As in the case of food being fed to human beings, force-feeding does sometimes lead to serious problems, and doing so with something as innocuous as a piece of news or information can lead to what may be described as ‘information-indigestion’! In recent weeks and months, the symptoms of such a pathological condition are already beginning to become visible. That is because right now one is witness to a morbid obsession, especially within the higher echelons of political power, with the fabrication of false narratives which are being presented as the most inviolable versions of truth.
Regardless of whether the issue concerns Kashmir, the Rohingyas, the killing of those like Gouri Lankesh or the current sad state of economy in the country, there is in evidence a method in the madness underlying this obsession. It is worth watching how the issue under discussion is (misre)presented and distorted out of context in large sections of the Indian media and how the narrative espoused by the cabal of boisterous anchors and ably aided by the gang of their fawning guests at these shows is passed for as gospel truth. In the paragraphs that follow, it is intended to hammer home to those who fancy themselves as the ‘opinion makers’ through the powerful media which they lord over, that they are merely helping in creating a situation in the country which is by no means going to be conducive for fostering a climate of prosperity, happiness and tolerance in the country. In recent months and years, I have come across innumerable friends and even those I would not know, across different parts of the country, contending that they have lost all faith in the media and have since resorted to other ‘more reliable’ sources for access to the actual situation on the ground, whether in Kashmir or elsewhere. The result has been- as they themselves acknowledge – that their previously held strident views on Kashmir have now given way to feelings of empathy and commiseration with what people having been going through there at the hands of the Indian security forces. Also, the vast numbers of those in Kashmir who were earlier known to be ‘doves’ from the standpoint of their views on the Kproblem have since morphed into intransigent ‘hawks’, thanks to the blitzkrieg of falsehood that is beamed into our drawing rooms day in and day out. A mention of a couple of episodes that were aired on certain TV channels some days back should help to put my argument into perspective.
Much as the grisly episodes involving say, the lynching of Ayub Pandit in Srinagar or the attack on Amarnath yatris in south Kashmir some weeks ago were routinely, severely- and rightly- condemned by all sections of the Kashmir society across the board, including by those Kashmiri guests who were invited at these talk shows, it was an unedifying spectacle to see how they were heckled, ridiculed and humiliated, even as their unqualified condemnation was rubbished as plainly disingenuous. Despite having been on the receiving end of an endless cycle of violence unleashed upon them especially over the past three decades, these same Kashmiris were seen to be pulling no punches in castigating and condemning these gruesome acts in the harshest words possible. On the contrary, their voice was either sought to be muted or lost in the cacophony, with everybody else in the programme joining the chorus to demonise them as the ‘real culprits’, as if they were responsible for such inhuman acts. As it turned out, these words of condemnation counted for little and ended up merely as an exercise in futility in the face of the onslaught mounted upon them by those present in the programme.
Of a piece with this climate marked as it is by the suppression of truth and glorification of falsehood, witness the dirt and filth frothing at the stinking mouth of some of those who are routinely called at these talk shows as ‘experts’. Some days back, one of these experts was seen to taunt a fellow Kashmiri guest at the Republic TV, saying that “Aap tou aish kar rahain hain Kashmir main (you are having a gala time in Kashmir)”, because India, according to this rabid rabble-rouser, ‘has not bared its fangs in Kashmir like other countries have been dealing with insurgency in other parts of the world’. This self-proclaimed ‘defence expert’ doesn’t seem to have the eyes to see what Kashmir and Kashmiris have gone through right since 1947, more so after the outbreak of militancy in Kashmir in 1989. In his visceral hatred for Kashmiris, his conduct during the show betrayed his loss of sense of proportion so much so that he was oblivious to the dance of death which has claimed more than one lakh lives, destroyed property worth hundreds of billions and led to disappearances of innocents in their thousands over these years. Just because Kashmiris have become crisis prone- battle hardened, as it were- and so have developed the resilience to rebuild their lives again and over again after these frequent visitations and catastrophes unleashed by the Indian security forces upon them, does in no way mean that ‘Kashmiris have a field day’ and are enjoying themselves, courtesy India.
Let these ill informed and ill-equipped commentators like him know once and for all that if such atrocities and brutalities were to visit upon people like him from other parts of the region or elsewhere, they would have since passed into history as a people who had given up and had compromised with their fate and with the status quo as it obtains in Kashmir which is characterised by denial of justice and human dignity. This venom-spitting brute would do well to understand that despite carrying their own share of fatal flaws – as in the case of peoples of other ethnicities and cultures – Kashmiris are altogether a different kettle of fish who have this never-say-die attitude and who just can’t be won over through force or coercion, as the legendary Kashmir historian Pt Kalahan had famously noted. Yes, it is also in his DNA to rise from the dust every time he is hounded, rebuked, abused and brutalised by his enemies, to pick up the pieces from the debris and begin to doggedly live again, go for his business as usual, including conducting marriages and other social chores, and with utmost panache at that. It is a pity that those who don’t have the haziest idea of what is actually going on in Kashmir are invited as ‘Kashmir experts’ and who, in view of their appalling level of ignorance about the social/cultural ethos of Kashmir coupled with their deep seated hatred and mistrust of Kashmiris, would read into a longing among them for ‘good life’ – a synonym for a life of honour and dignity – a desire for ‘aish o ishrat ki zindagi’- an easy life given to pursuit of pelf and pleasure only. How insulting!
On the other hand, and away from the battleground Kashmir, one is witness to an unprecedented spurt in violence against those like Gouri Lankesh who are genuinely questioning the way India is being run by those ruling the roost at the moment. And it is no brainer to assert that the media have played no small role in causing an increase in acts of violence being committed against such voices, while spreading discord and disaffection amongst various religious communities in India. This provides a strong case for initiating a concerted campaign to ban certain media houses, being represented by the likes of Republic TV, Times Now etc. who are involved in this vilification campaign against certain groups and communities in India. The web of lies surrounding these developments being weaved by these channels has perhaps been the chief reason for the spread of intolerance and the attendant acts of violence against certain individuals and segments of the society in the country. Not content with its relentless bashing of certain religious communities in India, the Republic TV has come up with yet another piece of ‘breaking news’, a pure figment of imagination, involving now the ‘purported’ genocide of Hindus in Mayanmar by the Rohingya Muslims! It’s indeed time to expose the extent of damage that these channels have already done to the secular/plural fabric of the country in the name of ‘national interest’, and to this effect, it should help to quote from a recent essay by the well known social activist Kavita Krishnan on Gouri Lankesh’s murder which had appeared some days back in the online magazine ‘WIRE’.
“It is also important, in the wake of Lankesh’s murder, to take stock of what passes off for ‘journalism’ in India today. Can the kind of bigotry, hate-mongering, and instigation by channels like Times Now, Republic, Zee News and News X really be described as ‘journalism’? After all, an anchor on the Republic has a lot more power than a troll on Twitter – if he does what the Twitter troll does, it has a far greater potential for harm. These channels have, time and again, publicly aired ‘lists’ of ‘anti-nationals’ – lists including young students as well as writers like Arundhati Roy or activists like myself. It is my personal experience that each time I am named on these channels, there is a spike in threatening and abusive messages I receive on social media. After Arnab Goswami called me a ‘lawyer for the LeT’ on the Republic, I received, among all the hate messages, an abusive and menacing phone call from someone purporting to be from Bhopal. And this instigation does not only affect those who are named personally. When these channels profile intellectuals and activists who speak up for human rights or against communal politics as ‘Afzal Premi Gang’ or ‘Anti National Gang’, that profiling endangers someone like Lankesh as well, even if she was not named.”
Watching all this drama unfold before ourselves, one is left to wonder what use are the national pride, national interest, patriotic fervour and even religion, if in the name of espousing these ‘values’, basic norms of humanity and human dignity are thrown to the wind. These apologists of Gouri Lankesh’s killers or those demonising Rohingyas as ‘potential terrorists’ and hence undeserving of asylum in India are clearly the real villains of the piece and the enemies of humanity who are seen shouting their lungs out during these prime time TV debates day in and day out. This benumbing insensitivity on the part of a large segment of the Indian civil society represented by this gang of media goons towards such issues can only spell doom to a country that had carved a niche for itself, not long ago, precisely on the strength of espousal of such values. One can only pity and pray for good sense to prevail upon these ill informed, uneducated, uncivilised brutes masquerading as journalists and self proclaimed ‘public intellectuals’.
Having been at the receiving end of a long spell of gratuitous violence all these past three decades, I, as also all those living in this part of the world, have been wondering why those at the helm of affairs cannot see the redundancy of these tactics and understand that an environment marked by peace, tranquillity and brotherhood could achieve far more in terms of the welfare and happiness of the people than an atmosphere based on fear, animosity and insecurity. That would call for self introspection by those in positions of power who are being misled by the TRP hungry TV channels in league with big business houses by inventing versions of truth which are completely divorced from hard reality on the ground and which is thus sought to be distorted through sheer sophistry and meaningless rhetoric.
All that has been said in the previous paragraphs reinforces the view which prevails so ubiquitously in Kashmir- and even within the saner segments of the society in mainland India – that dialogue and dialogue alone is the way out of this climate of fear, this cycle of violence which is visiting this place all too often and which the people living here have already had enough of as the hapless victims. Their only fault is that they have the misfortune of living in a place which, whether one likes it or not, happens to be a territory that is disputed and by no means finally settled as the hawks in the political establishment would have us believe. The attendant consequences of a polity of reconciliation and rapprochement for the people in Kashmir- and even in mainland India- would be too desirable and too inviting to ignore any longer. One can only hope for good sense to prevail upon those who can make a difference
M.A. Sofi (Professor Emeritus) Department of Mathematics, Kashmir University, Srinagar email: aminsofi@gmail.com