THE killings in Baisaran near Pahalgam were one of the worst tragedies in recent times which left the whole nation in deep grief. Baisaran is a lovely spot reachable only on ponies or on foot in the uneven terrain.While the terrorists were on a killing spree, Kashmiri porters carried several tourists to safe places and opened their houses and mosques for them.
Kashmir observed a bandh, and processions were taken out with ‘Hindu Muslim Unity’ slogans rending the air. And across the country, Muslims and other groups took out candle marches and offered condolences to the bereaved families of the martyrs.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi was to be in Kashmir at that time, but just a few days prior, he cancelled his trip. He was in Saudi Arabia when the attack took place and he cut short his trip and headed back home. Rather than going to Kashmir, he went to Bihar to attend a rally where he gave a powerful warning to terrorists. The message that terrorists were Muslims and victims were Hindus was the undercurrent of the whole narrative, which was circulated widely.
Meanwhile, the outrightly partisan Godi media enjoyed a heyday spreading hate, with different channels reporting India’s takeover of several Pakistani cities. The anchors exaggerated and fudged the facts ensconced in their plush studios. The Godi media fell to unimaginable lows and had a further fall in smashing the ethics of journalism, long abandoned by them.
The worst outcome has been the increase in hate against Muslims. Islamophobia, gripping the country with increasing intensity, is reaching to unimaginable heights. In Latur, a Muslim was labelled as Pakistani and beaten black and blue. Humiliated by this, he committed suicide. Kashmiri students in an Uttarakhand hostel were thrown out in the middle of the night; they had to stay put near Dehradun Airport. The worst of this was seen when Vijay Shah, a minister in the BJP government of Madhya Pradesh, called Colonel Sophiya Qureshi, the spokesperson of the Indian army, a “sister of terrorists”.
Mithila Raut, who works with the Mumbai-based Centre for Study of Society and Secularism, in an article in Dainik Loksatta (Marathi) enumerates the number of hate incidents reported in different newspapers. As per her article, there have been many anti-Muslim incidents after the Pahalgam attack. In one of the shocking incidents in Uttar Pradesh’s Shamli Toda village, one Sarfaraz was attacked by Govind. Govind stated that “You have killed our 26; we will kill your 26!”
In Punjab’s Dera Bassi in the Universal Group of Institutes, Kashmiri students were attacked in their hostel.
One Shabbir Dhar, a Kashmiri living in Masoori, had a shop selling shawls. He was attacked along with his assistant and was labelled as the culprit of the Pahalgam killings. He was forced to leave the town with a grim warning not to return.
In Haryana’s Rohtak village, Muslim residents were given an ultimatum to leave the village for good.
These are some of the incidents culled from selected newspapers. How the atmosphere of hate has been intensified is very clear from these incidents. The Hindu right-wing has already created an atmosphere of hate against Muslims. Initially, it was created by use of medieval history, where the training in RSS shakhas, the Godi media and social media created an enemy image of the Muslims. The formation of Pakistan gave another major pretext to communal politics, with Muslims being blamed for the Partition. This is a distorted version of history, as the formation of Pakistan was a combination of three factors: The British policy of divide and rule, Muslim communalism, and Hindu communalism. The fact is that the two-nation theory was first articulated by Hindutva ideologue Vinayak Damodar Savarkar.
The notion that Pakistan came into being because of Muslims became an additional point of hate. The add-on to the anti-Muslim propaganda came from the complex Kashmir issue. The exodus of Kashmiri pandits in 1990 was yet again used against Muslims. The exodus of pandits from Kashmir happened when the VP Singh government, supported by the BJP, was ruling at the Centre, and the pro-BJP Jagmohan was the governor of the state. Ignoring all that, the anti-Muslim angle in the exodus was the central point around which the hate against Muslims was exaggerated.
So, step by step, more issues have been used to torment the Indian Muslims. Voices of amity have been muted and every occasion now is turned into adding to the prevalent hate against Muslims; every occasion is used to vitiate the hate which is used by the RSS-BJP to intensify its agenda of the Hindu nation.
The issue of Pahalgam has also brought to the fore the changes in Indian diplomacy. As per the Shimla Accord of 1971, all Indo-Pak issues were to be sorted out bilaterally, without mediation from a third party.
Prime Minister Modi has a different interpretation of the ceasefire announced by US President Donald Trump in the wake of Operation Sindoor. With President Trump dominating the scene and Modi unable to confront him, the equations seem to be changing.
The core point is to solve the Kashmir issue based on Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s doctrine of Insaniyat, Kashmiriyat and Jamhooriyat. We need to live in peace with our neighbours, as Vajpayee had said: ‘Friends can change but not neighbours’. The reflections of hate on Pakistan, as is the wont of the Hindu right-wing, supplemented by the loud-mouthed and hate-spewing Godi media, directly reflect badly on Indian Muslims. It vitiates the possibility of an amicable atmosphere in the country.
The intensification of communal problems due to the Pahalgam issue needs to be grasped, and war and hate mongers have to be negated for the peace and prosperity of our country.
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Ram Puniyani is an eminent author, activist and a former professor at IIT Mumbai. The views expressed here are personal and Clarion India does not necessarily share or subscribe to them.
Cover photo courtesy: Kashmir Observer
