With a resounding victory in recent assembly elections in four of the five states, the BJP has begun preparations for the next Lok Sabha elections, scheduled for 2024. The BJP which has emerged from the womb of RSS as its political outfit has set itself the goal of winning the 2024 elections in any case and before that it is determined to form its government in Kashmir. The resolve to have the entire country under their control is part of a 100-year-old dream of RSS that Modi has set out to fulfil. Alongside, sectarian forces are working to immerse India in Hindutva. Their aim is to generate a climate where Hindus hate Muslims to the core so that all the Hindu votes in the elections are reserved for the BJP party.
The latest endeavour for the accomplishment of the set goals is the film ‘Kashmir Files’ directed by Vivek Agnihotri, and starring Anupum Kher and Mithun Chakraborty, both staunch supporters of the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, which depict the exodus of Kashmiri pandits during Kashmir insurgency in the year 1990. Immediately after the film’s release, the BJP governments in Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Karnataka, and Haryana made it tax-free and the Prime Minister made a lengthy speech in support of the film while addressing the BJP parliamentarians on March 15. He said that those who are opposing the film are the ones who do not want to admit the truth shown in the film. He further said that the film reveals the truth suppressed for years, and more such films need to be made to lay bare the truth to people. The film may be close to the stories of Kashmiri pandits leaving Kashmir, but now it is being used to spread hatred against Muslims in the country. Films like these are very dangerous and detrimental to the country and its unity, no matter how much the Prime Minister likes them. The effect of the Prime Minister’s endorsement of the film has led more and more people of a similar mindset to watch the film and conclude that those who expelled Kashmir pandits out of Kashmir, played with the dignity of their sisters and daughters, were Muslims. Several videos of the reactions of people after watching the film have gone viral. In one video people coming out of the cinema halls after watching the film are seen shouting slogans like ‘shoot the traitors of the country’. In another video, some people are seen chanting the slogans “Vande Mataram” and “ Jai Hind” in front of a movie theatre, and one of them is in a frenzy urging Hindus to stop watching movies starring Shah Rukh Khan, Salman Khan, and Aamir Khan. One video clip shows a man harshly abusing Muslims using profanity without caring about the girls and women present at the place. The anthem of RSS, ‘Namaste Sada Vatsale Matribhume’ was sung in one of the cinema halls. In one of the videos, a man can be seen warning Hindus to be careful of Muslims who could attack them at any time. He was also seen telling the crowd that they had seen stories from Kashmir but such stories could unfold next in Kerala or West Bengal.
Modi is right when he says that truth must come before the country, but such truth should not be one-sided and incomplete. Is it not true that when the exodus of Kashmiri pandits took place, neither Congress was in power at the center, nor National Conference in Kashmir. Is it not true that in 1990, the BJP had supported V.P. Singh to become Prime Minister and the stalwarts of BJP like Atal Bihari Vajpayee and L.K. Advani had chosen Jag Mohan, a favourite of RSS, to be the Governor of Kashmir? Was it not Jag Mohan who sent buses and trucks into villages and towns to ferry Kashmiri pandits and drove them away from the Kashmir valley? Is it not a fact that the insurgency in Kashmir in the 1990s was perpetrated by intruders and terrorists from Pakistan and Afghanistan and not by the local Muslims of the valley? Is it not a fact that more than 60,000 local Muslims of the valley were killed by terrorists and security forces after the Kashmiri pandits left the valley and that the same atrocities that the Kashmiri pandits suffered during their exodus were committed against the Muslims in the valley? If the Prime Minister is keen to convey such truths to the country and the world, should not films be made on the killings and massacres in Nelli in Assam, Meerut, Maliyana, Muradabad, Aligarh, etc.? Will there be films about the massacre of Sikhs? Will films be made on the truth of the heinous and shameful acts at Godhra Station and the massacres that ensued across Gujarat when Modi himself was the Chief Minister of the state Could Indians expect films about the massacres that took place under the guise of riots in many parts of the country following the demolition of Babri Masjid and the subsequent bomb blasts in Mumbai? Will the reality of Bhagalpur massacre be brought to light through films? Should not the truths behind the riots that took place in different parts of the country during the Rath Yathra of Lal Krishan Advani, the political mentor of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, be brought before the Indians through films?
Speaking at the BJP parliamentary party meeting, Modi also said that if someone does not like the truth of Kashmir Files, nothing stops such a person from making another film based on his factual knowledge. Such a statement that too by a Prime Minister is extremely irresponsible, inappropriate, and dangerous for the country. Things are changing around the world and people are forgetting past hatred, animosity, and mistakes and trying to move forward with mutual love, respect, and regard for each other. It was with this spirit that Berlin Wall was torn down a few years ago, and the two parts of the country were reunited so that people there could live happily together. It was the same spirit that prompted the white and black people of South Africa to forget the crimes of the apartheid regime reconcile truths and shake hands to move the country towards progress and prosperity. When the situation in different countries is such for reconciliation between individuals and communities to live in a peaceful and amicable atmosphere, the stand of our Prime Minister calling for anyone to make films on explosive issues that generate mutual hate between communities does not seem appropriate. Should it be the wisdom of the country’s greatest leader to ask the wounds to keep bleeding and rub salt on them from time to time to spread hatred between different communities? Alas, when leaders take such stands, God bless our country. God save India.
