Author: P Parameswaran
Publication: Hindu Voice
Date: September 2002
Dated: 13.08.02
To: Honourable justice J.S. Verma
Chairman, National Human Rights
Commission, New Delhi. Respectful
Pranams,
I don't know whether you remember
our brief meeting at Coimbatore where you had come as the Chief Guest at
the Annual Conference of the Bharat Vikas Parishad presided over by Justice
Rama Jois in which I was also present as a speaker. I hope this finds you
in perfect health and spirit.
I happened to read the report of
your speech (in The New Indian Express and The Hindu dated 5th August 2002);
it a round table at the National Law School of India University, Bangalore,
in which you are reported to have expressed grave concern at the plight
of the Muslim refugees living in makeshift camps in Gujarat. The papers
also reported your advice to the Prime Minister "to match his rhetoric
with actions" and suggested that he should practice Hinduism in the manner
prescribed by Swami Vivekananda. I can very well understand your concern
in the matter
Whoever had organised the seminar
and invited the Chairman of the Human Rights Commission to address the
same must have very clear motives for doing so. It is obvious that the
seminar was in the context of the debated issue of the Gujarat polls. They
must be extremely delighted at their success since you have put your official
weight, which is very considerable on their side.
I would not object to your doing
so. As chairman of the National Human Rights Commission you have not only
your right, it is also your duty to express your considered opinion if
your conscience bids you so.
But I have great reservations about
certain factors directly related to an equally crucial issue, which is
currently attracting worldwide attention. I refer to the recently announced
polls in the state of Jammu-Kashmir. Both have great similarities and both
are equally controversial, with the difference that the Jammu-Kashmir issue
has been hanging fire and attracting worldwide attention for decades now.
There are more than 7.5 lakhs of Hindu refugees undergoing a miserable
existence in various refugee camps, not only within the state but also
outside. Many have lost their hope of ever going back home. Many are no
more with us. Their condition is not only no better, but indeed far worse
than that of the Gujarat refugees. The Kashmiri Pundits who have been left
high and dry even after decades have openly stated that they don't have
even their names in the voters list and that they don't expect any justice
even after the polls.
That has been their experience all
these years. Having lost faith in the outcome of the poll they are now
demanding nominated representation to the assembly. I don't think anyone
could blame them.
I am deeply pained that you have
not made even a casual reference expressing your anguish at. their pitiable
plight. Not only as the chairman of the Human Rights Commission, but even
as an ordinary human being with sensitive heart I feel that you committed
a grave omission in totally disregarding the question of the long suffering
refugees of Kashmir. Do they not deserve equal care and sympathy as the
refugees in Gujarat? I would not like to believe that the omission was
deliberate or that your judicious mind would make a distinction between
two sets of human beings. Moreover, if the Muslim refugees in Gujarat are
minorities in the state, the same is true of the Kashmiri Pundits. I do
believe that as National Human Rights Commission Chairman, the State of
Jammu-Kashmir also comes under your jurisdiction.
In this connection, permit me to
quote Dr. Karan Singh whose credentials to speak on behalf of the people
of Jammu-Kashmir on this very relevant issue cannot be questioned. He says
"Jammu-Kashmir has been facing nothing but a continuous earthquake for
the past thirteen years of militancy" (The Hindu dated 10th August 2002).
I hope I will be justified in quoting your statement relating to Gujarat
in your speech. "The people of Gujarat had undergone the same suffering
and miseries that one experience during the war. They had lost their kith
and kin in large numbers. They could hot go back to their areas", (The
Hindu dated 5th August 2002). Both are comparable statements, but there
is a glaring difference. Though Dr. Karan Singh is not optimistic that
the elections will solve all the problems of Jammu Kashmir, he disagreed
that the situation was not conducive for holding the elections, whereas
you had more or less totally thrown your weight against the desirability
of elections in Gujarat at least by implications. Let me make it clear
that it is not the question of election that cause me anxiety. What hurt
me most was your utter silence with regards to the continuing sufferings
of the Hindu community in Jammu Kashmir.
Regarding your reference to the
kind of Hinduism preached and practiced by Swami Vivekananda I would like
to strongly recommend a close and thorough reading of the Swamijis works
and not to quote him in a casual manner. It is true that Swami' Vivekananda
stood, not only for religious tolerance but also for universal acceptance".
But he never advised people to tolerate, much less accept, intolerance
and face humiliation at the hands of others. I am pretty sure, 'having
gone through the entire life and literature of Swami Vivekananda many times,
that he would not appreciate an inhuman terrorist act like the Godhra incident
to be, tolerated by the Hindu society passively. He would have called it
a sign of cowardly inertia. Any way I would not waste your time or mine
by going in to details. I would rather leave it your good self.
I am writing this rather belatedly
because I was not well and was undergoing treatment when report of your
speech appeared in the press. I have a fear that the papers might not have
done full justice to your speech and might have selectively quoted you.
In that case I would request your indulgence and forgiveness. But since
the matter is of great importance I thought I should communicate with you,
better late than never, would you be kind enough to acknowledge and allay
my fears, since I hold you in very great esteem?
Though the letter is already too
long I would like to bring to your notice a short paragraph from the English
translation of an article from a French journal L'Express titled "Le Jeu
dangereux des nationalists (The Dangerous Game of the Nationalists)" published
in the Organiser of 4th August 2002: "why don't you ask your correspondent
to write an article on the 'Kashmiri Pundits', those Hindus who live in
sordid camps and in deplorable conditions, after having been forced out
of the their ancestral and native Kashmir, where they were massacred by
Muslim extremists? Do you know how many refugees are there in their own
country? - 7,50,000 (since 1989). There is no chance of your reporter telling
you that. Do you know that till the 16th century Hindus were still, in
a majority in Kashmir? Why did they leave? Have you heard of "ethnic cleansing?"
this practice is thirteen centuries old (since the advent of Islam)." Thanking
you.
