Undoubtedly Kashmir has become a monster and nobody knows how to handle it in a balanced manner, with the degree of pragmatism and maturity that such a convoluted issue deserves! The problem is yet to be understood in its totality but is analysed in bits and pieces everywhere especially by the media, in prime time discussions or social media, etc. Erudite and informed panellists and so called Kashmir experts have set a dangerous and malicious trend that is linking the issue of human rights abuse time and again to a chain of irrelevant and extreme factors like Wahabism and rising Salafism, unemployment, foreign funds and foreign hand every time which in turn breeds further wrong questions with absolutely wrong answers . Nobody even bothers to understand the actual rage and alienation on the ground but everybody has his/her own set of perspectives to explain everyday violence in the valley. I would say a dangerous phenomenology along with a horrible paraphrasing on Kashmir is considered as the new media and social media wisdom and is the subject matter of the neo-columnists on Kashmir.
The media bias and selective coverage is such that even our Chief Minister some time before expressed her anguish over it. The Selective debates/coverage by a large chunk of the national media mostly based outside the state, has invented a new biased nationalism, hardly showing the reality of today’s Kashmir but only selective incidents that suit their TRPs. Such channels even provoke the invited speakers from Kashmir only to ridicule and falsify their arguments to satisfy the so-called collective consciousness. There has to be an end to such nonsense and for the sake of humanity there has to be some way out. It is not that the people don’t want to know the truth about Kashmir but it is the powerful media gate keeping that only shows violent/spicy or sensitive incidents to the masses which further create hatred for the innocent Kashmiri people. The results are obvious when a doctor at PGIMER denies treatment to a Kashmiri patient, out rightly telling in a somewhat accusatory manner “You throw stones at our security forces in the Valley and come here to seek treatment”. What does “our security forces” mean when everyone outside Kashmir firmly believes that Kashmir is an integral part of India? Secondly, how is a patient responsible for stone pelting in her state? Kashmiri students are harassed in many colleges in the country and almost treated as parasites or foreigners. Media time and again glorifies stone pelting incidents in the state and the debates are not about why people throw stones and what is their grievance? No. the answers every time people get to hear is who funds it and links it to radicalisation in the valley. Even students who are protesting are not speared and their protests are replied through pellets and other violent means. But media is not interested in all that, it picks up a selective case and propagates Kashmir bashing which has serious repercussions in terms of alienating the whole Kashmiri populace in and outside the valley. Media does not highlight the plight of journalists and atrocities on them by forces, state repression or routine violence against a common Kashmiri but will cover a live encounter for hours together. A shift is required towards understanding the present Kashmir which is yearning for peace and the violence is mostly because the pressing issues are hardly addressed. Similarly, Kashmiri’s are looked at askance whey they seek tenancy and are not given residences on rent and seen as potential suspects.
My brother, who is an officer with the Jammu and Kashmir Bank, got transferred to Greater Noida some time ago. He immediately wanted to rent an apartment near his bank. He didn’t want to be with me since I reside in Jamia Nagar area, which has typically become a Muslim ghetto and at a distance of about 40 Kilometres from his bank. He rented an apartment on his second day and bought some items as well in preparation for living there on his own. After two hours only he received a phone call from the landlord. It was a firm “NO” from his future landlord! The problem was that he was a Muslim and that too from Kashmir and may want to cook meat some day, was the ludicrous reason that he was given for his rejection as a tenant!
Since then he has attempted to rent almost six other places to stay but has to hear the same inevitable “NO” at the end each time! Now he shuttles everyday to my residence in the ghetto and hires an Uber Cab to and from his place of work, that costs him the exorbitant sum of around Rs.1200/- a day! Nobody is ready to give him a place of residence because he is a Kashmiri Muslim! What kind of a nation are we living in today? The credit for this entire mess goes to the media which has presented a different picture of Kashmir and the masses understand it as per their limited ideologies and mindset, which is a great pity! Now my brother is too scared of the prevailing atmosphere and wants to stay with me only.
Media through such a selective propaganda is not doing any service to Kashmir or the nation but poisoning the minds of a common Indian who now has developed an enemy perception with Kashmiris’ and is being socialised very dangerously by the prime time shows. The large section of media is consistently asking wrong questions and getting people to believe the wrong answers again and again! The fact remains that every new incident is taken and analysed in isolation and everyone gets to hear Pakistan, proxy war, Jihad, ISIS, for completely different questions or incidents. This media bullying has led to another disastrous trend and that is the least participation of sane voices from Kashmir on the national Television debates or at other platforms.
Prime time horror and routine shouting matches by many TV channels are further adding to violence and making peace building further difficult. The sane voices understand that every debate on Kashmir hardly remains restricted to the topic but covers everything filled with hate, anger, bias and propaganda. It asks wrong questions and makes a person believe in wrong answers which is a dangerous disservice to the humanity. Hardly any panellist from Kashmir speaks or is let to speak his heart out because he/she is aware what can a simple sincere and factual comment be converted into. Even it may get him /her into a sedition case later. That is why the whole country gets to hear a different Kashmir which is distinct from the real Kashmir. There are some frivolous issues like cricket and who cheers for India or Pak given too much undue attention and even the people in power react to tweets. Same is the story of the questions on range of issues related to Kashmir on social media and their answers and reactions. The GST debate is yet another disaster in the offing.
[Dr Adfer Shah-The Associate Editor at Eurasia Review is a Columnist at South Asia Politics and Kashmir Pen]
