If it is the Indian mainstream media which has been keeping you informed about Kashmir, trust me, you have been in the wrong hands. Lies are peddled by the government, and in turn faithfully disseminated by the Indian media. This is a brief attempt at dispelling those lies-turned-myths.
- Kashmir is militant-infested Who told you so? Watching too many Bollywood films, or what? If the official admission is anything to go by, there are not more than 500 militants operating today in Kashmir. And all entrenched too deep to foment any discord. There has been no militancy in the Valley worth the name in this century. Your information is outdated by more than a decade.
- Kashmiris are hostile to Indians You indeed must be kidding. If there is any hostility, it is the Kashmiris who face this discrimination and animosity day in and out, both in mainland India and back home as well. Try disguising yourself as a Kashmiri Muslim and venture on a house-hunting chore in any Indian city and you will find the truth the hard way out. That's, of course, assuming you have the height and the good looks to pass off as one.
- The alienation of Kashmiris is their own doing, fuelled by Pakistan Now, that's a spiteful joke. The people of Kashmir have been subject to untold misery by Indian security forces. Disappearances. Torture. Detention without charge. Tomes have been published about the atrocities that have been heaped on these people over the years. The wounds inflicted by India on Kashmiris run deep. Very deep. You don't need a trouble-monger Pakistan to fuel anything, all the stoking is devotedly done by India. Quite remorselessly, at that.
- Kashmir is headed for Talibanisation Islamophobia is really getting to you. Get yourself a good shrink. And bill it to the Indian government, for it is this establishment that is singularly responsible for the dissemination and proliferation of such deceitful conjectures. You might also like to bill a smaller amount to the Indian mainstream media which has dutifully acted as the conduit for such unadulterated balderdash. The people of Kashmir certainly are conservative, relatively speaking; and Islam is more a way of life than a fanatical mode of self-expression. Kashmir is as much headed for Talibanisation at this moment, as India has become a Hindu Rashtra in spite of the efforts of the saffron brigade.
- Geelani being the main leader means Kashmiris are for Pakistan Which TV channel do you watch? Must be one of those where the anchor keeps flaring his nostrils and gnashing his perfect set of teeth. No, SAS Geelani is a leader by default. Some may be with him because they are pro-Pakistan themselves, or believe in an Islamist theocracy. Who knows? That's hardly the point. Geelani is Geelani because he is one person who is widely seen as a man who has not compromised vis-à-vis India. We may abhor him, disagree with him; and that's all that we can do. The truth lies in the minds of the people.
- The interlocutors will solve the problem You mean the Three Idiots? But then you can't ignore idiots, either. You can do so only at your own peril. And this triumvirate has been doing everything that interlocutors, by their very mandate, are not supposed to do. They speak to whosoever they want, they ignore whosoever they deem fit to. And they air their pompous vaingloriousness at press meets. So much for their haughtiness. At every stage they have been fanning hatred and trying to divide an already fractured society. You judge people by their actions and not their CVs. By this measure, this is a bunch of mischief-mongers.
- With so much of central funds going in, Kashmiris are one pampered lot If you have an idea about the volume of central funds going in, you ought to pay a visit to Kashmir and find out where it has been disappearing to. It's certainly not reaching the Kashmiri people. If there are pampered people around, those would be the rapacious puppet politicians and the fiendish security forces. After the shahtoosh ban, the weavers are living in penury. So are the fur workers. The silk industry has been dealt with a severe blow. The Dal lake is all about a glorious past. And there's no militancy worth its name that is to be blamed for all this. The people live in abject misery, deeply scarred and mortally hurt.
- The Indian media gave adequate coverage to the 2010 unrest Actually, it's called lopsided coverage. All you saw splashed across newspaper pages and television screens last year were stone-pelters on the rampage against our genteel forces who were apparently acting under a lot of duress and restraint. Can't you ask yourself a few questions? How many of these mainstream media outlets even told you about the cause of the unrest? How many even reported how the forces would perpetrate atrocities on innocents? How many even told you that it has been all about structural issues for a while now?
- Tourism figures prove Kashmir is peaceful Wouldn't that be contradictory to (i)? And in any case, if you have fallen for this white lie, you must also have for the India Shining hoax, you gullible sod. This may not be the perfect analogy, but you ought to get the message. For one, Kashmiris are not a hostile lot. Indian tourists land, create a mess, throw a ruckus, strut around obscenely, click photographs, cluck sanctimonious tongues, pee all over the place, and become a sordid statistic in a propaganda lore. Even the Amarnath Yatra, barring a few unsavoury incidents propagated and perpetrated by the powers-that-always-are, have always carried on peacefully. Kashmiris are not in the habit of throwing spanners into the works of other people. It's not about peace; it's about anger, dissent, right to self-determination.
- Aren't the remaining Kashmiri Pandits a hapless lot? They certainly are going through trying times. As are others. But then, here's a count-question: how many times did you hear of Pandits being targeted in last year's five-month long agitation? It would have been way too easy for demonstrators to cook their goose. But was theirs?
