In Kashmir, history has a peculiar habit of mocking its victims.
In 1989–90, being associated with the RSS, BJP or Indian nationalism could make a Kashmiri Pandit a marked man. In 2026, an RSS-affiliated organisation opens an office in Pulwama, led by a Kashmiri Muslim, claiming thousands of members and an expanding network of trade unions.
The organisation once treated as an ideological enemy by militants now has a public address in Kashmir. Those murdered for their political beliefs, meanwhile, still await full accountability.
What a remarkable transformation. And what an uncomfortable silence.
The Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS), affiliated with the RSS, has inaugurated its divisional office at Barsoo in Pulwama. Its Kashmir in-charge, Sameer Kuchay, speaks confidently about workers’ rights, national interest and changing attitudes. He claims the organisation has approximately 25,000 affiliated members.
Good. Every Indian has the right to political and ideological freedom.
But where was this freedom when Kashmiri Pandits needed it?
On September 14, 1989, Tika Lal Taploo, a prominent BJP leader and lawyer, was assassinated in Srinagar. Neelkanth Ganjoo, a retired judge, was murdered weeks later. Advocate Prem Nath Bhat was killed in December. Their murders had distinct immediate motives, but together they signalled the growing terror that preceded the Pandit exodus.
Many Pandits did not even belong to the RSS. They simply became suspect because of their religion, perceived loyalties or refusal to endorse separatism. Accusations of being Indian agents or nationalist sympathisers could become instruments of intimidation.
If RSS forgot this while setting up its Pulwama office; then it either has bad advisors or is suffering from long-term memory loss.
Ironically, thirty-seven years later, ideological affiliation is being discussed as a sign of changing Kashmir.
But who accounts for those who paid with their lives?
This is where the credibility of political organisations deserves examination. RSS, clearly fails this examination in the eyes of Kashmiri Pandits and/or especially family members of those who were killed in 1990 for their alleged links with RSS.
Political outfits have an extraordinary capacity to remember their ideological victories while forgetting the human beings who suffered in their name.
The RSS and BJP invoke the persecution of Kashmiri Pandits as part of their political discourse. The BJP has repeatedly promised justice, rehabilitation and dignified return. Yet the distance between public declarations and the everyday reality of many displaced families remains enormous.
Where are the convictions? Where is the comprehensive accounting of the murders? Where is the safe and dignified return that has been promised for decades?
An organisation building a new office is not objectionable. But an organisation celebrating its expanding influence should also be prepared to answer what it has accomplished for those who endured persecution while defending similar ideological positions.
Nor should Kashmir’s regional political parties escape scrutiny.
The National Conference, PDP and other political formations have frequently spoken of secularism, coexistence and Kashmiriyat. Yet the political conversation about Kashmiri Pandits too often becomes loud during commemorations and convenient during elections, only to recede afterwards.
The victims remain permanent. Political priorities are negotiable. Consider another uncomfortable possibility.
There is another danger in this sudden ideological transformation. The RSS and BJP must explain whether their expanding footprint in Kashmir is intended to heal historical divisions or cultivate new political constituencies. When trade unions become vehicles of ideological influence, the boundary between workers’ welfare and political mobilisation can become dangerously blurred. Kashmir needs reconciliation, not another contest for political ownership.
The BJP and RSS must not mistake organisational expansion for reconciliation. Kashmir’s political class must not mistake ideological flexibility for moral progress.
A society cannot claim to have changed merely because yesterday’s forbidden organisation has become today’s acceptable institution. It must first demonstrate that yesterday’s victims have not been forgotten.
This criticism is not directed at Kashmir’s Muslims collectively. Militants committed the murders, and individual responsibility cannot be transferred to an entire community. Muslims too were killed for opposing militant agendas. The principle is identical: nobody should die for an ideology, a political association or the refusal to support one.
The measure of Kashmir’s transformation cannot be how comfortably political organisations establish offices, but how securely ordinary citizens can reclaim their lives.
If the RSS can now function openly in Pulwama, that is a change worth recording.
If Pandits who fled remain unable to return with security, dignity and justice, that is a failure worth confronting.
And if a Pandit is still struggling to free his land from encroachment; it is a collective shame on all – RSS, BJP, their affiliates in Kashmir etc.
The RSS has found an office in Pulwama. But have the Pandits who lost their lives, homes and homeland found justice? That question should outlive every inauguration ceremony.
