Kashmiris open homes, mosques to give shelter to visitors stuck out in the open due to intense cold: Communal Harmony Project-59

This is the latest news, as severe snowfall in the winter, caused a difficult situation for visitors in Kashmir. Nearly 2,000 vehicles got stuck in biting cold and people were left in the lurch.

However, amidst such a situation, Kashmiris opened their houses, mosques for the visitors and tourists trapped in sub-zero [-20, -15]degree temperature amidst snowfall.

This is indeed a good gesture. In fact, it happens a lot. However, it is not reported well. Negative portrayal of Kashmir is common in media.

People must help others. When Kashmiri shawl & dry fruit sellers go to rest of India, they should be treated well. In Lucknow, other cities too, there have been incidents in the past when Kashmiri traders were hassled, harassed and forced to leave.

The most recent incident occurred in Himachal Pradesh. In HP i.e. Shimla or other districts and towns, citizens should stop anyone who mistreats & misbehaves with the traders of Kashmir.

Strengthen national unity and spread harmony by understanding others. Those who write editorials, forget to mention these aspects. We must remember that when we talk about unity and integrity of the country, it should be not just theory, but in practice as well.

One must not thump chest and feel happy if someone gets assaulted or their rights are taken away. We want them 'in mainstream' and for this, we must ensure that they feel at home. Every Indian must shun discrimination and hate.

Be humane, spread positive news, bring communities together & shame the negative people who create divide in society and weaken the nation. If anyone says that this place or this region is not integrated well, they should first introspect and also look at own conduct--our duties.

SHAME: Right-wing Hindutva extremists raped girl, tortured, murdered her to scare Muslims

The horrific rape of an eight-year-old girl in Jammu has shaken the country.

The rapists including an ex-bureaucrat and a special police officer tortured the child--who was given sedatives and raped repeatedly after being kept confined in a the temple in Kathua.

It was a pre-planned crime that was aimed to scare the nomadic Muslims living in the region, says police charge-sheet. The DNA reports have corroborated the involvement of Sanji Ram, Special Police Officer Deepak Khajuria and others.

If that is not enough, they called a person to rape her once more, before she was to be killed. When the accused were arrested, the BJP (and some Congress too) leaders came out in support of rape accused.

They took out a 'tiranga yatra' in Jammu. Lawyers in Jammu supported the accused and resisted the charge-sheet in the court. The lawyer fight the child's case was threatened. BJP leaders including ministers kept speaking in favour of the rapists.

But the question that haunts us is that how could these people turn so evil that they planned to plan the horrible crime of kidnapping a child--the age of their granddaughter, and rape her in a temple!

Still, the BJP leaders came out demanding release of the monsters involved in the crime. There were rallies. The media was not interested. It took nearly three months, a charge-sheet, outrage on social media, that finally this case has got the attention.

The photographs of the accused, the story of the victim--nothing was carried in mass circulated English and Hindi newspapers for months. It was absolute silence. After candle light vigils and protests on April 12, finally media picked it up.

Still, BJP leaders on TV, were involved in hate speak and weird counter arguments. The incident shows how there is now a breed in India that has lost all sense of morality and can go to any extent to further their power, influence, authority and ideology. Right-wing Hindu extremism has reached Nazi level in India in 2018.

Time to wake, before it's too late. 

Real story of Kashmir: Why 'national media' doesn't show reality of Kashmir

Kashmir [Jammu-Kashmir] is our 'Atoot Ang'--that's what we grew up, listening.

But from childhood, we have heard lies and fed with propaganda on Kashmir. We are not told the truth about Kashmir.

Probably, that's one of the reasons that the lies have given way to such hate, that when Kashmiris die, many people seem to revel and talk about 'score', as if 30 deaths is an achievement of the India or Army.

Kashmir is ours but Kashmiri is not. Kids grew up listening to propaganda that Kashmiris are anti-India, that they are never satisfied, that they enjoy special status, that they live off on Indian tax-payers' money and so on.

When generations imbibe this as truth, what happens? The result is that the pain of the Kashmiri doesn't affect you at all. When kids are dying in Kashmir, you don't feel anything.

On Facebook, in WhatsApp groups, on Twitter, in Drawing room conversations, you feel that the Kashmiri deserves the bullets and pellets and every second person seems to be baying for the blood of Kashmiris.

You want Kashmir, the territory, but you hate the Kashmiri. Strange.

PROPAGANDA, FALSEHOODS & ROLE OF TV CHANNELS, MEDIA

The decade of eighties saw militancy peak in Jammu & Kashmir. It was the same period when Kashmiri Pandits had to leave the Valley--a sad chapter in the history of J&K.

It was also the era when BJP leaders, riding high on Ram Mandir movement, used Kashmir in their speeches to create the Hindu wave. DD was still the sole TV channel.

Poison was being spread in the society but Congress, which had mishandled Ram Temple-Babri Masjid dispute, remained mute spectator while hate and propaganda about Kashmir was being spread across North India.

TV channels came nearly a decade later. But by then, there was a generation that had grown up on the diet that made them see Kashmiris as enemy. What else was the reason that TV channels never showed the reality of Kashmir.

Unfortunately, Indian media has this dubious distinction of misinforming own people and teaching them how to hate your own country-men. This is a result of institutional misinformation and hate over decades.

ARTICLE 370, BJP PROPAGANDA AND IT's IMPACT

For the BJP, Article 370 was just an electoral issue to polarise people. Its leaders talked of Ram Temple, Article 370 and Common Civil Code, as if they were the three magic words that would transform the country.

Today, BJP is again at the helm in the country, and also shares the power in J&K. But what about article 370? It's still there. In the name of Article 370, BJP leaders injected so much hate among an entire generation, that talking about Kashmir issue and the sufferings of ordinary Kashmiris, has become nearly impossible even among friends.

When BJP leaders were taking out 'yatras' and issuing war cries over Article 370, Congress leaders remained silent and seemed to have no clue how to deal with it. Jawaharlal Nehru was blamed for Kashmir crisis but unfortunately Congress seemed to have no idea how to counter-attack or clarify its position.

Political class, media kept mum over 'permit needed to enter North Eastern States

Neither politicians, nor media, bothered to report from the ground and tell Indians that how Kashmir had been mishandled, how Kashmiris were living, what they suffered, what they expected and the reality of the special status on the ground.

While outsiders can't buy land in Kashmir, it is not something unique to J&K. Outsiders can't buy land in parts of North East, in many hill stations, regions inhabited by indigenous people.

Further, while anyone can go to Kashmir, most Indians can't even enter several North Eastern states. A permit [inner line permit] is needed to enter these states. Why BJP never raised these issues or talked about integration?

So no voice was ever raised about Article 371, as it pertains to Nagalnad, which is too far. And, because there wasn't enough scope to polarise and gain voters in heartland by raking up the issue. 

Nothing works more than a Hindu-Muslim angle. Our intelligentsia, entire political class also failed. BJP managed to convince majority of people in North India, at least, the urban Hindu, that Kashmiris were pampered....

Muslim couple defies curfew, walks for miles to provide food to Hindu family in Kashmir: Communal Harmony Project-29

After Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani's killing in an encounter with security forces, Jammu and Kashmir is on the boil.

Dozens of youths have died in firing and scores have their vision affected as pellets hit their eyes.

Curfew has been enforced in many parts of the valley.

Besides, this is the period when Amarnath Yatra has already begun.

Amid reports of deaths and gloom, there are also stories from the region that show how people risk their lives for the sake humanity, even in such a situation.


This Kashmiri Muslim couple braved a strict curfew to take food to his Kashmiri Pandit family's house. Zubaida Begam and her husband walked for miles, risking lives, after receiving telephone from across Jhelum river from the KP friend, reports India Today.

Diwan Chand and his family, including an ailing grandmother, were desperate for help as crisis mounted in the Valley. Shops were shut, no transport and curfew was imposed. Yet, they managed to reach Diwan Chand Pandit's house, with the ration.

The truth is that there are innumerable examples of communal harmony in our day to day live and we all are aware.

But negative truth travels faster and makes greater impact. We must not let the bad stories overshadow the good and positive aspects of our society.

Thank you, India Today, for highlighting a good story about the relations, closeness of people on the ground. The original story is here.

[Harmony exists all around us but is often ignored. Instead, stories of hate, discord and communalism get spread easily.

There are a million examples in our daily lives across India but they don't get promoted, hence, news of hate and discord gets heard more. Let's change it, now. This is a small attempt to change it through Communal Harmony Project]

For reading similar reports on this blog, Click HERE

#communalharmony #communalharmonyproject #india

[Photos courtesy, LINK to sotry: India Today]

J-K Chief Minister, India's first Muslim home minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed passes away

Veteran politician Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, who was chief minister of Jammu & Kashmir, has passed away in Delhi.

Mufti, 80, was undoubtedly a master politician, who will always be remembered as the first Muslim home minister of India.

Once it was commonly said that no Muslim could ever be made a Home Minister in India as the ministry directly heads intelligence agencies apart from handling 'sensitive information'.

But when the National Front government under VP Singh came to power, Mufti became India's first Muslim Home Minister.

It was big news in media for days. However, his tenure was anything but memorable.

Soon after he became Union home minister, his daughter Rubaiya was abducted by militants in J-K. It became a crisis for the state government as well as the Centre. Rubaiyya was finally secured and safely recovered (after militants were released), after long negotiations.

But that was not the end of Mufti, who is credited to set up a political party in Jammu and Kashmir. This was no mean job. To establish a party in the state, where locals claim that nothing takes place without Centre's nod, and to become chief minister, that too twice, is a remarkable achievement.

Mufti's daughter Mahbooba Mufti also matured as a politician. In a state where Sheikh Abdullah's National Conference was the major party apart from Congress, Mufti's PDP surprisingly managed to create its vote.

Many Kashmiris now blame Mufti for letting the BJP [and the RSS] spread their base and power in Kashmir. If politics is the art of impossible, Mufti definitely did the impossible. Despite the contradictions, Mufti and Modi came together. 

He formed the government with BJP, the first time the Saffron party came to power [even though in an alliance] in the state. Also, RSS began holding 'path-sanchalan' in the State. This was something new in the State and many locals resented it.

Many Kashmiris feel that Mufti's regime weakened the state's special status. The issue of state flag also came to fore during his second tenure. However, to many outsiders Mufti's seemed better than Omar Abdullah's term when 'stone pelting returned with bullets' led to more than 100 youths killed.

Alwida Mufti sahab.

'Eternal Suspects': Mistreating Kashmiri youths must stop, more sensitivity needed

Kashmiris treat us well. Do we return the gesture?

If you are a Hindu going to Kashmir for Amarnath Yatra or a Muslim going to the place to visit Hazrat Bal or simply a tourist going to have fun, you expect the local Kashmiris--the shop owners, the hoteliers, the person on the street, to treat you well.

But when the Kashmiri youth leave their state and comes to other parts of the country, do we treat him fairly?


READ: THE REAL STORY OF KASHMIR

Either for higher education or for trade the Kashmiris who go to different states in the country remain the constant target of police.....

Besides, petty politicians and even section of belligerent right-wing local media looks upon Kashmiris as suspects [euphemism for militant or terrorist]. If you can read Hindi, just see these three reports and find out yourself how injustice is done and Kashmiris are branded as terrorists.

A TALE OF DEMONISING KASHMIRI YOUTHS

Just an example. This incident occurred a few months back. Such things keep happening in other states also. Kindly read the following points.:

1. Two youths who 'looked suspicious' were caught in Madhya Pradesh and detained for questioning.

2. Nothing objectionable was found but an evening newspaper published a false news that 'Terrorists were arrested.

3. The other Hindi newspapers, apprehending that their competitors might do 'sensational stories', also wrote that they were terrorists, even though the journos privately knew that there was no evidence.

4. The State police chief clearly said later that no terror links were found.

5. But as the papers had made a beginning, follow-up stories continued. If one links the youths with LeT, other paper finds a HuJI connection and the third paper even more shockingly said they were Hezbollah activists active in India and came to establish base.

6. Police tried to clear air but some politicians also jumped in the fray. Xenophobic statements were aired as to how Kashmiris are getting 'easy entry' everywhere in India and getting admissions at the expense of local students in colleges.

7. Other Kashmiri youths living in private hostels and in rented houses got fearful. Once again it was tough to get accommodation due to surcharged atmosphere.

8. For days newspapers kept printing unsubstantiated, totally false reports. Once a reporter has filed a sensational report, next day he can't naturally tell his chief that his earlier report was wrong and trying to justify that, unnamed sources and highly placed intelligence sources were quoted.

READ: THE REAL STORY OF KASHMIR, WHY MEDIA DOESNT SHOW REALITY

9. The court acquits the youths, gives the police a dressing down. There is protest from a section of activists about demonising, harassing the Kashmiris.

10. Some papers finally see sense and put the blame squarely on police for botching up the case and arresting the youths just to get accolades, as they rarely get to catch criminals in normal cases of crime. Citizens remain as confused as ever.

This is not a one-off incident. The issue is that students from J&K [not just Muslims, but also Hindus] find it tough to get house on rent anywhere in India, due to such incidents. Cops routinely harass them as if all of them are militants.

Cops can misbehave with them, newspapers can afford to write sensational reports about them and politicians can make wild objectionable comments because the guys who are framed and falsely implicated in such cases are mostly young students.

They rarely have enough money to sue the rags or the harassing policemen. As soon as they are let off from police custody, they feel that it's better to leave the place rather than stay, fight and make the police or press admit their mistake.

The civil society takes little interest. Just like casteist, communal and regional biases, this form of discrimination must also end. How else will we integrate them, when we as a society behave so badly with them, accuse them, brand them and worse, term them as terrorists?

In a country as huge as ours, there have been multiple issues ranging from complaints of bias by North Eastern Indians in Delhi to that of North Indians in Maharashtra. But apart from citizens, lot is needed to sensitize police and media persons as well.

کشمیری تب تک ہی اچھا ہے جب تک آپ گھومنے یا امرناتھ یاترا کے لئے کشمیر جایئں، وہ آپکا خچر کھینچے، ڈل چھیل میں شکارے پر سیر کرواۓ اور ہوٹل-دوکان میں آپکی مہمان نوازی کرے۔ اسکے دکھ درد سے آپکو کوئ واسطہ نہیں۔ کشمیری دینا کے سبسے زیادہ ملٹراییزڈ زوں میں سات لاکھ سیکیورٹی جوانوں کے بیچ رہتا ہے۔ بے عزت ہونا، پٹنا اور گولی کھانا اسکا مقدر ہے۔ آپکو اس سے کوئ ہمدردی نہیں۔ جب کشمیری دوسرے صوبے میں پڑھنے ہا بزنیز کرنے جاتا ہے، آپکا سلوک کیسا ہوتا ہے اور پولس کتنی آسانی سے اسے 'سندگدھ' یا 'آتنکی' کہہ دیتی ہے، یہ آرٹیکل پڑھیے اور سوچئے۔

READ: THE REAL STORY OF KASHMIR, WHY MEDIA DOESNT SHOW REALITY

[*For those not familiar with Hindi. The first newspaper headline says 'Terrorists caught, arms and documents recovered. The second newspaper also terms them as terrorists.

The third paper which changed its stand and was among the few papers to accept the earlier mistake, writes that the police had got the youths framed to get accolades. It also quotes Jammu and Kashmir IG who was incidentally in  Madhya Pradesh and spoke about the youth's innocence in a police conference in Bhopal]

Patriotism or Petty Politics: How BJP's propaganda has created a divide between Kashmir and rest of India

[This post was written in 2011]

The BJP has certainly managed to create a stir in large parts of the country with its plans to take another 'yatra' and reach Srinagar's Lal Chowk to hoist tricolour on Republic Day.

Call it our naivete or success of BJP's propaganda machinery,  the reality is that in North India, the party has to an extent managed to give an impression as if tricolour is not unfurled in Kashmir at all.

While the truth is that the flag is unfurled at all government buildings in Jammu and Kashmir apart from flag hoisting functions here on lines of all state capitals on August 15 and January 26.

But the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) that has a much larger (and louder) active cadre than any other party and has the support of scored of RSS-affiliated groups apart from the right-wing leanings in vernacular media in parts of North India, somehow creates a false impression about Kashmir.

As one can see the photograph on the left, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah is hoisting the national flag in Srinagar.

However, newspapers also don't often clear the myth and simply air the fiery statements, that suggest to the man on street as if it is prohibited or banned to hoist Indian flag in the state. And when along side such news, reports of Jammu and Kashmir government's stern warning to BJP not to press with its plan are published, it creates an altogether different picture.

Other parties and their spokespersons don't seem to realise and the layman also feels that Kashmir is the most pampered state where 'anti-Indians, Pakistanis and separatists' rule the roost. The BJP has a state unit in Jammu and Kashmir and it can very well unfurl the flag rather than the 'Rashtriya Ekta Yatra'.

They can join the official functions or unfurl the 'Tiranga' at hundreds of places in Srinagar and send the message to separatists. But by taking out marches from across the country to reach Srinagar, does the party want to question the nationalism of Kashmiris or sort of threaten them.

Or if the party really wants to unfurl flag, it can go to territory claimed by Pakistan in Northern Kashmir or China's claimed parts in Arunachal Pradesh. Will they dare do it in Red country, Abujhmad, in the heart of BJP-ruled Chhattisgarh where Naxalites hoist their own flag?

The reason is BJP's obsession with communal issues. Despite having ruled the nation, a large section of the party workers have tendencies to create controversies. It never utters a word about a North Eastern state like Nagaland where an Indian citizen needs permit to go, it speaks no word but it spends all its energy over J&K where every Indian is free to go.

True there are separatists and there is a strong sentiment for Azadi but it doesn't mean that things should be given such a twist that create a false impression about the state among the mind of millions of Indians. The BJP has a sort of specialization over taking out such 'marches'.

It can't seem to forget that LK Advani's 'rath yatra' had created a frenzy in India. Though Murali Manohar Joshi's similar venture was a failure, BJP has announced several such marches in the past. Until a few years back, the same party used to make lot of noise demanding that the flag be hoisted at Idgah Maidan in Karnataka's Hubli.

Though it was a childish demand but it had potential to create communal divide. Places of worship in India don't have national flag atop them. But local Muslims punctured the movement when they themselves hoisted flag at Hubli's Idgah Maidan.

Interestingly, national flag was never unfurled at RSS offices or the Sangh Parivar's programmes. Till recently even on Independence Day and Republic Day the flag was not hoisted at its headquarters in Nagpur. But perhaps the self-styled patriots can't be questioned about their own nationalism.

In fact, barely a year ago a BJP woman leader had unfurled saffron flag on Independence Day which had caused controversy. Once again the party is aiming to get political leverage though the truth is that it doesn't help BJP at all.

Personally one feels that the State government could have handled it better by letting BJP leaders undertake march in the real sense and made them go on foot [walking just a few hundred kilometers--320 kms] after entering the state up till Srinagar's Lal Chawk rather than going for confrontation. In that case it could have served the objectives of both.

But the reality is that BJP remembers Kashmir only for Afzal Guru, Article 370 or similar contentious issues. It has no positive agenda, a healing touch or even a statement of empathy when youths die of bullets. Why should a national party repeatedly act in a manner that gives a spur to such elements who can use it to further label Indian Kashmir as a conflict zone?

General elections are far away. The issue will not help it in West Bengal assembly elections either. Even otherwise political gimmicks no longer fetch votes. But it seems that old habits die hard. Though its leaders are comparatively more measured [and less provocative] in their public utterances it seems that the BJP has to go a long way towards realising that it needs to behave much more sensibly and in accordance with its strength in parliament and vast acceptability in the country.

When its leaders issue statements that sound like 'war cries' rather than playing the role of statesmen, it reduces itself to the level of the fringe groups. And when a Yasin Malik retorts and threatens that 'the yatra can set the sub-continent afire', it gets too ugly.

How will this sort of politics help the country or even the BJP?

Amarnath Yatra & Kashmir: Communalizing the Composite Culture

After a long time when things were fast returning to normal in Kashmir, the controversy over the land granted to Amarnath Shrine Board, ignited passions in the state.

It's tough to write on Kashmir especially when you are far away from the place. But it's quite easy to see how non-issues become issues and how things get communalised in our country.

One may feel surprised at the scale of protests against the land transfer in the Valley. Naturally, a temporary settlement for the pilgrims can't alter the demography of Kashmir. Yes I also felt the same initially.

But Kashmiris have never trusted Delhi ever since the days of Sheikh Abdullah whose government was dismissed and he was sent to jail where he was kept behind bars for over a decade. And there is a history of 'betrayals' thereafter with the dismissal of elected governments and all other issues we are aware of.

The Kashmiri anger, however misplaced it may be or it may seem, stems out of their suspicion of New Delhi, but is unfortunately viewed as a conflict between Hindus and Muslims, which it is certainly not.

In a country where lawlessness has become a norm (just recall the images of Gujjars on rampage in Rajasthan recently), the Kashmiri anger can also be seen with the same prism, rather than looking at it from a communal angle.

Personally, I would like the Board to get the land. And that there should be all possible facilities for the pilgrims who brave tough conditions to reach the shrine. And most of us feel the same but not by letting the 'separatists' and 'saffronites' take adantage of the existing crisis which both want to exacerbate.

But it's so easy to communalize things. And it's not so simple either: The yatra was initially of a fortnight but Retd General GK Sinha, during his stint as Governor took a confrontational stand and forced the state government to extend it.

As Indian Express writes, 'The Governor pushed his own ideas'. His Principal Secretary Arun Kumar directly wrote to Forest Secretary Sonali Kumar, who was his wife, and manged to get 4,000 kanals of forestland transferred to the Shrine Board. The suspicion was raised then also and the order was struck down then.

But a few months back, Sinha again sought forestland for setting up an independent development authority and though government didn't agree the land was handed over to shrine board. So there was a backdrop. For decades the land was used for the same purpose and why was the need for sudden transfer of it?

Now, the separatists sensed an opportunity. Hurriyat that had become irrelevant also got an issue. Bajrang Dal, Vishwa Hindu Parishad and their sister organisations were quick to add fuel to fire.

Alas, we have not just inherited the British policy of divide and rule, we have mastered it to perfection. With polls drawing nearer, every party had a stake except Congress that had botched it up.

The BJP just loved it. 'Afzal and Amarnath', they will be our main issues in the election, declared the party leaders, unabashedly. With LK Advani, the old warhorse with a a record of communal and divisive politics, at the helm, it wasn't unexpected.

And with protests intensifying in the valley, the Hindutva hardliners who have no concern with the state, either with Kashmiri Pundits or Muslims, declared that 'food and other supplies to valley will be cut', without realising that this will cause a further backlash. And this is what the hardliners in Kashmir would like to hear from their counterparts in the Sangh Parivar, so as to alienate the Kashmiri Muslims. Pravin Togadia also jumps the gun.

By pitting Hindus against Muslims, Jammu against Valley and Kashmir against Rest of India, they are doing great disservice to the nation. It is either the Kashmiri Pundit who has suffered in exile or the local Muslims who lost lives in the violence all these years. It has taken a long time for Kashmir to come out of blood and gore.

And it's no war. It's an issue that can be resolved but raising rhetoric to this level is simply unjustifiable. It's the duty of government to provide the best possible facilities to the pilgrims. But the BJP gets an opportunity to buttress its charges of appeasement by comparing the Yatra with Haj.

I too would like to hear saner, secular and more moderate Muslim voices emerging from Kashmir. But then the Saffron organisations also need to tone down their feverish jingoistic pitch.

In a hard-hitting editorial on Monday, Indian Express writes: However, short-sighted as the local political leadership has been, the central responsibility rests with the outgoing governor, S.K. Sinha, and those who sent him to Kashmir in the first place after he had amply proved in Assam that he was capable of making sensitive situations worse through irresponsible and ill-informed public assertions as well as partisan political interference...

As far as Haj is concerned, you can read my post written on this blog when I had welcomed the court order that had asked government to stop the subsidy. The BJP should end its hypocrisy. It should have taken a decision when it was in the power at the centre on the issue. At least, this time it should do away with it, if it gets to form the government.

Today people may mock at Kashmiriyat and claim that it never existed but they can't erase the fact that the Amarnath shrine was discovered by a Muslim and the Yatra symbolised the bond between both communities. And in the violence, it is always the Kashmiri Hindu and Muslim who has been the loser, not an outsider.

No wonder, the protests and politics of hate eclipsed the stories of ordinary Muslims taking care of stranded pilgrims and holding makeshift kitchens for them. See the report in Daily India and an Indian Express report.

Meanwhile, read Praveen Swami's article 'Piety, paranoia and Kashmir's politics of hate' published on The Hindu's editorial page.