In a deeply disgraceful display of selective politics, the present National Conference-led Government of Jammu and Kashmir under Chief Minister Omar Abdullah has once again exposed its apathy, bias, and utter disregard towards the most victimized, most neglected, and most abandoned segment of the population—the displaced Kashmiri Pandit community, living in exile for the last 35 years.

One must ask a hard and pointed question: Why has the Omar Abdullah-led regime failed to bring forward a Genocide and Rehabilitation Bill for the displaced Kashmiri Pandits in the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly? Why has it ignored and shelved the long-pending Shrine and Temple Protection Bill—a bill meant to safeguard the thousands of centuries-old temples, heritage structures, and sacred sites of the Kashmiri Pandit community in the valley? Is this deliberate denial not a political crime, a moral failure, and a constitutional betrayal?

Shamefully, the very Assembly that erupted in loud uproar over the Waqf Board Amendment Bill—meant to protect the Muslim religious properties—turned a blind eye and deaf ear when it came to protecting the sacred shrines of the indigenous Pandits. Not a single protest, not a single slogan, not a single walkout! This silence is not just criminal—it is cruel. It defines the institutional bias, it highlights the communal selectivity, and it reflects the long-nurtured political agenda of marginalizing and erasing the roots of Kashmiri Pandits from the soil of Kashmir.

What makes the betrayal even more painful is the total absence of responsibility and accountability from the BJP, which today sits in the Assembly as the principal opposition. Not once did the BJP raise the demand for a Shrine Bill. Not once did it advocate for a Genocide Recognition Bill or Rehabilitation bill or seek compensation for the massive loss of homes, lands, properties, and dignity suffered by the displaced Pandits. Where was their voice when our burnt homes cried? Where was their courage when our lands were grabbed and temples desecrated? Have the Pandits become a photo-op community for electoral shows, but abandoned in real issues of survival, rehabilitation, and justice?

It is tragic and ironical that the aborigines of Kashmir—the original sons of the soil—are today treated as outsiders in the same land where their ancestors meditated, taught, and bled. Their land is occupied, their properties stolen, their temples vandalized, their voices silenced—and yet, the government and the opposition both sit in comfort, delivering hollow speeches and token statements, while this community rots in neglected exile.

The National Conference, the PDP, the BJP—all are complicit. They have chosen political convenience over justice. They have chosen silence over accountability. They have made decisions about Kashmir without the participation, consultation, or inclusion of displaced Pandits. Every policy, every plan, every proposal concerning Kashmir has been made as if this community does not exist.

One must ask Omar Abdullah and his colleagues in the Assembly: Are Kashmiri Pandits not citizens of Jammu and Kashmir? Are they not your responsibility? Or is your loyalty only to those who remained in the valley—many of whom are converts or migrants from across the borders—while you suppress and sideline the original inheritors of Kashmiri identity and civilization?

This is not just neglect. It is apartheid. It is discrimination of the highest order.

The time has come to demand answers, not seek favors. The time has come to expose these political actors—whether in power or in opposition—who have built their careers on the blood, pain, and displacement of Kashmiri Pandits.

We, the children of Vitasta, the followers of Lal Ded, and the bearers of Sharda’s torch, refuse to be treated as second-class citizens. If Kashmir is for Kashmiris, then we—the aborigines—must be at its core, not pushed to its margins.

Let it be known loud and clear—history will remember those who betrayed us with silence, those who ruled by excluding us, and those who watched our genocide but never raised their voice.

Om Abdullah, Abdul Rahim Rather, and every silent member of that Assembly—you have failed. You have failed the Pandits. You have failed justice. You have failed history.

“And to the BJP—your silence makes you equally guilty”

       [ Kundan Kashmiri]

Community Sevak Kashmir Watcher, & President Kashmiri Pandit Conference ( KPC )— Mobile No 8802167955 —– Email kundankashmiri@gnail.com