By Dr Arun Mitra
Stricken deep in grief after the terrorist attack on the innocent tourists in Pahalgam, it was thought that whole India will stand by the aggrieved families of the deceased, particularly with the young women who have been widowed. But the way Himanshi Narwal, a young girl recently married to a promising Lieutenant from Indian Navy who was martyred by the terrorists is being trolled has belied this hope. She is being ridiculed for having appealed for communal harmony and not to make Pahalgam incident an anti-Muslim or anti-Kashmiri issue. She also asked the people not to be violent to the Kashmiri students studying in other parts of the country.
In our culture, we have always viewed our women folk with respect and pledged to safeguard them. It is dismaying that there has not been much public outrage over Himanshi Narwal’s trolling. As expected the Prime Minister Narendra Modi has not uttered a single word against this trolling. Does it not amount to his tacit support to such derogatory action by the motivated lumpens?
It was so sickening to watch the Prime Minister attending a political rally in Patna along with Nitish Kumar, laughing, clapping and giving speech in English at a time when the dead bodies of the victims of the Pahalgam incident lay in Kashmir. This is a reflection of complete lack of sensitivity. He has not visited the area or families of the victims till date. There are no reports that he telephoned the families of the victims. It is however naive to expect this from him because even after more than two years he has not paid a single visit to violence torn Manipur.
Such trolling of Himanshi Narwal is a result of persistent hate campaign in conditions provided in the past eleven years. There has been a continuous attempt to negate the values enshrined in our constitution which was framed based on ideals of hard struggle, full of sacrifices waged by our predecessors. We have the legacy of nonviolence propagated by Mahatma Gandhi; scientific temper as highlighted by Jawaharlal Nehru and the idea of justice and equality given by Bhagat Singh.
Hundreds of revolutionaries sacrificed their lives fighting the British colonialism, many of whom are unknown and unsung heroes. People from different political outfits including the Congress, Communists and Socialists fought together to free India from the British yolk. We can never forget the heroes of Andeman Nikobar the Kale Pani or the Chittagong case. Their sacrifices and ideals formed the basis of independent India wedded to secularism, democracy and socio-economic justice.
Ambedkar formalised all these ideals of social justice, equality of gender and harmony among various communities and gives us right to free speech and dissent in our constitution. It is these ideals which are being attacked since the present dispensation came to power 11 years back. It is well known that their predecessors were never a part of this movement for freedom, instead they connived with the British colonial masters, helped them spread communal divide, gave the two nation theory together with the Muslim league.
Our country moved forward on the lines of our constitutional values. But with coming to power of the RSS patronised BJP government in centre the narrative has changed. Communal harmony has been hit hard, to the extent that during the dreadful days of COVID-19, the Muslims were targeted for spreading COVID. They were not allowed to sell their goods in streets at several places. Prime Minister had said in a speech ‘kapde dekh ke pehchan lo’ (recognise from the clothes one is wearing). Such utterings gave alibi to the bandwagon and trolling got legitimacy. Trolling of young boys and girls by the self-appointed vigilante groups preaching self-proclaimed moral values became a routine at some places. Mob lynching based on religious differences became part of nefarious activities by these groups. They were encouraged as in several cases no punitive action was taken against them.
Contrary to what was expected by these groups or the terrorists, the people of Kashmir came out in streets to condemn the terrorist violence in Pahalgam and people of Idia irrespective of religious identity opposed the terrorist violence. The local people helped the injured and survivors.
This has irked those who thrive on communal divide. Anyone who speaks for social harmony would not be spared is their approach. This explains the trolling of Himanshi Narwal with tacit support of the higher ups. This incident has thrown a challenge before us to save the idea of India as a secular, democratic nation with scientific temper, for justice, equality, gender sensitivity and harmony among communities. There are still large number of sane voices which will defeat these forces through hard struggle, restore pride of our society’s values and change the direction again. (IPA Service)
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