Restorative Justice- In Context of Kashmiri Pandit Genocide:Lalit k kaul

 

Restorative Justice- Truth & Reconciliation

(Is it possible in case of Kashmiri Pandit Community?)

                               Lalit k kaul

“... Restorative Justice recognizes the importance of Truth and Reconciliation...”. In the context of the Genocide of Kashmiri Pandit (Not Hindu) Community led by the religious and political leadership of Kashmiri Muslims (supported by Muslim leaders and organizations in other parts of India) encouraged by the political consensus at the National level, the quoted statement needs to be analysed.

Reconciliation:

It means (Oxford Dictionary)- 1) the restoration of friendly relations and 2) the action of making one view or belief compatible with another.

The second meaning is more relevant. The respective Vedic and Islamic World-views are not compatible with each other. The former conceptualizes the whole universe as one family whereas the latter is intolerant to anything-animate or inanimate- outside its fold and boldly professes their extermination. And that’s the “Law/Command of Allah” which is beyond debate and, therefore, absolutely non-negotiable.  Therefore, there can be no meeting ground between a Momeen and a Kafir. And, no remorse for having exterminated a whole group of people that didn’t belong to their faith because they had performed the act of extermination while being in the “Way of Allah”. Those who push forward an argument that only a few groups were involved in the act of genocide are in fact certifying that the remaining 99.99% were defying the “Law of Allah”! Whereas the Truth is that the other 99.99% were complementing the Genocide Warriors in achieving the ultimate Goal by way of providing logistics, arranging finances and biological comforts for them.

The process followed in Restorative Justice is not applicable in the context of our Genocide because no Muslim is going to come forward and record remorse and admit wrongfulness of his/her act because it would be tantamount to denigrating their faith. The other reason being that all other crimes against humanity like, the Holocaust, Rwanda Genocide, the Apartheid in South Africa, the atrocities committed by Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia, etc. were not as per dictates of the Divine Law; the system of Restorative Justice stood a chance only if all the stake holders had an honest intent.

Even if the meaning of reconciliation is reduced to being an adjustment as agreed upon by all the stake holders, why would Kashmiri Muslims be interested in that kind of adjustment? They wouldn’t be because the whole community is being treated as a “Blue Eyed Boy” by the GOI and the entire Indian political spectrum. There is no reason for them to grieve our absence from the Valley as it has benefitted them immensely in all walks of life. The Kashmiri Pandits have been very magnanimous in promoting religious tourism in the Valley and that has given boost to their incomes.

Therefore, in view of the above facts, Reconciliation holds no chance.

Truth:

Our Genocide is a naked Fact and Truth and therefore no need to discover the Truth of it. The movement of the Sun in the sky is a Fact, but the Truth is that the Sun is stationary. Hence the need to discover it. That naked Fact and Truth has been (and is being) falsified by an assiduously run narrative that “the Pandits left the Valley on their own”! If true, that should be documented in the History as not only an unprecedented adventure, but also the one that wouldn’t happen in future for all times to come, undertaken by us that reduced us to be a community of slum dwellers from being the one belonging to the class of well to do people! But, then that’s the Truth of Kashmiri Muslims which is as far removed from our Truth as God is from Devil.

The Truth of Kashmiri Muslims is that they suffered deaths of their kith and kin because they rose up in arms against the Indian State to challenge India’s integrity and that of ours is that we suffered genocide because we stood by India and held Tricolour very dear to us. No Muslim lost his/her life because he/she opposed the act of genocide against us, they were killed by Azadi warriors because they refused to fund the campaign; they paid with their lives for their Kufr. Will Muslims admit to this Truth of theirs? No. Because they don’t have to as their apologists have already put our Genocide and their deaths (caused due to contrasting reasons) on the same plane!

The Truth of Kashmiri Muslims (and Muslims in other parts of India) is that they are wedded to Two Nation Theory and their ultimate goal of Ghazwa-e-hind; will they speak it out while participating in the procedure of Restorative Justice? No.

The question is: why would Kashmiri Muslims speak Truth (as associated with them)? What do they stand to gain by it? Nothing and on the contrary they may stand to lose a lot.

The Difference:

The bottom line is that genocide caused due to racism; intolerance to a political ideology; colour bias, etcetera has no Divine role in it, but the genocide of our community was the religious act of a True Muslim because it was ordained by Divine Will/Command. Therefore, the ways to address to genocides committed to honour Divine Command have to be different from those employed for genocides based on secular prejudices.

If anyone can make a Muslim remorseful of his/her barbaric act against a non-Muslim then that one has succeeded in reducing the population of Muslims by One. And, that is as impossible as Earth becoming stationary and the Sun rotating around it and revolving around its Axis. For, all the sophisticated and cultured exterior of an “educated” and “economically well-to-do” Muslim; the interior is no different from a Madrasa bred Islamic Scholar.