– Vidya Bhushan Rawat
While the nation mourn the deaths of 42 Jawans of the CRPF and rightfully so standing with these people, sons of the farmers and Bahujan communities. The fact is it is the poor who face the challenge but brahmanical elite in India enjoy the money in the TV studios with their pathetic discussions and deliberate provocations.
Rather than questioning the absolute failures of this government which is rarely bothered to bring normalcy in Jammu and Kashmir, allowed its paid channels to abuse every Kashmiri and use the Kashmir issue for political purposes. We know well that the Sanghis, would now jump with their favorite topic of Hindu and Muslim. They tried with Aligarh Muslim University and they will do it more during the elections.
Is it not the shameful thing that these channels continue to rant the anti Muslim bias and speak deliberately in a language which make Muslims and Pakistan as synonymous and interchangeable. The fact is that Pakistani power elite, the military and ISI will always use this narrative to destablise India but they have failed miserably. Now these paper tigers want to wage a war with Pakistan as if this is just a one day affair.
Yesterday, I was at an apartment and taking the elevator when a boy around 8-9 years of age also took it. He was having a ‘pistol’ in his hand saying that he would lead the Indian army and finish all the anti nationals and Pakistanis. My friend just jokingly told him ‘beta you are needed on the border, that would be better’.
What I am saying is that the Indian middle classes which are predominantly savarna Hindus want to enjoy everything without an inch of sacrifices. We all know who were the people who died, who are getting killed. They are all the poor. A majority of them hailing from OBC-Dalit communities. If we want to know their regional background, majority of them hail from Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Bihar, Rajasthan but then this will always be the case naturally.
The channels are discussing whether we can eliminate Pakistan or not but none debated on the intelligence failure. They dont want to discuss the failure of the government to encourage the political process in the state. When you want to eliminate everything and make it an administrative issue, then these are bound to happen but any saner talk these times will give you a tag of being anti national.
Those who dont know the history and complexities of partition of India, jump into it to suggest how Nehru gave Pakistan to Muslim and sadly these are people with a wider ‘following’. Obviously, being famous and having big follower-ship on social media, is not the guarantee of saying truth but then they ‘gain’ knowledge through Sangh Parivar fed ‘whatsapp University’.
I have said it many time to people how the Sangh Parivar spread these lies about partition of India. I want to ask them as suppose India remain unpartitioned then how would govern it and deal with your fellow citizens who do not belong to your religion. How do you bring peace in society if you dont want to acknowledge their right to live with dignity. Right now, the same thing is happening on their views on the issue of Jammu and Kashmir. Pragmatics and all those who know the harsh realities will ask for political process and discuss the issues in details but Sanghis would term all those living in Kashmir as Pakistanis and therefore no right to live in India. So land and geographical entity become more important than the people for the Sanghis. Hence if we say that partitioned be undone, they wont realise that in that condition Muslims would be the biggest block. Their solution to everything is that if the Muslims and Christians dont ‘like’ India then they must leave India. Now, ‘like’ in typical Sanghi language is to ‘accept’ brahmanical hegemony, be a second class citizen and not ask for any rights equivalent to caste Savarnas. They have the same ideas about Kashmir as they dont want to talk to Kashmiris as what are their issues, problems and other grievances. No, every Kashmiri is a suspect and that has made government and its agencies suspect in the eyes of the people.
The most dangerous role has been played by the Sanghi media which is creating a war like situation. Frankly, more than a war they want to create civil war by deliberately creating narratives, targeting Muslims, their institutions and leaders. Will that take us anywhere ?
Pakistan’s power structure dominated by the military actively added by the western world to suit their own interests in Afghanistan, has never accepted a secular plural progressive India. The more we succeed in living together in greater harmony, the argument and justification of a theocratic state fail to impress any one. Theocracies and militarisation are not the answer for these created hatred. The polarisation help the merchandisers of hatred who continue to build their narrative of ‘victimisation’ and ‘oppression’. Once we are strong internally and listen to the issues of the people in a democratic way, things will become better but to build a strong India the precondition is to respect and honor its ethnic diversities and understand the historicity of the issues. Sensitiveness of people in border states need to be understood as it is not merely geography but people who are important. You can not allow things like that happened in Jammu yesterday when Muslims were targeted by the communal begot.
Government of India must send strong guidelines to these TV channels to behave responsibly. Let the ministry of External Affairs do its work of doing things diplomatically as well as Ministry of Home to do the task of bringing normalcy in the valley. Jammu and Kashmir police and its officers have complained against the mischief being played by these Sanghi channels as they want to use the opportunity to demonise the Muslims and make the ground for favorable political atmosphere for the ruling party.
The ‘deshbhakt’ have forgotten that it was Atal Bihari Vajpayee and his foreign minister Jaswant Singh and intelligence chief Ajit Doval who handed over the dreaded terrorist of the JeM to his friends in Kandahar. Moreover, that time too, the government came under pressure as the families of those abducted were abusing the government and asking for taking immediate action. The hysteria had been created and as government faulted on many places, it could not allow, its middle class vote bank turn against it, hence it agreed.
Now, those who near dear got released never complained but others continued to speak. Frankly speaking, it is the same crowed which market the nationalism for their own profit. The soldiers , the son of soil who sweat and die for the nation do not get the money that these paid deshbhakts on TV screen get. The retired generals are in ‘big’ ‘demands’ as if they are the only panacea for the nation. Why should we talk about poverty, discrimination, caste system, untouchability, student unrest, employment, farmers suicide etc, when we have got a ‘bigger’ issue now. The thing is that many of these hatemongers were waiting for such an issue to come so that they do their chest thumping and keep the atmosphere ‘hot’ so that other important issues gets into cold storage.
When the Taj was attacked in Mumbai, these channels were live broadcasting troops movement and started condemning the government. They did not give any credit to the government and made them villain. They praised the army but not give credit to political leadership as if army did work without the guidance of political leadership but when surgical strikes happened the media gave credit to the government. This corrupted media does not question this government for its failure. All its questions are to the opposition hence it want Rahul Gandhi and others not to ‘politicise’ the issue but does not question a Manoj Tiwari dancing on some c-grade Bhojpuri songs or Modi and Amit Shah continue campaigning elsewhere. It is highly appreciable that all the opposition parties stood together and asked the government to do the needful . The response from the major sections of society was far better and superior than the Sanghi inspired TV channels and politicians who are back to their divisive and hate propaganda.
We need utmost restraint in these hours. Let those who are working on the ground do those things. Political process must take center stage along with increasing vigilance on the border. Creating communal polarisation will only gladden the heart of those who want the Indian subcontinent in perpetual war so that more money is spent on arms and ammunition and ignore the bigger issues of poverty, illiteracy, superstition and ignorance.
