From Lakhimpur violence to targeted killings of KPs and other minorities in Kashmir: Congress-led united opposition’s selective outrage exposes their duplicity

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Selective outrage is the flavour of the season. While the united opposition engages in political tourism to score brownie points with regard to a brutal incident in one part of the country, a series of terror attacks in another part of the country do not garner even the slightest indignation from the same anti-Modi political class. 

The Congress leadership duo of the Gandhi siblings successfully managed to derive great political mileage from the shocking Lakhimpur Kheri episode in which a speeding car belonging to union minister Ajay Kumar Mishra mowed down a group of protesting farmers and it was alleged that his son Ashish Misra was in the car. Eight people, including four farmers and two BJP workers, died in the incident and the violence that followed it. 

On display was high-voltage optics courtesy of Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, and her team, who appeared in the Lakhimpur Kheri district in Uttar Pradesh, a key state that goes to polls in a few months, solely to capitalise on the tumultuous situation that transpired in the aftermath of the killings. To avoid further vitiation of the already tense atmosphere in the region, the law enforcement authorities in UP had no choice but to detain the protesting leaders who preposterously accused the Centre and the Yogi Adityanath government of trying to shield the minister’s son. 

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But nothing could be further from the truth as an investigation into the horrific event went underway right from the get-go and the Yogi administration showed absolutely no lack of alacrity or provided any form of undue insulation from the law to the accused to derail the process of delivery of justice. On the contrary, the accused Ashish Mishra was summoned, grilled and arrested by the UP police in less than a week after the Lakhimpur violence took place and continues to remain in custody ever since with the UP Special Investigation Team (SIT) now probing the case. Safe to say, therefore, that the law is taking its course to bring the perpetrator(s) of the crime to book. 

The flip side 

The hypocrisy of the Congress-led opposition becomes blatantly evident when their scripted hue and cry against Lakhimpur violence is juxtaposed with their apathy towards the targeted killings of Hindus and Sikhs in Kashmir. 

For the Kashmiri Pandit (KP) community, the ghosts of Islamic terror that were unleashed on the KPs in Kashmir in the 90s returned to haunt them in a massive when 68-year-old Makhan Lal Bindroo, a prominent Pandit pharmacist, was shot dead by terrorists inside his pharmacy in Srinagar on October 5. ML Bindroo, who consciously chose to stay back in Kashmir after the onset of terrorism in the early 90s aimed at wiping out the Kashmiri Pandit minority from the valley, after these years paid the ultimate price for being a Hindu who was living peacefully and honourably in his homeland.

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Two other civilians, a Hindu street vendor from Bihar and a Muslim cab driver, were also gunned down by terrorists on the same day barely hours after Bindroo’s cold-blooded murder. If this was not enough - Satinder Kour, a Sikh principal at a government school in the Eidgah area of downtown Srinagar, and Deepak Chand, a Hindu teacher at the same school, were shot dead on October 7 by terrorists of The Resistance Front (TRF), a proxy terror group of the Lashkar-e-Taiba. They were killed for daring to involve students in the Independence Day celebrations of the school this year.

Such irreversible damage was inflicted on the minorities in Kashmir within one week but the united opposition did not find it worthy of the same degree of condemnation and clamour, albeit fake, as they displayed in the case of Lakhimpur. Instead, the Congress party’s veteran leader from J&K, Saifuddin Soz, had the audacity to suggest that PM Modi must hold talks with those in the valley who only speak the language of the gun.

However, the fact that the opportunist opposition led by the Congress along with the Samajwadi Party in UP, among others, have politicised the Lakhimpur happening to their advantage comes as no surprise at all given the high stakes that are involved in the state from an election standpoint. 

The solitary agenda of the Gandhi-Vadra Congress and other opposition parties in UP quite clearly is to somehow rock the BJP’s boat in the run-up to the assembly polls and present themselves as a viable alternative to the current Yogi administration. As conspicuous as it gets, everything else is merely a facade. Why were these so-called custodians of humanity silent when sadhus were lynched by a vigilante mob in Palghar in April 2020 or when the Intelligence Bureau staffer Ankit Sharma was stabbed 51 times to death in the February 2020 Delhi riots?

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The fact of the matter is that the anti-Modi political brigade stands exposed whenever it ventures to politicise a mishap or a criminal activity in a BJP ruled state, Lakhimpur Kheri in this instance, or maintaining a stoic silence when religious minorities are targeted and killed in Kashmir by terrorists. 

The bigger picture 

Amid all the absurd politicking by the Congress-led opposition, one cannot afford to lose sight of the bigger picture that depicts the constant security threat that looms over the civilian minorities in Kashmir. Such a precarious scenario is detrimental to the embodiment of Naya Jammu and Kashmir, which the Modi government envisaged after the revocation of Article 370 in August 2019. 

Reports of KP government employees, who work in the valley under a rehabilitation package, fleeing Kashmir fearing for their life following the targeted killings is reminiscent of the 90s. Attacking civilian minorities is an escalation from the prevailing pattern wherein several BJP workers and nationalists in Kashmir have been eliminated by terrorists in recent months. This is a dangerously growing trend, to say the least. 

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It puts the onus, therefore, on the Modi government more strongly than ever to revisit its security blueprint for Kashmiri minorities and pro-India voices living and working in Kashmir. The last thing the idea of a unified India wants is for the dream of a peaceful and stable Naya Jammu and Kashmir to get sabotaged due to Pakistan sponsored terror in J&K. For this dream to remain safe and ultimately translate into reality, the security of Kashmiri Pandits, other minorities and nationalists based in the valley holds paramount importance. 

Team Modi puts its foot on the gas to ensure BJP’s stellar performance in J&K as assembly polls could be around the corner

When Prime Minister Narendra Modi declared from the ramparts of the Red Fort on August 15, India’s independence day, this year that assembly elections in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir would be held in near future, it sent pleasing waves to the people of J&K with a renewed sense of anticipation of an elected government taking the reigns of the politically reorganised region. 

The formation of a government at the legislative level means the revival of the democratic phenomenon of elections at the highest stratum in the new union territory after the historic revocation of Article 370 in August 2019. The seeds of this revival were sown when the District Development Council (DDC) elections were held in December 2020. 

As it stands, the delimitation exercise in J&K is scheduled to be completed within the first quarter of 2022 with the number of seats in the J&K assembly likely to go up to 90 from the current tally of 83. An unprecedented parity in the political representation between two regions, a long-overdue aspiration of the Jammu division, is finally appearing on the horizon.  

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The Centre aims to see J&K going to polls in March-April next year, immediately after the UT’s electoral arithmetic in terms of the strength of the legislative assembly is altered through delineation of fresh boundaries of the constituencies by virtue of the delimitation activity. Five other states - Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Manipur and Goa - are also slated to hold elections around the same period. 

The subcontinent’s escalated vulnerability to terrorism in the aftermath of the Pakistan-backed Taliban’s taking over of Afghanistan, following the botched up withdrawal of American troops from the Afghan soil courtesy of the Biden administration, has posed a potential threat to India’s internal security and to that of other regional countries. Consequently, the Modi government wants to stay cautious of Pakistan’s sinister designs, which predictably will also feature the Taliban, to sabotage peace and harmony in Kashmir. 

Senior government officials, as well as BJP leaders, have maintained that restoring the electoral process in J&K at the earliest, which allows an elected government to run the show, serves in the best interest of the region from a security perspective. Cognizant of the fluid security dynamics after the Afghanistan development, the Government of India is vehemently endeavouring to ensure that the target of pushing J&K into polls within the estimated time frame, i.e. March-April 2022, is met.  

The big push 

BJP’s poll preparations in J&K received a strong impetus following PM Modi’s Independence Day speech in August. The party has put its foot on the gas as it gears up for a high-octane electoral showdown in the UT. Under the Prime Minister’s leadership, the BJP has launched a massive outreach programme in J&K to maximise its chances of emerging with a stellar performance in the election. 

According to media reports, the Modi government has dedicated more than 60 ministries to the task of visiting J&K in the next three months in order to develop a robust party-voter connection. This blueprint is also aimed at apprising the people of the region of the several progressive and developmental schemes and plans that a BJP government will undertake if the party is voted into power by J&K’s electorate. 

Creating a conducive atmosphere of communication with the public has in essence been the hallmark of the Centre’s scheme of things ever since the special status of the erstwhile state of J&K was scrapped in August 2019. Just a few months following the momentous development, the Government of India assigned the task of touching base with the people of J&K to several ministries as a confidence-building measure. Shortly after the culmination of this year’s monsoon session of the parliament, as many as 300 MPs representing 13 different parliamentary committees reported visited multiple locations in Kashmir and held several rounds of meetings. 

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There also remains a point to prove for the BJP that it will not be deterred at all despite its workers and regional leaders having been constantly living under the terror radar in recent years. Several party representatives have had to pay the ultimate price for standing up for the Indian democracy and for fearlessly expressing their nationalistic views. 

Notwithstanding a looming threat of life at the hands of radical Islamic terrorists, the party’s J&K unit is upbeat about the idea of elections in the UT and would be looking to leave no stone unturned in the run-up to the polls. 

Separatists jaded, advantage BJP 

The picture is crystal clear. Team Modi deems this to be the most opportune phase to present itself as a viable political alternative for J&K from a governance standpoint. The mojo of the valley’s separatist lobby has constantly diminished after the Naya Jammu and Kashmir came into existence owing to the revocation of Article 370. More recently, the death of the quintessential secessionist and pro-Pakistan voice in Kashmir for decades - Syed Ali Shah Geelani - served as a body blow to the Hurriyat. 

It makes for a sorry state of affairs for all the forces that are pitted against the Modi government as obnoxious challengers of the idea of a unified India with Jammu and Kashmir as its crown. The blues faced by the Pakistan-backed separatist industry coupled with the ever so weakening fortitude of the once-mighty regional political leadership, the Abdullahs and the Muftis that perpetually object to Kashmir’s complete integration with India, leave the BJP with a great opportunity to capitalise on. 

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As per popular belief, the UP election is a crucial precursor of the mega battle for the Low Sabha in 2024, which in many ways is true to a large extent. However, the assembly polls of the J&K UT carry tremendous weightage given the metamorphosis that the region’s political landscape has gone through since 2019. PM Modi and the BJP are well aware of this fact. 

The battle for the J&K assembly is so much about nationalism vs separatism rather than merely being a competition for votes. It is only the triumph of nationalism over separatism that can propel J&K into an era of long-term peace, stability and development, which is exactly the vision Team Modi will carry going into the J&K polls. 

Geelani’s passing ends a dark era of secessionism in Kashmir but it is naive to assume that with it valley’s vile separatist tendencies are now buried

The sordid tale of separatism vis-à-vis Kashmir encompasses several dark chapters and scores of protagonists, who in their farcical struggle for self-determination, left an obnoxious yet indelible impression in the history books. 

One of the principal protagonists of Kashmir’s secessionist movement that left the valley ravaged for decades, Syed Ali Shah Geelani - a man whose name will always remain synonymous with the idea of an Islamic Kashmir without Hindus - breathed his last on September 1, 2020, at his Srinagar residence. He was 91. 

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His demise pulled the curtain down on an era of belligerent secessionism that powerfully emerged in the 80s as a subset of the sinister anti-India ideology espoused by the pro-Pakistan Hindu-haters in Kashmir. It was marked by a characteristic blueprint of holding the Indian state to ransom while enjoying its benefits and a systematic infusion of seditious sentiments into the minds of the Kashmiri Muslim youth. 

Geelani - the quintessential Islamic separatist, the ‘hartal’ leader and Pakistan’s main man in Kashmir 

Regarded widely as a pioneer of the Jihadist movement in Kashmir, Geelani’s journey as a hardline separatist commenced as far back as the early 1950s with the Jamaat-e-Islami Kashmir - an Islamist political outfit that positioned itself on the doctrine that Kashmir was not an integral part of the Indian Union, but rather a disputed territory. A three-time MLA from the Sopore constituency, Geelani quit electoral politics after his last term in the Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly from 1987 to 1989. He constituted the Tehreek-e-Hurriyat in 2004 after ending his long-term association with the Jamaat, which he represented at the All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC).

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Bringing the valley to a standstill by giving hartal calls at the drop of a hat, or more particularly, each time a terrorist was executed by the Indian forces was the hallmark of the Geelani style of functioning. It turned Kashmir into the hartal capital of India. Geelani’s Tehreek-e-Hurriyat methodically brainwashed ordinary Kashmiris, especially the youth, into becoming a hostile citizenry pitted against their own nation. This antagonism towards India gave birth to a mob mentality that took the shape of a culture of stone-pelting and anarchy which had become endemic in Kashmir’s routine life for many years until the revocation of Article 370. 

Geelani enjoyed greater proximity to Pakistan compared to most other separatists of his time. Toeing the Pakistani line, Geelani dedicated his life to fomenting trouble in the valley by inciting the Kashmiri people in the name of freedom and orchestrating mass anti-India uprisings. So blatant, and substantially effective at the same time, were Geelani’s subversive actions that even the senior NC leaders Omar Abdullah, Sheikh Mustafa Kamal, among others - had blamed Geelani in the past for creating mayhem in Kashmir and for acting at the behest of Pakistan. 

Although Geelani sold the idea of the right to self-determination to the Kashmiri people and publicly held that Kashmir was an internationally accepted disputed region between India and Pakistan, it remained an open secret that his true allegiance lied with Pakistan. He had close ties with the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi and was often featured as a guest at the consulate events.

On August 14, 2020 - Pakistan’s Independence Day - the Government of Pakistan conferred the country’s highest civilian award, Nishan-e-Pakistan, on Geelani. Pakistan’s appreciation of Geelani’s unrelenting commitment to anti-India activities in the form of an official reward came only days after he announced his resignation from the chairmanship of Tehreek-e-Hurriyat.

Geelani’s influence on Kashmir politics and the region’s politicians

Geelani, and popular separatists of the same feather, exercised an unduly profound influence over Kashmir politics for a prolonged period in the pre-Modi era, so much so that the Hurriyat’s core narrative of challenging Kashmir’s integration with India found a subtle reflection in the narrative of J&K’s mainstream political parties with a national outreach - mainly the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and the NC. 

Following the abrogation of the absurd Article 370, political leaders 

from the NC, the PDP and other parties were put on house arrest under the Public Safety Act (PSA) courtesy of the Government of India. It was during this period, and after their release from detention, that the Abdullahs and Mehbooba Mufti, along with other representatives of their parties, started echoing the sentiments of the Hurriyat more openly than ever before. Their expression of reverence for Geelani and synchronisation of thoughts with the Hurriyat went up several notches after the Indian Parliament dumped the special status of the erstwhile state of J&K in August 2019. 

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Mehbooba Mufti lambasted the Modi Government subsequent to Geelani’s death, calling them “ruthless” for allegedly not allowing Geelani’s kin to “mourn and bid a final farewell as per their wishes”. Mufti’s scathing attack on the GOI came after an FIR was registered against the deceased’s family members by the Budgam police last weekend under provisions of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) and the Indian Penal Code (IPC) for draping Geelani’s body in a Pakistani flag during his last rites. 

It simply corroborates that the fabric of ideological similarity between the mainstream politicians of Kashmir and the separatists is, or has always been, so strong that a political leader like Mehbooba Mufti, who fights elections under the banner of the Indian constitution and has previously served as a Chief Minister of the former state of J&K, castigates her country’s government for upholding the law of the land by prosecuting those with anti-national tendencies. However, Mufti maintains a deafening silence when it comes to questioning the mindset of the people who covered Geelani’s body with the flag of an enemy nation when he was laid to rest.   

It is fair to argue that the cottage industry of separatism in Kashmir took a body blow after the Indian Parliament scrapped the ludicrous laws in August 2019 which had left a disconnect between J&K and India for decades. Geelani’s passing has led to the advent of a new phase in J&K wherein the separatist lobby has been reduced to an even feebler state.  

However, it would be naive to assume that secessionist feelings in Kashmir have all but vanished. Modi government must continue to remain cognizant of this reality as they have been so far, for Naya Jammu & Kashmir is a work in progress. 

India must not engage with Pakistan and China backed Taliban, contrary to the expectation of Taliban-sympathisers and flagbearers of Islamophobia

Afghanistan has crumbled. The world has witnessed in the last few weeks a haunting spectacle of a nation succumbing to the idea of the Islamic caliphate. 

Disturbing images of desperate Afghans scrambling to board airplanes after thronging the Kabul airport to flee the country - with a number of them falling to death after latching on to the wings, wheels, or whatever they could of a flying plane - will remain etched in people’s memories for a long time. These incredibly tumultuous visuals have defined the dramatic taking over of Afghanistan by the Taliban forces. 

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Left to fend for itself by its government led by President Ashraf Ghani who eloped overnight as well as the United States after twenty long years of American military presence and that of the allied troops on the Afghan soil, the country now looks down the barrel of dictatorship by a dreaded extremist outfit. How long will the Talibani supremacy reign again in Afghanistan after it was ousted in 2001 following the American invasion of Afghanistan post the 9/11 terror attack is anyone’s guess.

Taliban 2.0 that is - media savvy, does press conferences, congratulates journalists for their coverage of Taliban’s regaining of control over Afghanistan and assures Afghani women of the protection of their rights under the ambit of the Islamic Sharia law - may have cajoled some into thinking that the attitude of the Taliban of 2021 is a marked departure from how it was two decades ago before the commencement of America’s so-called war against terror. 

But history testifies that moderate gestures displayed by dictators - especially those having hardcore religious extremism at the core of their ideology - are only a facade and is only a matter of time before everything goes back to square one as the iron fist slowly withdraws from the velvet glove. 

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Already there are footages galore doing the rounds on news channels and social media of Taliban spray-painting images of women pasted on the entrances and walls of showrooms, salons etc. There are unconfirmed reports of Afghan girls being forcibly married to Taliban fighters. The Hazara community, the third-largest ethnic group in Afghanistan belonging to the Shia community, which has faced persecution for decades fears for an escalation in atrocities against it with the Taliban’s advent to power. In the wake of such developments and apprehensions, it is hard to imagine Afghan people, especially women, breathing the air of freedom till the Islamic fanatics continue to hold the reigns of Afghanistan. 

The fact of the matter is that the US under President Joe Biden massively goofed up by pulling its troops out of Afghanistan in the reckless manner that it did, following the US-Taliban peace deal that was signed last year under the then American President Donald Trump. Consequently, Afghanistan is in shambles. More than 180 people, including US marines and soldiers, lost their lives after multiple bomb blasts rocked the Kabul airport last week.

US may have tried to do face-saving by launching attacks on ISIS-K but the damage is done. Furthermore, the new narrative in the US of portraying the Taliban as the lesser evil compared to the other terrorist groups is only a feeble attempt at defending its unthoughtful withdrawal from Afghanistan after two decades. 

The appalling decision-making of the US and its allies has left Afghanistan in a giant mess and it will have global repercussions sooner or later. Regional countries, especially India, will encounter greater security concerns than in the past. 

Lobby's fondness for the Taliban

Here in India, there has been a multitude of astonishing reactions to the Afghan turmoil, yet none more hilarious than those emanating from the country’s anti-Modi political fraternity and the pseudo-secular lobby. 

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While the International community is perplexed as to how it must approach the rather inevitable threats to world peace that arise from the Taliban’s resurrected control over Afghanistan and its connections with the more robust terrorist organisations in terms of global reputation, self-proclaimed left-leaning secular experts of international relations have already started batting for India’s engagement with the new Afghan administration in the form of Taliban. 

On the other hand, the world’s ostensibly true liberal and secular nations such as Canada and the European Union have declared that they will not recognise the Taliban as the Afghan government, thereby leaving no room for diplomatic relations with the Taliban-ruled Afghanistan. Therefore, the Taliban sympathisers in India asking for the Modi government’s engagement with the new Afghanistan regime is nothing but absurd. 

Pakistan and China’s patronage for Taliban - a security threat for India 

Taliban shares a history of ideological understanding and strategic collaboration with Pakistan in matters of terror and religious extremism. In fact, the Taliban traces its roots right back to Pakistan where the seeds of its birth were sown much before it made its presence felt big time in Afghanistan in the early 90s. 

For several years the Pakistani Army and the ISI have had strong links with the Haqqani network, one of the biggest terrorist organisations in Afghanistan that originated as a front against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the 80s and has been behind dozens of terror activities across Afghanistan since 2001. Sirajuddin Haqqani, the Haqqani network founder Jalaluddin Haqqani’s son and the current chief of the organisation, also happens to be the Afghan Taliban’s deputy leader. In such an intertwined scenario wherein Pakistan is a common denominator, how things pan out in Afghanistan from here on will have so much to do with Pakistan playing a silent yet critical role behind the scenes.  

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On the other hand, China recently criticised the US and its allies for mulling economic sanctions against the Taliban. This came on the back of the US freezing a sum of about $9.5 billion in assets belonging to the Afghan central bank and halting cash shipments to the Taliban-ruled nation. Moreover, Beijing has already declared its intentions to pursue a friendly Taliban policy. 

As conspicuous as it is, two of India’s bitterest foes - Pakistan along the eastern border and China along the western border - are hand in glove with the Taliban. What this means in the context of India’s national security is the easiest of all guesses. 

But to cater to its vested interests, the lobby even entertains the idea of imperilling India’s security situation. The flagbearers of Islamophobia in India and those trying to make a case for the recognition of Taliban as the formal Afghan administration by the Indian government, who constitute a significant section of the pseudo-secular and the pseudo-liberal gang, want India to yield to a possible sinister plot hatched by Pakistan in collaboration with Taliban to destabilise India. Kashmir can be assumed to be an obvious target.