| News Details |
| Panun Kashmir condemns Farooq, Mirwaiz Umar for reducing genocide to moral and humanitarian rhetoric | |
Jammu, January 22 (Scoop News)- Panun Kashmir has issued a strong, condemnation of recent remarks by Farooq Abdullah and Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, accusing both of collapsing a crime of genocide into moral and humanitarian rhetoric in order to evade legal responsibility and accountability.
Responding on behalf of the organisation, Prof. Tito Ganju, Vice Chairman of Panun Kashmir, said that while genocide does carry moral and humanitarian dimensions, reducing it only to those frames is a deliberate distortion.
“Genocide is undoubtedly a moral and humanitarian catastrophe,” Prof. Ganju said. “But it is first and foremost a crime. When morality and humanitarian concern are invoked to avoid naming the crime and fixing responsibility, they become instruments of denial.”
Panun Kashmir took particular exception to statements by Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, an integral figure of the Hurriyat Conference who also served as its Chairman, who described the return of Kashmiri Pandits as a moral obligation, opposed secure residential arrangements, and invoked childhood memories and notions of familial coexistence. The organisation said such language substitutes sentiment for accountability.
“Personal memories and emotive references do not discharge legal responsibility,” Prof. Ganju stated. “Calling Kashmiri Pandits ‘family’ while refusing to acknowledge the genocide that destroyed that family is moral posturing, not justice.”
The organisation asserted that opposition to secure living arrangements after genocide reflects a profound disregard for victim protection, stressing that safety and enforceable guarantees are legal prerequisites, not matters of preference or ideology.
Turning to Farooq Abdullah, Panun Kashmir said his remarks must be viewed against the historical record.
“The genocide of Kashmiri Pandits occurred during Farooq Abdullah’s tenure as head of the elected government,” Prof. Ganju said. “In constitutional governance, office carries responsibility. Moral commentary decades later cannot erase institutional accountability.”
Panun Kashmir categorically rejected the assertion that the return of Kashmiri Pandits is “non-political.”
“Genocide is inherently political because it unfolds under structures of power and governance,” Prof. Ganju said. “To depoliticise it through moral or humanitarian language is to shield those who failed in their constitutional duty.”
The organisation further warned that the absence of a genocide-prevention statute in India has enabled prolonged impunity, allowing denial and evasion to persist in public discourse.
“Once a genocide-prevention law is enacted, the law will necessarily examine acts of commission, omission, and sustained denial,” Prof. Ganju said. “Former chief ministers and separatist leaders alike will be answerable to the same legal standard.”
Reiterating its long-standing position, Panun Kashmir renewed its demands for formal recognition of the genocide of Kashmiri Pandits (Jatividhwans), enactment of a comprehensive genocide-prevention law, and establishment of a constitutionally guaranteed Panun Kashmir homeland as corrective legal measures.
“Morality and humanitarian concern cannot be allowed to replace law,” Prof. Ganju concluded. “They must reinforce justice, not be used to avoid it.”
... |
| |
|
|
Share this Story |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
|
|