The relationship between India and Kashmiri Pandits is a strange one. Kashmiri Pandits were the patriots in Kashmir valley in 1989, and paid with their homes, lives and honor for it. They were singled out as the main hurdle between the Muslims and a homogenized, Talibanized Kashmir. As a consequence, they were victimized and chased out of the valley by Pakistan-supported Muslim separatists. About 350,000 of them, which is over 95% of the pre-1989 population, still live in refugee camps outside the valley.

It would be normal for the casual observer to expect that India would return the favor and fight for their safe and honorable return. After all India is overwhelmingly Hindu and in fact for the last several years has had what is commonly termed a "Hindu nationalist government". However, in 12 years the Indian government has steadfastly ignored the role of Kashmiri Pandits in resolving the Kashmir tangle. This trend has become even more jarringly evident with the NDA government led by the BJP.

All Indian attempts at finding a solution end up at the door of Kashmiri separatist groups, Pakistan (the Lahore summit), or now even at Saudi Arabia which is being asked to help cool down the worst of the Pakistani terrorist groups. On the other hand, Pandits and their claim to their ancestral homeland remain a nonentity at all levels in the Indian government. The community, already ravaged by centuries of Islamic oppression and conversions, now stands at the threshold of extinction.

At this point, should the Pandits support solutions that will further help in the eradication of the community, such as Track II diplomacy which purports to carve an "independent" Kashmir? An "independent" Kashmir that will inevitably be hegemonized by Muslims and leave minorities as hostages to the numerous rabid Islamic groups that already thrive there? An "independent" Kashmir which is already staked out by these groups as a forward base for attacking the rest of India? Or should the Pandits pause and reconsider?

The Pandits are now being admonished to go along with the Indian government's whims to ensure that they get a seat at the negotiating table. But just getting a seat at the negotiation table will do them no good unless the moral boundaries are set within which the community can expect a reasonable outcome under which it can survive. Those boundaries do not exist today, neither is there any hope that such boundaries can be established.

The Indian government can very well hold up Pandits as their poster boys for an equitable solution where Pakistanis leave people in the valley alone. But due to its Muslim-centric Kashmir strategy, India has completely ignored the Pandits till now, and hasn't bothered to use what could have been its trump card.

At this point when India seems to be preparing for a one-sided solution that will be a gift to Muslims, no Pandit can seriously believe that he/she will be entertained at the negotiation table. At best, some untenable solution is going to be rammed down the throat of the 350,000 Pandits. They may be better off settling permanently in Jammu and Delhi and getting ready for a decades-long or even a centuries-long battle to regain its deprived homeland. That is what it took for Jews to re-acquire Israel.