Chandigarh, March 7
Kashmir Singh’s struggle against bleakness in the dungeons of despair in Pakistani jails was reciprocated by his wife’s equally hard tussle against circumstances in her native Nangal Choran village in Hoshiarpur district.
Left by the powers that be to fend for herself and her children, Paramjit Kaur said for the past 30 years she had not received even a single penny from the government. “A sum of Rs 5,000 was paid by the government for my husband’s sacrifices way back in 1978,” she asserted.
Of course, the family had hardly anything in the name of savings. After all, Kashmir was getting a paltry sum of Rs 400 a month, when he stuck his neck across the border for taking photographs of tanks and brigades “for the nation”.
All this while, she was forced to work in people’s houses to make both ends meet, the distance of which only increased with each passing year due to apathy of successive governments. Things only worsened for the family when polio attacked her son Sishpal Singh and left him physically challenged.
No wonder, Kashmir and his wife are bitter. In the Chandigarh Press Club for an open discussion with the media this afternoon, Kashmir said alive to the reality of death in the jails he had no idea that the government of India was not taking care of his family. “It was only upon my return, I realised that everything had changed, except for my family’s circumstances”, he said.
In a flat dreary voice, he added: “All this talk about getting prisoners back is only on the papers. In reality, the government made no efforts to secure my return. It was only because of human rights minister that my 35-year-long captivity came to an end in one-and-a-half months since his intervention”.
The sting has left him stiff, stony-eyed and sarcastic. His answers were seemingly tutored, yet
pointed.
Outwardly important issues are mere trivialities. Maybe incarceration in a dark cell where day followed night without any change; and fetters around feet for 17 years has something to do with it. You cannot say for certain.
A query on the need to end spying between the two countries evokes a sharp response: “I am not the President. I cannot comment.”
His reaction to a question on routes followed by him during his visits to Pakistan right up to Afghanistan for five or six years before he was actually apprehended is equally spiky. “Have you seen the whole of Indo-Pak border?” he retorted.
However, all this has still not taken the sense of patriotism away from him. It becomes apparent not only when he attributes his sacrifices to a sense of duty and love for the nation, but also when he refuses to name the officials behind sending him to Pakistan for spying.
His one-line answer is simple and straight: “For 35 years, including 23 months of interrogation, I did not tell it to the Pakistanis. How can I tell it to you?”
Kashmir also refused to give details of the torture he was subjected to or details about the treatment meted out to other prisoners lodged in Pakistani jails. “For becoming a hero, I do not want to cause harm to others,” he asserts.
Last thing, Kashmir said he had no intentions of taking to politics. “It requires money,” he says in a matter of fact tone.
