Aamir Rafiq Peerzada
Going through the backyard of my past memories I got to remember an incident of the time when I used to be a school going kid. One day I had a fight with one of my classmates and by the time I reached back home from school mother of that kid was already there in my house to complaint about my fight the only concern of that lady was to make me realise and feel that I had done something wrong so she wanted my mom to take some action for it as I had
beaten his son she expected my mother to be fair by not taking my side but my mother was not ready to accept that her son had done anything wrong , she was even unaware of the incident that took place in school premises still she kept justifying the fight, maybe because she is a mother always filled with ample amount of motherly emotions that always makes her think that her son won’t do anything wrong but there is always this one person in the family
who is not emotionally weak as mothers of this earth are and somewhere inside he always has
that sense of perception that something is fishy and something wrong has been done. My Dad; he already had got a hint that I had made a mistake but he was bit scared to accept this in front of everyone because he knew that if he accepts that his son is at fault then whole family will put him on trial. So he decided to remain silent and these days whatever is happening between Kashmir and India depicts an amazing example of such emotional fights.
Recently many videos had gone viral from Kashmir, The first and foremost were of CRPF soldiers being heckled and beaten by Kashmiri youth. Despite the grave provocation, the soldier’s maintained calm, the second video was of a Kashmiri youth being tied to the bonnet of Armoured Army Jeep leading a convoy of the Indian Army- much like a human shield and the third video is of three Kashmiri youth who were made to shout “Pakistan Murdabad” and
beaten to say it loudly by security persons. These videos emerged after internet services was
restored after the violence took place on April 9 When Srinagar witnessed only 7 per cent of
voting turnout in Parliament bi-elections. All three videos have seen massive traffic across
The valley and india
Emotional fights and justifications
When the first video of CRPF jawans being hackled and beaten by Kashmiri Mob got viral on
social media Indian News channels immediately picked the story followed by every citizen of
India, everyone started sharing it on their social networking sites with emotional and angry
captions, there was nothing wrong in getting angry while seeing soldiers of country being
treated like this and meanwhile celebrities, Politicians also joined the queue and started
giving their views on this incident including a well-known Indian cricketer Gautam Gambhir
who show casted his anger for the Kashmiri’s through a tweet
“For every slap on my army’s Jawan lay down at least a 100 jihadi lives. Whoever wants
Azadi LEAVE NOW! Kashmir is ours. #kashmirbelongs2us,” an angry Gambhir wrote on
his twitter handle.
“Anti-Indians have forgotten that our flag also stands 4: saffron – fire of our anger,
white – shroud for jihadis, green – hatred 4 terror,” Gambhir wrote in another
tweet. Followed by tweets by Bollywood Actors and Politicians of the country, which made it
a big headline in all the Broadcasts, print and Digital media. People were condemning it,
Feeling sad and angry. Emotional outrage was everywhere.
Meanwhile what was happening in Kashmir?
Every Kashmiri started proving that everyone was not involved in such acts; Kashmiri’s
started uploading and sharing videos which reflected local Kashmiri’s were helping, saving,
shielding and escorting the forces through disturbed areas so they get safe passage and reach
their camps without any harm. Every Kashmir joined the race to prove “Kashmiris are also
helping them”! But nobody in the main stream Indian media picked this story; meanwhile
questions were raised to celebrities like Gautam Gambhir and others about their comments on
hackling of CRPF jawans.
Take away points
If Indian media would have played those
positive stories of people helping the
security forces then they would have
lowered the gap between Indian state and
Kashmiri’s, but not playing of those
videos made Kashmiris more outrageous,
It added on more to the distrust of
Kashmiri’s on India and its media and playing it would have been more patriotic because
then only they could have got a chance to act as a bridge between India and Kashmir.
Celebrities have always been upfront for addressing various issues like Javid Akhter tweeted
when Zaira was trolled for meeting Mehbooba Mufti, Gautam Gambhir tweeted when CRPF jawans were beaten but they never tweeted or uttered a word when a Kashmiri gets blinded, Killed, and this is another way of alienating and defaming Kashmiris, This will he feel? Obviously its feels like they only care about their men in uniform not about common Kashmiri, It will increase the anger and create more distance between the people of two sides; meanwhile a reputed Army officer Lt General H S Panag tweeted “Image of a ‘stone pelter’ tied in front of a jeep as a ‘human shield’, will 4 ever haunt the Indian Army & the nation!” The retired general later reiterated what he believed, tweeting that “whatever the provocation, the Indian Army cannot take recourse to illegal acts.”
And several people on Twitter and other social sites came out to condemn the retired General’s
“courage” in the face of ‘fake patriotism’ and He has to face trolls, why?? Because He was
the father of that family who knew what truth, logic and Laws; but emotional family members don’t like his views and label him as a traitor and anti-national.
Take away points Justifying tying of the youth with the jeep was wrong, Some journalists may want to keep
India First in their shows but does that mean they have to justify the unlawful acts and mistakes committed by any person in uniform, I think to keep India first journalists need to question to everyone, questioning only can keep India first and human rights violation free.
When a celebrity gets angry over the hackling of CRPF jawans, he should also feel the same anger when a 12 year old kid gets blinded by a Pellet or when a youth is being used as Human Shield, I think then only you can claim #kashmirbelongs2us.
Things to learn from such Incidents
Indian Media houses need to be impartial when it comes to Kashmir; Stories from Kashmir
shouldn’t be seen through the prism of nationalism, Media needs to treat a CRPF jawan who
got beaten and a Youth who was tiered on a jeep equally, You can’t justify anybody’s wrong
deeds otherwise it creates division and hatred, Trust building between India and Kashmir starts from Media.
Indian Population needs to understand that Kashmiri’s are also humans and Indian population need to stand with them when it comes to justice, when beating of a jawan makes you angry you should also get angry when a 14 year old kid looses eye sight because of pallet guns used by CRPF that is what will bring both the societies together.
Governments of both Kashmir and centre need to talk to locals, Give them justice instead of force.
Curbing internet, putting youth in jails, blinding them won’t solve the problem.
Stop people tagging as terrorists and antinational, accept Kashmir is a political problem and
its solution lies politically not by force.
Kashmiri’s need to find other ways to protest which won’t take lives, I can’t say don’t protest because to protest is everybody’s birth right. Kashmiris need to be innovative in
protesting as India is not ready to stop its forceful machineries.
And a news now: 3G, 4G internet services has been blocked in the Kashmir valley after seeing protests by college students across the Kashmir division because of these viral videos, only 2G internet is working now as government fears more videos shouldn’t surface asprevious videos have already created huge mess so government can’t afford new series of
viral videos. BUT IS THIS A SOULTION???
The Author has its own views and does not belongs to Kashmir Scenario.