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Congressman Brown wants Pandits named as minority

C K Arora in Washington

Democratic Congressman Sherrod Brown has sent a letter to the chairman of India's National Commission for Minorities, Chief Justice (retired) Jagdish Sharan Verma, seeking his support to designate the Pandit community in Jammu & Kashmir as a minority.

Brown, a senior member of the House International Relations Committee and a founding member of the Congressional Caucus on India and Indian-Americans, says the designation will help the Hindu minority community preserve its culture and fight discrimination.

"This designation is a decade overdue. The Pandits were forced from their homes by terrorists. They have lived in a tent community plagued by disease, malnutrition, and poor sanitation. They have faced religious and cultural persecution. The Pandits' struggle has gone unrecognized in a country with the largest ethnic diversity in the world. This is a question of humanity. It is time to assure the Pandits social and economic justice," Brown said in his letter.

The congressman says the forced exodus of the Pandits by terrorists trained outside India's borders has created a terrible situation, both in terms of the human loss due to violence in the valley and the harsh living conditions in the make-shift camps. More die in refugee camps than are born.

Deprived of their human, economic, civil and religious rights, the Pandits today appear to be a swiftly vanishing community. Disease, malnutrition, lack of sanitation and mental illness are common.

Unless drastic measures are taken to reverse this trend, the future of this 5,000-year-old culture appears very bleak, Brown warns.

The State Department has praised India's progress in addressing issues of human rights. "The situation in Jammu and Kashmir is a difficult one, and a cessation in the conflict will only come when all who live in the Kashmir valley are willing to embrace peace," Brown said. "India should be given our unending support to resolve this conflict by negotiated, non-violent means."

UNI

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