Sunanda Vashisht's testimony on Kashmiri Hindus was a terrific first step. We have to ensure that these stories are not forgotten.
- In Current Affairs
- 05:30 AM, Nov 16, 2019
- Aadit Kapadia
A little over three years ago, on a wintry afternoon , not unlike today, when Sunanda and I sat across to discuss yet another MyInd podcast over an Indian meal, little did I realise that an innocuous question posed by me would result in what most of you heard yesterday in the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission hearing. “You have never told me what happened to you in Kashmir?” I asked. “Yes, I know about the exodus. But what happened around you that led to it”. I asked as a curious friend who deeply cared about what had happened. I asked because many specific incidents had not reached other parts of India.
She began with what happened to Girija Tickoo and I shuddered. She spoke about her grandfather standing with two knives, ready to kill her and her mom lest the mob should lay hands on us. The slogans of making “Pakistan with Kashmiri Pandit women without their men”. The warning of ‘convert, flee or die’.
As her experience of the seventh Kashmiri Pandit exodus poured out through her voice and tears, I went through what many people across the world have experienced yesterday after listening to her testimony. The food remained untouched.
When we discussed the stories that afternoon, Sunanda mentioned that she had never said this publicly. That changed a few years ago when during the Amarnath yatra meeting, she could no longer contain herself as she saw the same saga of innocents being killed unfold all over again. Unbeknownst to her, we recorded and uploaded that recording on YouTube and thousands of people wrote to MyIndmakers how they had no idea about the horrors that the Kashmiri Hindus had to face.
It is no secret that we at Myindmakers have always ensured that the voice of the Kashmiri Hindu community finds a platform. Many of our columnists are first time writers, some being Kashmiri Hindus who we published to ensure that their lived experience does not go undocumented, neglected and ignored.
There are many firsts in yesterday’s testimony. Many of the points made yesterday, especially, with respect to the Kashmiri Hindus have never been raised in the US Congress before. For months, Pakistani lobby has tried to weigh the hearings in their favor but one honest lived experience was all it took to take the winds out the sails of their ship of deceit and lies. A few Congressmen/women who were trying to avoid discussion on this seemed lost when a counter question was posed to them.
There was a bipartisan consensus on the Hill when it came to India, but that seemed to change when the far- left democrats started taking anti India positions especially on Kashmir. People like David Cicilline armed with misinformation and conjecture made one ridiculous statement after the other without being questioned. Of course, when Ms Sheila Jackson Lee was questioned in the second panel, Mr David wasn’t around.
Satyamev Jayate is what Sunanda tweeted after the hearing and that has been our guiding principle at MyIndmakers from the beginning. Truth shall triumph and reclaim the ground of objectivity, honesty and more importantly human rights and peace for all.
Sunanda’s testimony is a terrific start. It is now up to the Indian state to either appoint a tribunal or publish a white paper about what happened to the Kashmiri Hindus in the 1990s. I would extend that to the persecution of Hindus in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Myanmar, as well.
In all the human rights hearing witnessed hitherto, the rights of Hindus seem to not matter. Things changed partially yesterday when in a severely lopsided panel, one Hindu voice was finally invited and the result is there for everyone to see.
The truth was a causality in many of these hearings before, now some of the blatantly incorrect statements spread are being challenged. The road ahead won’t be easy. Article 370 has been abrogated but there will be challenges restoring complete normalcy in Kashmir. Normalcy which would entail Kashmir rendered free of Islamist terror and that is a long drawn process.
The current geo-political dynamics will ensure that the world will keep looking at Kashmir with a magnifying lens and without awareness of what all has led to the Kashmir of today. It is for India to state Kashmir is ready to embark a journey of peace and development, if only the vested interests stop interfering in what is clearly India’s internal matter.
That an exodus that happened 30 years ago only on the basis of religion is still being denied by certain people, is a story in itself. What happened yesterday, was only the first step in a series of steps that need to be taken. The truth about Kashmir must come out. Voices should be amplified. What I and many others like me have heard, the entire world should know. Perhaps then, once the wounds have healed, we shall finally go and finish that unfished meal.
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