AA Edit | India owes Valley's exiled Pandits safe homecoming

No country should be housing a refugee camp for its own citizens. Or have to witness the continued internal exile of a person, or group, owing to violence and terror unleashed on them by their own fellow citizens. No country should have to watch a part of itself mutilated and hurt so badly that it can never feel like a part again.

Yet, the continued plight of Kashmiri Pandits, who have been forced into an exile from their own rightful homes by separatist terrorist over three decades ago, and who can still not return to stake claim to their land, their rights, their past and hope to build a safe and bright future in Jammu & Kashmir, is a shame and blot on all Indians.

One, it should not have happened, and two, we should not have had to wait this long to put our fullest efforts and might towards correcting the wrong and ensuring a safe passage back for the Kashmiri Pandits to reclaim what is theirs. But India has not really done enough to correct the sins of the past.

Until now. In speaking for the Kashmiri Pandit community and diaspora, lieutenant governor Manoj Sinha has spoken for that need for justice, and closure. His words of hope that the day is not far when Kashmiri Pandits return to their homeland are a balm much needed by those who are still reeling from pain, hurt and loss after all these years.

His words of assurance spoken at Jagti Colony in Jammu to members of the displaced Brahmin Hindu community that “with God’s grace, all Kashmiri Pandits would return to their homes in Kashmir... The day is not far” are not just words of an individual, or an official, but a sincere oath of a nation that it cannot renege under any circumstance.

As promised by Mr Sinha, India must indeed make good its promise and, “with utmost sensitivity”, resolve all issues of the migrant Kashmiri Pandit community, but above all, it must, in a foolproof plan, ensure that their safety remains the top most priority, and not even one more drop of blood is shed when India can lay a red carpet to the Pandit community to return.

History will remember Prime Minister Narendra Modi for many things, some of which would have been unthinkable had it not been for his convictions and determination, but if he can, during his term, ensure the opportunity to enable the return of the Pandits, it would be the crowning glory of even his illustrious career.

All of India would look up to see when — and not if — Prime Minister Modi makes it happen, and an old wound is healed. The community, as Mr Sinha said, has suffered a lot for three long decades, sacrificed a lot, and paid a heavy price. The country will settle for nothing less than seeing the day when they return to their homes with honour — and in their return, Kashmir too will find its lost glory.