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Video Producers: Shohini Bose, Aparna Singh
Video Input: Faizan Mir
Yeh Jo India Hai Na… here we have an elephant in the room. An elephant we don’t talk about, an elephant about which we do nothing. What is this elephant? Where is this room?
The room is familiar. Kashmir. Recently, this is what we saw: Kashmiri Pandits being beaten up in Srinagar for protesting against the central government. This is what Kashmiri Pandits who took the government’s offer to return to the Valley have to say:
Kashmiri Pandits are arguing that they are back in Kashmir but are not safe. That the government’s claims about militancy coming down are not true. And that promises that peace will return have not been kept.
So, what is the elephant in the room? The refusal to understand that peace cannot return to Kashmir without the willing participation of Kashmir’s Muslims.
Demonising every Kashmiri Muslim in a film like 'The Kashmir Files', may earn cheers inside some cinema halls, may earn brownie points for ministers who urge us to watch the movie, and may excite bigots to put out a fresh round of hate on social media, but it only takes us further away from finding peace in J&K.
However, can our response to the persecution of the Kashmiri Pandits be to just carry on the cycle of persecution and violence? Such calls for counter-violence suit haters sitting far away from Kashmir, it allows them to demonise India’s Muslims.
We saw that clearly after the release of The Kashmir Files. None of this, however, helps the Kashmiri Pandits.
While the terrorists are just a few hundred in numbers, we have chosen to label all Kashmiri Muslims as ’Jihadis’. But then, who’s left to talk to at the negotiating table? No one. And in that case, how does this government hope to end the violence?
Or is the unstated aim simply to keep the pot boiling? If so, let the hapless Kashmiri Pandits know that there is no real plan to keep them safe in Kashmir. In fact, quite the opposite.
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)