JAMMU, May 14: Dr. Ajay Chrungoo, Chairman of Panun Kashmir, urged the Government of India to immediately review and suitably modify the implementation framework of the National Food Security Act (NFSA) for internally displaced Hindus of Kashmir. The organisation stated that while NFSA is intended as a welfare programme for economically weaker sections, its direct application to displaced Kashmiri Hindus without recognising their unique historical and civilizational suffering risks reducing a humanitarian issue into what it termed an “instrument of denial and consolidation of genocide.”
Addressing a press conference at the Press Club Jammu, Chrungoo argued that there is a clear distinction between poverty arising from ordinary economic conditions and deprivation caused by terrorism, genocide and forced displacement. The organisation said treating both situations identically obscures the historical reality behind the suffering of displaced Kashmiri Hindus. According to the group, the present NFSA framework reduces the displaced community to a routine welfare category and weakens recognition of their status as victims of targeted violence and forced exile.
The organisation also expressed concern that inclusion of displaced families into ordinary welfare databases could gradually dilute their separate administrative identity as victims of genocide and displacement. It maintained that genocide is not limited to physical killings alone but also includes prolonged displacement, cultural uprooting, demographic erasure and systematic weakening of identity. Panun Kashmir stated that the suffering of displaced Hindus of Kashmir is not merely economic but also historical, civilizational and existential in nature.
Highlighting continuing security concerns, Panun Kashmir said the ecosystem of terrorism and radicalisation responsible for the exodus of Kashmiri Hindus still exists in different forms across Jammu and Kashmir. It referred to incidents such as the Pahalgam massacre and attacks on civilians as reminders of persistent insecurity and targeted violence. The organisation stated that displaced Kashmiri Hindus, along with sections of the Hindu population in Jammu, continue to remain psychologically, socially and physically vulnerable.
Panun Kashmir demanded that the Government of India retain and legally protect a distinct administrative category for displaced Kashmiri Hindus and ensure that NFSA implementation does not replace existing migrant relief, rehabilitation and employment benefits. The organisation also sought the creation of a separate national database for victims of genocide, terrorism and forced displacement, while ensuring that no displaced family is excluded from relief on technical or economic grounds.
The organisation further urged the Government to formally acknowledge the historical, demographic and civilizational devastation suffered by displaced Kashmiri Hindus and frame a comprehensive long-term policy for justice, restitution, rehabilitation and secure resettlement of the community in Kashmir. It also called for implementation of the proposed “Margdarshan-91” framework and enactment of a genocide and atrocities prevention law suggested by the organisation.