The Kashmir Files: Exodus of Kashmiri Pandits and the battle for India’s soul

Polarisation between the political Right and Left has grown phenomenal in India particularly after a high-octane demonstrate at Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) to commemorate the execution of the once JKLF activist and the alleged Jaish-e-Mohammad operative Afzal Guru in February 2016. Notwithstanding the JNU’s in-house inquiry, coupled with an investigation by the Delhi Police, the identities of the participants are still shrouded in a mystery.

None of the male or female characters in the choreography, whose faces were clearly captured by scores of the cameras, figures in the Delhi Police charge-sheet. On that occasion, the BJP leadership at the Centre reportedly believed that the identification would lead to the arrest of a number of young men and women from Kashmir. This, as per the BJP’s apprehension, would queer the pitch for continuation of the ruling coalition with the PDP leader Mehbooba Mufti.

Mehbooba’s father, Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, had died a month back and she was in fresh negotiations with the BJP for continuation of the PDP-BJP alliance during the JNU controversy.

Guru had been executed at Delhi’s Tihar Jail on 9 February 2013 after he was convicted by court for his alleged participation in the JeM’s fidayeen attack on the Indian Parliament. Six heavily-armed terrorists and three CRPF personnel died in the attack on Parliament.

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