MPs Shashi Tharoor, Manoj Jha praise PDP MLA Mehdi’s Bill on reintegration of displaced Kashmiri Pandits

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Peoples Democratic Party MLA from Budgam, Aga Syed Muntazir Mehdi (left), during the autumn session of the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly in Srinagar on September 22, 2026. | Photo Credit: Imran Nissar

Introduction of a private member Bill on the return and reintegration of displaced Kashmiri Pandits on Thursday (September 24, 2026) saw Congress Member of Parliament Shashi Tharoor and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) Member of Parliament Manoj Kumar Jha praising the effort. 

The Kashmiri Pandit and Migrant Re-integration Bill has been introduced by Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) legislator Aga Syed Muntazir Mehdi in the ongoing autumn session of the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly. 

“Beginning in the late 1980s and culminating in the period of 1989-1990, large-scale militancy, violence and intimidation resulted in the mass displacement of Kashmiri Pandits and other minority communities from the Kashmir Valley. This displacement was not only territorial but civilisational, rupturing social bonds, eroding trust between communities, and inflicting deep psychological, cultural and inter-generational trauma,” said Mr. Mehdi.

The Bill calls for the “safe, voluntary, dignified and sustainable return and reintegration of Kashmiri Migrants, particularly Kashmiri Pandits, to facilitate reconciliation, social healing, cultural restoration and coexistence through institutional, community-based and rights-oriented mechanisms”.

Reacting to the Bill, Mr. Tharoor, in a post on X, said, “It is heartening to see MLA Mehdi bring forward his Kashmiri Pandit and Migrant Re-integration Private Member’s Bill in the J&K Assembly. The safe, dignified and sustainable return and reintegration of Kashmiri Pandits is a cause I have long supported and one on which I have also sought to legislate through a Private Member’s Bill in Parliament,” said Mr. Tharoor.

Mr. Tharoor said his own Bill on the same subject was first submitted in 2022 and resubmitted in 2024 after the constitution of the 18th Lok Sabha. “After years of waiting, it was finally listed for introduction in March this year, but could not be taken up amid disruptions and the Government’s failure to facilitate meaningful Private Members’ Business. I look forward to Mehdi’s proposal being introduced and hopefully, considered by the Assembly in due course,” he added.

Mr. Tharoor said he hoped that the Assembly “has a substantive and constructive discussion on this important issue, with reconciliation, dignity and the restoration of a sense of belonging at its heart”.

MP Jha, in a post on X, said this Bill deserved “serious consideration and broad support from all quarters as the first step towards healing and reconciliation.” 

In the Bill, Mr. Mehdi argued that the successive governments have undertaken relief and rehabilitation measures, but “these initiatives have largely remained relief-centric, fragmented and survival-oriented”.

“They have not sufficiently addressed the structural, psychological, cultural and reconciliatory dimensions of the Valley,” said Mr. Mehdi.

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