SHREYA KEDIA
It has been a long journey for the refugees from west Pakistan since 1947 when they migrated from Pakistan’s Punjab province, braving the bloodbath of Partition to settle down in the Indian State of Jammu & Kashmir with a hope for a better future here. Sadly, for them, conditions are no better — they have been given a second citizenship status, continue to languish for survival without any rights, have no jobs and have been relegated to the status of ‘nowhere people’ in a ‘no man’s land’.
It seems that normalcy has refused to find its way in the valley. After five months of grave unrest, due to the killing of Burhan Wani, it is likely that the Kashmir Valley will erupt once again towards the end of this year. The J&K Government’s reported move to grant identity certificate to west Pakistan refugees has triggered protests from both sides. On the one hand, the separatists leaders have called for a shut down, demanding the Government to not issue the certificates to the refugees and instead send them back to Pakistan or rehabilitate them elsewhere. On the other, refugees and the West Pakistan Hindu Refugee Front have been holding protests, burning effigies against the separatists controversial stand on this issue.
Strangely enough, the refugees, who are really citizens of India, have the right to vote in parliamentary elections, but do not have the right to vote for the State Assembly and local bodies elections. They enjoy no land rights and are subjected to restrictions as other Pakistanis: No ration card, no driver’s license, no gas connection or travel licence. Worse, their companions who left west Pakistan to settle in some other States, no longer suffer from this parochial treatment.
It is unfortunate that even as these people’s demands are legitimate and have been long overdue, successive State Governments have remained unmoved or some have dilly-dallied on the issue of their re-settlement. With a BJP Government at the Centre and a BJP-PDP coalition Government in Jammu & Kashmir, the refugees were high on hopes that this was the time to strike to demand some concessions from the J&K Government. The BJP Government had time and again, during the Lok Sabha election campaign, showed its commitment to make India a “natural home for persecuted Hindus” to seek refuge. And it was only earlier this month when the Government approved a package of Rs 2,000 crore for the development of refugees from Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.
Sadly, these hopes were shattered this time too, but there’s a reason to cheer as the grant of nativity certificates may well be the first step towards achieving the citizenship status. The cards to be issued will just be an official entry of the place where they lived in west Pakistan and where they are living now.
That the separatists and opposition parties such as the National Conference are against the Government’s move, is shocking. The Opposition has alleged that the Government was removing the roadblocks in integrating them into the State. According to them, the refugees can be rehabilitated elsewhere and the present move will jeopardise and erode the State’s historical and political contours. The arguments of both, the separatists and the opposition, fall flat given that the refugees are fourth generation descendents. It was their parents or may be grandparents who were the residents of west Pakistan. The present generation, are very much a part of this country – they have been born and brought up here itself.
Perhaps, this is for the first time that a State Government has at least taken a step to give an identity to the ‘nowhere status’ of the refugees by way of issuing identity certificates which will at the very least grant them the right to get enrolled in the police forces as well as in other Central Government departments and offices.
It is indeed a travesty that politics has taken precedence over giving the people their legitimate rights. The fight is not for providing citizenship rights, but for providing certificates to them. Neither is it the question of Hindu versus Muslims. The refugees are very much a part of this country and have every right to be here. They have been living here not for decades but since the time of independence since we, like them gained azadi. It would be prudent for the mainstream parties and also the separatists to not give a communal identity to this issue and instead, work hand-in-hand with the Union and State Government to give them their due.
(The writer is a practising journalist)