A+A+?................Aa Ab Loat Chalein…….
Two As’ of PK gear up to recreate the magic of 90’s
his Tuesday may prove a red letter day in the history of the twenty year struggle for dignified survival of Kashmiri Pandits (KPs) during their forced exile, if the noble plans and a long pending demand of KPs for the unification of Panun Kashmir (PK) reach to a logical end.
In a very significant development for Kashmiri Pandit politics the two of the three influential factions of Panun Kashmir lead by Dr Agnishekhar (Panun Kashmir) and Ashwani Kumar (Panun Kashmir Movement) announced their decision to come together on a permanent basis by merging their groups into one to launch a final assault to achieve the object of Panun Kashmir, a separate home land for seven lakh forcibly exiled Kashmiri Pandits.
The final merger would however take place on June 7 during the 16th Annual General Meeting of Panun Kashmir Movement, as the leaders expect Dr Ajay Chrangoo too would be motivated by then to come together once again.
The homecoming of the two factions is good news for an average Kashmiri Pandit who wants all the three popular ‘A’s (Agni, Ajay and Ashwani) of the Panun Kashmir to come together and fight for the community cause with a force and influence that it wielded during 90’s.
While the two among the three ‘A’s (Agni and Ashwani) have already announced their plans for homecoming and gearing up to recreate the magic of 90’s, they are also asking the third ‘A’ (Dr Ajay Chrangoo), ….Aa Ab Loat Chalein…..(Let’s return home) to complete the equation of A+A+A= a strong PK= Homeland for KPs.
Meanwhile addressing a joint press conference Dr Agnishekhar and Ashwani Kumar said that the struggle of Kashmiri Pandits has entered into a crucial phase and there was a yearning in the community for unity among them because both were fighting the same cause of geo-political dispensation in the form of “Homeland” in Kashmir Valley.
The leaders said that they could not remain oblivious to the aspirations and burning desire of the community and respecting their noble sentiments have finally decided to come together on permanent basis to fight for Homeland.
The two hoped that this unity move would lead to complete integration of the two groups and encourage other groups to follow the suit adding they were expecting other Kashmiri Pandit groups fighting for Homeland would also hasten to forget the past differences and come together to achieve the goal of Homeland.
Terming it as the impact of 3rd World Kashmiri Pandit Conference the leaders said that the presence of Ashwani Kumar was appreciated by one and all leading to present decision of merger.
The leaders said that they would be launching an awareness campaign at national and international level to lend fresh impetus to the struggle adding a big seminar would be organized in Pune on 24th May in which delegates from Jammu and other parts of the country would participate.
A joint convention of the activists has also been planned on May 30 to discuss the final modalities for the complete integration of the two groups while the merger would be announced on June 7.
Later speaking to this scribe Dr Agnishekhar said that the leadership issue was no problem now because it has been decided to give respectful space to the leaders of the factions adding the two leaders were pursuing the agenda of appealing and motivating Dr Ajay Chrangoo to announce his home coming soon and expected that Dr Ajay Chrangoo would also respect the wishes of the community members and return home.
He said that a committee of six members would be constituted to decide the restructuring of the Panun Kashmir, its future strategy, Dos’ and Don’ts’ adding the suggestions would be discussed and deliberated before the final announcement.
Dr Agnishekhar was very categorical that this time the issue of who will lead was nowhere and everybody was eager to work for the community instead of making leadership an issue.
He said that this time it was a positive mind adding their homecoming has sent positive waves among the community and Pandits groups while it would send shivers down the spine of the enemies of Pandits including the elements within the state and central government who were taking undue advantage of the differences within the leadership of Panun Kashmir.
To a question on holding organizational elections he said that all the issues would be deliberated by the six member committee and whatever suggestions they forward would be discussed to formulate the final organizational setup.
Panun Kashmir, the religion of Kashmiri Pandits during 90’s, whose a single call would attract thousands of KPs on streets, lost its sheen once the pillars of the Panun Kashmir mission split up and began treading their own path sending the whole struggle of KPs into disarray and subsequent demands and moves from all the quarters to unify the three groups to rejuvenate the struggle of Kashmiri Pandits.
The three groups of the founders of Panun Kashmir lead by Dr Agnishekhar (Panun Kashmir), Ashwani Kumar (Panun Kashmir Movement) and Dr Ajay Chrangoo (Panun Kashmir Foundation) continued their community work on individual platforms making significant contribution for the community which however could not make any difference to the stance of the government due to fractured ‘might’ of Kashmiri Pandits.
But now with drastic political changes at the centre and voters mandate for a strong UPA seems to have played its role in dawning the reality to the leaders of Panun Kashmir to hurry up in sewing together the three factions of PK not only to rejuvenate the dying struggle but also to be in a position of bargaining with the new setup at the centre.
The joint conference to announce the merger plans by Dr Agnishekhar and Ashwani Kumar was the first step in this direction and the culmination of long pending demand of well-wishers of the community and Panun Kashmir besides the initiatives taken during the 3rd World Kashmiri Pandit Conference.