Does the ability to write well, speak eloquently, dress à la proletariat automatically entitle one to become the conscience keeper of a nation? Just because one creates an illusion of fighting for the downtrodden and appears to take on the government in a David Vs Goliath kind of a way, does that make one the embodiment of a nation’s conscience? If not, then with what moral authority do the likes of Arundhati Roy don a garb of righteousness and lecture the nation on what should and should not be done?
Arundhati Roy’s views on Kashmir are already well known. Like any deranged leftist, she lives in a self -created utopia which paints majority opinion as evil and lauds minority beliefs as being inviolable. Hopelessly seduced by the left-wing ideals, her mind is incapable of embracing reality, replacing it instead with a pre-recorded fantasy.
For instance, to the likes of her, Jihad in itself should not be termed as an evil, because it is a form of expression of millions of deprived Muslims the world over. However, US attacks on Taliban or Al-Qaeda or ISIS are not to be seen as a form of proactive defence but should instead be labelled as an expression of US hegemonic interests. Similarly, Kashmiri stone pelters should be hailed as agents of Azadi, while counter-action by the police and armed forces is to be painted as use of unjust force by an occupying power.
With poor understanding of history, national interest or even ground realities, the likes of Arundhati Roy serve as, to use her role model, Lenin’s phrase, ‘Useful Idiots’. These ‘Useful Idiots’, however serve as leeches and maggots, infesting the body of a nation and wrecking it from within.
Let us narrate the history of Jammu and Kashmir to Arundhati Roy and her ilk. Jammu and Kashmir, for that matter even Pakistan and parts of Afghanistan were a part of Indian civilization till as late as the beginning of the last millennium. True that India was not then a nation as we know nation today, but at some level, all Indians were one. There were things that united us, our religious traditions, Sanskrit as a common mother tongue, our shared history, and our beliefs and so on. Despite warring Kings and feuding dynasties, the idea of India, or Bharatvarsha persisted.
All that changed as the new millennium approached. Hordes of illiterate, uncultured, uncivilized looters invaded our homeland from the west. They laid our temples to waste, looted our wealth, destroyed our literature and forbade Indians from being Indians. Convert, they said or we exterminate you. A centuries old civilization that believed in peace and harmony was outgunned and outdone by these savages.
Does Arundhati Roy know that before Kashmir became well known for the aim and accuracy of its stone pelters, it was recognized as an important centre for Hinduism and Buddhism?
That was before the likes of Sikander Butshikan instituted a genocide of non-Muslims in Kashmir, destroyed their temples and turned them out of the valley. Aurangzeb’s persecution of non-Muslims in Kashmir is also well-documented. Their protection was a cause for which Guru Tegh Bahadur gave up his life. The atrocities committed by invading Pakistani army irregulars in 1948 are also well known.
Kashmiri Pundits, now in a vulnerable minority were forced to flee once more. Their population in Kashmir has declined from about 20% during independence to a handful of families now. Kashmiri Pundits were the first to be targeted as militancy rose in the valley. Thousands were killed, maimed, raped, burnt and forced to leave the valley. Surprisingly, none of these facts ever figure in Arundhati Roy’s emotive speeches and writings on the Kashmir issue. She has deluded herself into believing that none of this ever happened. To her and her companions, Kashmir’s history is one of secularism, inclusiveness, lush green hills and verdant valleys. They refuse to see the rivers that run red with the blood of Kashmiri Pundits, or the red tinted soil, irrigated by the blood of Kashmiri Pundits, that makes the valley green.
Kashmir has forever been India’s and with India it shall remain. Those Kashmiris who are desperate for Azadi are free to seek refuge in Pakistan or Afghanistan or any other Islamic country in the world. When the Kashmiri Pundits were oppressed by the Jihadis, did they not flee Kashmir?
Those Kashmiris who feel suffocated in India are free to do so too. The ordinary Indian taxpayer is anyways overburdened because of all the subsidy that has to be provided to Kashmir. One would rather have the subsidy used in building schools and hospitals than raising another generation of stone pelters. The Armed forces are right in fighting the Kashmiris in the streets because the ‘ordinary’ Kashmiri in the street, armed with a pointed stone or a Kalashnikov or waving an IS flag or shouting ‘Pakistan Zindabad’ is not an innocent. He is the embodiment of the enemy who deserved to be despatched to his creator.
The duty of the Armed Forces is to establish peace, whatever be the cost. Another point that Arundhati Roy and her clique of pseudo-intellectuals ignore is the need to return Kashmir to its original demographics. Kashmir has been depopulated by Jihadis and gun totting militants over the years. Populations of Kashmiri Pundits, Sikhs and others need to be returned to the valley so that one gets a realistic perspective on the sentiment of Azadi. After all, you cannot kill all opposed to you and then shout ‘Azadi, Azadi’ from the rooftops.
And lastly, Arundhati Roy is right when she says ‘since when have maps become sacrosanct’. Borders can never be inviolable. In fact, like historical wrongs, some borders need correction. One of them is the abominable Line of Control that separates brother from brother. God willing, with political will and popular support, India’s armed forces shall soon erase that detestable border.
Do you understand why pests like Arundhati Roy hated Modi and did everything to stop him from becoming the PM of the nation? They feared a restoration.
A new India is rising. An India that is confident, an India that is aware of its past and its present, an India that is proud and an India that is powered by its youth. Sooner, rather than later, Arundhati Roy and her cabal of India-haters will be swept aside and relegated to the trash-bin of history. As far as national conscience is concerned, it cries for a strong, united and confident India, something Arundhati Roy and her clique cannot stand