Author: Kanchan Gupta
Publication: The Pioneer
Date: August 10, 2008
For the past five weeks Jammu has been witnessing
a veritable uprising against the pro-Muslim, anti-Hindu politics and policies
of the establishment in Srinagar and the Government in New Delhi. At the heart
of the dispute is the contrived controversy over the allotment of 97 acres
of land to Sri Amarnath Shrine Board for creating temporary facilities for
Hindu pilgrims who trek to the hill cave shrine every summer. The Muslims
of Kashmir Valley -- let us not be coy and refer to them as 'Kashmiris' so
as to suppress the fact that they are Muslims -- took to the streets, chanting
blood-curdling slogans and waving the Pakistani flag, to scuttle the allotment
of land. The National Conference of the Abdullah clan and the People's Democratic
Party of the Mufti clan joined the fanatics in insisting that Muslim Kashmir
would not tolerate such Hindu intrusion.
Instead of standing up to the rank communalists
who have Hindu blood on their hands, the Congress and its stooge, who now
occupies the Governor's office, meekly surrendered to them, thus delivering
a crippling blow against the Indian state, though not for the first time.
And how did the media react to this abject surrender? The cancellation of
the allotment of land was hailed as a judicious decision, an assertion of
secular values, to protect 'Kashmiriyat'; it was praised as being mindful
of 'Kashmiri sentiments' and 'Kashmiri psyche'. Stripped of its sophistry,
what all this means is that the Congress has done well to pander to Islamic
fanaticism and mollycoddle those who heap abuse on India and curse Hindus.
Such is the standard used by the media for judging secularism in this wondrous
land of ours.
And how has the media responded to the snow-balling
protest against Muslim appeasement, which has engulfed all of Jammu region
and brought men, women and children out into the streets to brave bullets
and batons? There has been universal condemnation; the agitation has been
dubbed as 'communal', 'distressing', 'disruptive', 'anti-Muslim' and 'needlessly
provocative'. Kashmir's Muslims have been described as 'tolerant' and Jammu's
Hindus as 'ingrates'. For 365 days a year Kashmir's Muslims hold the Indian
state to ransom and not an eyebrow is lifted. For 35 days Jammu's Hindus petition
the Indian state to protect their rights and they are ridiculed. Much concern
is expressed over the manufactured grievances and imagined victimhood of Kashmir's
Muslims by the lib-left intelligentsia that dominates media. But scorn is
poured on the genuine grievances and victimisation of Jammu's Hindus.
Ever since the first violent protest in downtown
Srinagar against the allotment of land to Sri Amarnath Shrine Board, facts
have been twisted and the truth has been obfuscated to portray Kashmir's Muslim
fanatics as saints who wouldn't swat a fly and Jammu's Hindus as a violent,
unruly and communal lot which should be crushed into submission. There is
nothing new about this perversity: We have seen in the past how the cleansing
of Kashmir Valley of Hindus has been whitewashed; how massacre after massacre
of entire Hindu families have been treated by media as 'minor incidents' not
worthy of notice; how lakhs of Pandits thrown out of their ancestral land
have been reduced to refugees in their own country; and, how bogus terms like
'Kashmiriyat' have been used as a convenient cover to hide the brutalities
inflicted by Kashmir's Muslims. All that and more is not 'communal' but in
keeping with the 'secular' principles of the Indian state; if Hindus raise
their voice in protest, it is not only 'communal' but an assault on the 'secular'
Indian state!
For the benefit of those who have come of
age in the last two decades, among them many of the 24x7 news channel anchors
who talk utter gibberish while donning an air of supreme confidence to camouflage
their limitless ignorance, let me recount the events of January 1990, which
mark the beginning of the latest crusade against the Hindus of Jammu &
Kashmir. Since 'secularists' are allergic to events of the distant past, we
need not go into the details of how Hindus were decapitated by the Sword of
Islam wielded by the original Islamists. The present will suffice to highlight
the duplicity of those whose hearts beat for the hate-India hordes in Kashmir.
*Srinagar, January 4, 1990*. *Aftab*, a local
Urdu newspaper, publishes a Press release issued by Hizb-ul Mujahideen, set
up by the Jamaat-e-Islami in 1989 to wage *jihad* for Jammu & Kashmir's
secession from India and accession to Pakistan, asking all Hindus to pack
up and leave. Another local paper, *Al Safa*, repeats this expulsion order.
In the following days, there is near chaos in the Kashmir Valley with then
Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah and his National Conference Government abdicating
all responsibilities. Masked men run amok, waving Kalashnikovs, shooting to
kill and shouting anti-India slogans. Reports of killing of Hindus, invariably
Kashmiri Pandits, begin to trickle in; there are explosions; inflammatory
speeches are made from the pulpits of mosques, using public address systems
meant for calling the faithful to prayers. A terrifying fear psychosis begins
to take
grip of Kashmiri Pandits.
*Srinagar, January 19, 1990*. Mr Jagmohan
arrives to take charge as Governor. Mr Farooq Abdullah, whose pathetic, whimpering,
snivelling Government has all but ceased to exist, resigns and goes into a
sulk. Curfew is imposed as a first measure to restore some semblance of law
and order. But it fails to have a deterrent effect. Throughout the day, Jammu
and Kashmir Liberation Front and Hizb-ul Mujahideen terrorists use public
address systems at mosques to exhort people to defy curfew and take to the
streets. Masked men, firing from their Kalashnikovs, march up and down, terrorising
Pandits. As evening falls, the exhortations become louder and shriller. Three
taped slogans are repeatedly played the whole night from mosques: "*Kashmir
mei agar rehna hai, Allah-hu-Akbar kehna hai*" (If you want to stay in
Kashmir, you have to say *Allah-hu-Akbar*); "*Yahan kya chalega, Nizam-e-Mustafa*"
(What do we want here? Rule of *shari'ah*); "*Asi gachchi Pakistan, batao
roas te batanev san*" (We want Pakistan along with Hindu women but without
their men). As the night of January 19, 1990, wears itself out, despondency
gives way to desperation. And tens of thousands of Kashmiri Pandits across
the Valley take a painful decision: To flee their homeland to save their lives.
Thus takes place a 20th century Exodus.
Their wounds, as also the wounds of Hindu
India, have been festering for 18 years. The simmering anger of Hindus has
now burst into a raging bush fire that threatens to burn to ashes media's
perverse notions of 'secularism' and destroy the politics of Muslim appeasement.
Consternation and panic in Delhi and Srinagar are understandable.