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Minority status, arms licence, probe panel — what Congress MP’s Bill wants for Kashmiri Pandits

Congress MP Vivek Tankha introduced a private member's Bill in the Rajya Sabha Friday with an array of provisions for the resettlement and rehabilitation of Kashmiri Pandits.

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New Delhi: One member of each Pandit family living in Kashmir would have a licence to carry weapons, under a private member’s Bill introduced by Congress MP Vivek Tankha in the Rajya Sabha Friday. It has an array of provisions aimed at the resettlement and rehabilitation of Kashmiri Pandits.

The Bill, which has been accepted for discussion and is titled the ‘Kashmiri Pandits (Recourse, Restitution, Rehabilitation and Resettlement) Bill, 2022, also demands minority status for the Pandits, and the restoration of land to them.

The last time a private member’s Bill became law was way back in 1970.

The Bill also seeks to provide a monthly stipend to Pandits, mandating cash relief of Rs 5,000 “subject to a ceiling of Rs 20,000 per family to be given every month to all Kashmiri Pandits”. Further, it calls for the setting up of an inquiry commission to investigate the “genocide and mass exodus of Kashmiri Pandits from their homeland”.

Tankha’s Bill comes at a time when Vivek Agnihotri’s film The Kashmir Files, based on the Pandits’ exodus from the Valley in the 1990s, has drawn attention to their situation. With Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders and cabinet ministers praising the film, many states have made the movie tax-free, and some such as Assam are encouraging state government officials to watch it.

Speaking about the Bill, Tankha told ThePrint that the ball was now in the government’s court. “If they don’t hasten the process by either debating my Bill or introducing their own Bill, then it will signify that they are not serious about the issue and don’t believe in empowering Kashmiri Pandits. And that they only view the community as a vote bank,” he said.


Also read: The Kashmir Files tries showing 1990 exodus ‘truth’ but Vivek Agnihotri gives it death blow


Provisions of the Bill

Tankha, a senior advocate, said the aim of the Bill was to “provide for social, political and economic rehabilitation of Kashmiri Pandits, protection of their property, restoration of their cultural heritage, ensuring their safety and security, and the provision of rehabilitation and resettlement packages to them.”

Key features of the Bill focus on providing domicile status for Kashmiri Pandits, and the restoration of temples and other heritage sites.

One of its main demands is that Kashmiri Pandits be given “minority status” under the National Commission for Minorities Act, 1992, and be declared an “at risk population”, with the necessary security arrangements in place — ascertained by gauging threat levels and assessing risk — to ensure thay they can enjoy complete liberty.

To ensure security, the Bill introduced by Tankha calls for  an “arms licence” to be issued to at least one member of each family of domiciled Kashmiri Pandits. It also speaks about returning their land, and stipulates that land records be settled and land rights be handed over to the owners.

Furthermore, it asks for an extensive survey to be conducted “to ascertain the market value of all the immovable property of Kashmiri Pandits”, and demands that “an estimate be made about the value of the damage done to their properties”.

On the development front, the Bill demands grants for small cottage industries owned by Kashmiri Pandits. It also asks for direct and indirect taxes to be waived for the first five years after the establishment of any business, interest-free loans for the setting up of MSMEs, the promotion of self-help groups and the creation of a ‘special education fund’ to give scholarships to wards of Kashmiri Pandits.

The inquiry commission that the Bill proposes to set up would consist of a retired Chief Justice of India, two retired judges from the High Court of Jammu and Kashmir, and four serving senior security officials from the Union Territory’s police force, among others.

(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)


Also read: BJP spreading hatred through ‘The Kashmir Files’: Pawar


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