The present turmoil in the State of Jammu and Kashmir after death of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani has actually led to the exposure of some double faced & left leaning Human rights activists, Intellectual academia and also some journalists. Their tears for Burhan Wani are not something new. They were the first ones who started using the terms like “Brutal killing” for terrorists like Afzal Guru, Yakub Memon etc. and then took up the same issue again in the present so it should not be surprising.
The strictness with which terrorism is being tackled under the present regime gives a clear message that those who disturb the peace in the valley shall not be spared at all. Freedom given to the armed forces to control terrorism in the valley by the Centre has actually helped in eliminating terrorists from the valley reducing the number of militants to a mere 200(as per army sources). The terrorists from across the border are now facing a tough time sneaking in.
Some journalists have tried to give a larger than life image to a terrorist. On 8th July, 2016 Journalist Barkha Dutt tweeted “Breaking: Burhan Wani hizbul commander, son of school headmaster who used social media as weapon of war, killed in Anantnag. BIG STORY”. While using the word “Son of a School headmaster” she intended to deviate the matter but failed to refer to any of the excerpts of interview his father Muzaffar Wani gave to The Hindustan Times earlier. He had said “…a Muslim has his faith in God. He knows if he dies in the path of God, he goes to God. In our religion, whosoever dies because of the oppression from India, or by an Indian bullet, doesn’t die. He goes from this world to the other world (as promised in the Quran); there will be no disease in that world, no oppression. This is what our Islam tells”. He further went on to say “our Islam says that God, Quran and the Prophet are bigger than anything, even bigger and more important than our sons. It’s not the other way round. If our God is not happy with us then we don’t need our sons. Our God should be happy with us even if my son’s or my sacrifice is needed for that”. Does this not reflect symptoms of some radicalized mindset on a “school headmaster”? Just wonder if such are the words of a headmaster, what would have been taught in the same school?
Kavita Krishnana (Polit Bureau member, CPI (ML) tweeted “Shame on the extra judicial killing of Burhan Wani, and the killing of 8 protesters/mourners in his funeral.” But any tweet from the same CPI (ML) member was missing when Burhan said “The separate colonies, which India is planning on the lines of Israel, are not acceptable and we will attack those separate colonies.” The hatred of terrorists towards India is well known but the same attitude followed by the communist members and using of terms like “Shame” towards Indian armed forces and J&K Police is very shameful.
Former CM Omar Abdullah tweeted “Mark my words – Burhan’s ability to recruit in to militancy from the grave will far outstrip anything he could have done on social media”, forgetting the fact Burhan Wani took up Gun when Abdullah himself was at the helm of the Jammu and Kashmir Government.
The frustration of the so called liberal brigade has actually gone up with the Modi Government in power which has been following the policy of “Zero Tolerance” on terrorism. The strictness with which terrorism is being tackled under the present regime gives a clear message that those who disturb the peace in the valley shall not be spared at all. Freedom given to the armed forces to control terrorism in the valley by the Centre has actually helped in eliminating terrorists from the valley reducing the number of militants to a mere 200( as per army sources). The terrorists from across the border are now facing a tough time sneaking in. The present Coalition Government which gives an equal voice to all sections of people in the state of Jammu and Kashmir, be it from Leh, Jammu or Srinagar has been following the agenda given by the Prime Minister for the people of Kashmir- development. In order to achieve this goal, the strong stand against militancy by the Government will help in bringing a positive change in the lives of local people in the valley.
It is quite astonishing what happens to these politically motivated journalists and intellectuals when a small child is seen lighting the pyre of his martyred father who lost his life protecting the motherland in the same valley by the same Burhan wani’s? Irrespective of the fact what these intellectuals have to think about the death of a terrorist but we all as a citizen of this great nation must be proud of our armed forces and J&K Police, who with their combined operations were able to gun down Burhan Wani and bring a smile on the face of brave little girl Alka Rai (daughter of Martyr Col MN Rai) because it was Burhan Wani only behind attack on Col MN Rai. It would have been a nice gesture by our national media if her picture was published on the front page of every newspaper which would have given a moral boost to the armed forces working in most tough conditions, but as usual some part of our leftist media failed to recognize their contribution and gave a big picture on front page of the funeral of a terrorist. Its time our media wakes up to meet the expectations of Indian people and not the separatists.
(Author is a Research Associate at Syama Prasad Mookerjee Research Foundation, New Delhi)