Jammu, May 14 (PTI) Panun Kashmir, a prominent group for displaced Kashmiri Pandits, on Thursday urged the Narendra Modi-led government to immediately modify the National Food Security Act (NFSA) after the J&K administration merged their relief rations with the scheme, saying that the framework risks “normalising and consolidating genocide”.
The administration had begun integrating migrant ration cards, including those of Kashmiri Pandits living in Jammu, into the NFSA database. The process, which began in early 2026, has sparked backlash from the community.
The organisation said that while NFSA is intended as a welfare measure for economically weaker sections, its “mechanical extension” to victims of the “Kashmir Hindu genocide” without recognising their unique historical and civilisational trauma could turn a humanitarian programme into an “instrument of denial and consolidation of genocide”.
“We urge the Prime Minister of India and the Government of India to immediately review and suitably modify the present framework of the National Food Security Act (NFSA) as applied to the internally displaced Hindus of Kashmir”, Panun Kashmir Chairman Dr Ajay Chrungoo told reporters here.
Chrungoo said the government must distinguish between poverty arising from ordinary economic circumstances and deprivation imposed through genocide, terrorism and forced displacement.
“Treating both categories identically amounts to obscuring the historical reality that caused the suffering of the displaced Hindu community of Kashmir,” he said.
He expressed concern that the present NFSA framework reduces displaced Kashmiri Hindus to a routine welfare category, thereby obscuring the targeted nature of their displacement and the violence inflicted upon the community.
“The inclusion of migrant families into ordinary welfare databases could gradually weaken the distinct recognition of their status as victims of forced displacement and genocide,” he said.
The organisation also maintained that genocide extends beyond physical killings and includes prolonged displacement, demographic erasure, cultural uprooting and systematic dilution of identity.
“Any policy that ignores these realities risks consolidating the effects of genocide rather than reversing them,” he said, adding that the suffering of displaced Kashmiri Hindus is “historical, civilisational and existential” and cannot be viewed solely through economic parameters.
Referring to the prevailing security situation in Jammu and Kashmir, Chrungoo said the ecosystem of terrorism and radicalisation responsible for the exodus of Kashmiri Hindus continues to exist in various forms, including targeted killings, intimidation and recurring threats against civilians.
The organisation cited incidents such as the Pahalgam massacre and other attacks on civilians as reminders of what it termed a continuing atmosphere of insecurity and targeted violence.
He said that displaced Kashmiri Hindus, as well as sections of the Hindu population in the Jammu region, continue to remain psychologically, socially and physically vulnerable to acts of terror and intimidation.
“We demand that the Government introduce specific safeguards while implementing NFSA for internally displaced Kashmiri Hindus, including retaining and legally protecting a distinct administrative category for displaced Hindus of Kashmir and ensuring that NFSA integration does not dilute or replace existing migrant relief, rehabilitation and employment benefits”, he added.
He also sought the creation of a separate national database recognising victims of genocide, terrorism and forced displacement, and demanded that no displaced family be excluded from relief on technical, procedural or purely economic grounds.
Among other demands, Panun Kashmir called for formal acknowledgement of the “genocide” and the historical, civilisational and demographic devastation suffered by displaced Kashmiri Hindus.
He also urged the government to frame a comprehensive long-term policy for justice, restitution, rehabilitation and secure resettlement of displaced Kashmiri Hindus in their homeland through enactment of the “Panun Kashmir Genocide and Atrocities Prevention Bill” and implementation of ‘Margdarshan-91’ resolution, which seeks the establishment of a separate homeland for Kashmiri Hindus in the Valley. PTI AB AB KSI KSI
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