Cong bid to rehabilitate Kashmiri Pandits; Vivek Tankha tables bill in RS

• Congress MP Vivek Tankha introduced a private member’s bill in the House on Friday. The bill seeks to provide for social, political and economic rehabilitation of Pandits, protection of their property, restoration of their cultural heritage, ensuring their safety and security, and provision of rehabilitation and resettlement packages to them. The Congress MP claimed that it was for the first time in 32 years that such a bill was tabled in the parliament. The provisions of the Bill include grant of minority status to Kashmiri Pandits, declaring them as “victims of genocide”, changing their official nomenclature to ‘Internally Displaced Persons’ with immediate effect, and release of a white paper documenting all events in the Valley “pertaining to the atrocities and plight of the Kashmiri Pandits” starting from 1988. Watch this video for more details.