmir.

You lived in Kashmir before you came here?
Yes, I was born and lived in Kashmir until 1990, in Handwara village, district Kupwara in an extended family. We had our own house and our own land which sustained us. Our village was Muslim-dominated, with about 100 Muslim families and 25 Hindu families. Relations between Hindus and Muslims were cordial and I had Muslim friends. All was [normal]. But when the first attack in the district of Anantnag took place, attitudes changed.

What happened in Anantnag?
Muslim mobs burnt down Hindu homes. Our neighbors changed - they became withdrawn. I remember one particular night, on January 25, 1990. I was 15 years old. Armed with sticks and knives, a 1000-strong Muslim mob from other villages descended on our village, looking for Hindus. Three security personnel however soon came on the scene, began firing and dispersed the mob. We were terribly scared. Then we received an anonymous written threat to clear out or face the consequences. My elder sister had a friend called Sweety in district Baramullah. She was brave and had refused to leave. She was cut up, just sawed into two. We knew then that we just had to leave. I feel sad that few people in India know about all this.
We left home at night. It was February 2nd. It had been Friday, the day for weekly Muslim public prayers. My father dressed up like a Muslim, went the nearest town of Sopore and got hold of a truck, as there were none in the village. The truck came at night and 5 families left in it, each taking whatever they could carry.
We came to Jammu. We all thought things would normalize in a few months and we would return. But things deteriorated. Initially, we stayed with friends. A year later, we were given this one room here in Mutthi, which the authorities had by then set up. Hordes of other Hindu families fled Kashmir and came here. There were nine of us in this one room. We faced unimaginable problems - lack of privacy, discomfort, physical pain, lack of water, proper sanitation. See, this is just one room. Is it possible for one family to live here? It's terrible. We have a common toilet further away, and we share it with 52 other families.
Some time later the government began giving us some rations - each family got rice and a kilo of sugar. We were also given Rs 600 (US$14) which was really of no use, it's so little.

After leaving Kashmir, have you ever gone back to visit?
I visited it for the first time last year. I visited my husband's village - Langate. My husband also fled Kashmir because militants wanted to kill him. We got married here (Mutthi) in 1996 and have two children now. He still has land in the village, which trespassers had been encroaching on. So I decided to visit the property as that is all we can give our children. We have nothing here. I could not visit my natal village because militancy still continues and there are no Hindu families left there.

How did it feel to go back?
It was like a dream. I was scared and excited. Some families welcomed me very warmly. Some did not like the return of a Hindu woman. There are no Hindu families left in Langate either. But I had gone through the security forces, and was safe. I showed my children their native land. I put someone in charge of the land and asked him to take care of it.

Who do you blame most for your displacement, for the fact that you are here today?

The government - it could not protect us. When the turmoil began it should have paid attention to the atrocities being committed against Hindus. If it had acted decisively then, all this could have been avoided. The government later told us to return to Kashmir. So we said, 'okay, give us security', but it could not.
All political parties visit during election time seeking our votes, and then do nothing. No one has done anything for us, or we would not remain here today.
I try not to think at all. It's too painful when I think of Kashmir.

This year the Kashmiri Hindus have formed their own party, the JKNUF and are contesting these elections.

Well, it only shows that no one has cared for us until now. So our community has taken this step. It may be a good thing, but it will take time. By then I will be old and gone. I only want our children to be safe. Our lives have been ruined, but I want to see my children prosper and live in Kashmir in security.

About the Author

Aditi Bhaduri is an independent journalist and researcher based in India. With a background in international relations, specializing in the Arab-Islamic world (specifically the Israel-Palestine conflict), Russian linguistics, displacement and gender, she began her writing career by covering the Middle East for the Indian media. Currently Aditi’s work focuses on conflict, peace, displacement and gender. She acts as a gender consultant to various NGOs and started the Human Rights for Beginners program in schools in her native city of Kolkata. Aditi is also a member of several civil society initiatives in India and was on a Rotary Goodwill Exchange Program to the USA.
Aditi’s work has been published widely, both in Indian and foreign print and electronic media. She was awarded the UNFPA-Population First LAADLI National Media Award 2008 for gender sensitive reporting and hopes to establish her own publication dedicated solely to peace journalism.

This article first appeared here

Welcome Aboard Junior Abdullah ….!!!

Another opportunity for a crippled state to regain its paradise.

One more possibility to attempt change.

Jammu and Kashmir proudly presents to the nation a young, dynamic and an extremely promising Chief Minister. Roots In Kashmir (RIK) team recognises the call for youth to lead the valley to a safe haven. When Omar was sworn in, his optimism suggested an outlook that the state is in a desperate need of. The press interviews indicated a vision, hope and a flicker of progress. Age by his side, political lineage to bank upon and a well-bred pragmatic mindset seems to have provided a leader to the clueless masses.

And yet all doesn’t appear that heavenly. The newly elected Chief Minister is aware of the dogmatic situation in J & K. A state divided with Jammu, Kashmir, Ladakh all demanding their individual identities. Separatist Islamist agendas retaliated with inept state force have become unmanageable for any authority in the political arena. Now that Omar stands at that position, would he really be able to deliver? Well, we will watch and without doubt cooperate wherever required.

It was a great statesman like beginning when Omar honestly confessed, "I think most of the people, including me, did not make their voice heard when the Kashmiri Pandits were being forced out of the Kashmir valley by terrorists; and were forced to live like refugees in their own country".

However till now only the words have dispensed hope. Omar is an eloquent orator even though offensive at times. His infamous speech in the Lok Sabha had both critique and applauds come his way. To have said that ‘...Hum Masjid nahi girate, hum Mandir bhi nahi giraate…’ was a stale reminder of how truth gets buried... and that too at the periphery itself. Students (read young girls) were drooling over his ‘honesty’. I could not help but smile at their ignorance. By the time one Babri Masjid was reduced to ruins, hundreds of temples (1987-1991) had witnessed their silent brutal death. None to lament for them; till today.

Barring a few stray cases (not forgiven though), Omar Abdullah has been seen working towards change. He encourages healthy discussions and makes an effort to involve masses. But as a chief Minister he ought to also perform and not just attend forums.

A 2003 PTI report after Nadimarg massacre stated, "Omar Abdullah squarely blamed Pakistan-based terrorist outfits like Lashker-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed for the Nandimarg massacre. He flayed the Mufti Sayeed government for being "soft" towards terrorists and said while healing touch is welcome, the Chief Minister's primary concern should be towards ensuring security in the state.

Omar said no state government could dare to be complacent towards the security of the people of the state…. He criticised leaders of separatist Hurriyat Conference, especially its former chairman Mirwaiz Umer Farooq, for adopting "double standard" and not out-rightly condemning the Nadimarg incident. "They can only call Hartal and they have chosen a day when the entire Kashmir valley is in grief. Obviously, in the evening they will claim that the bandh was successful," the former Union minister said and termed Hurriyat as "Hartal conference."

Omar understands that the so-called Azaadi is not a viable solution (to Karan Thapar on Devil's Advocate on Sep. 7th 2008); a brave statement to be made when separatists had become the temporary pied-pipers of the valley!

We, at Roots In Kashmir, support reconciliation. But let us be clear on that. We do not support compromise. In the eyes of international law we deserve to be treated with equal respect and more so for being the native population.

There is extreme mistrust and animosity in the hearts of minority Hindu population towards the Muslim majority and on the other hand, Muslims too have faced the heat of terrorists. It is imperative that our new chief minister becomes a bridge for the estranged Kashmiri communities. In the state there is pain at all levels that ought to be mended. As his tenure begins, rational individuals must come forward and support sane policies that perhaps the CM recommends. If Omar Abdullah works without the baggage of his father and grandfather’s chameleon actions, there shall be a great deal of progress that Jammu and Kashmir would be able to witness.

The writer Pooja Shali is a student of Masters in Mass Communcation from MCRC, Jamia. She can be reached at poojashali@gmail.com