Monday Musings: What is this Josh doing to our children?

The RSS-BJP leadership must ask itself: Will mass hysteria make India a better place? Will it help resolve the situation in Kashmir?

Did our leaders and politicians behave with maturity when they spewed hatred and venom and spoke of revenge in street language from rooftops and election platforms in the aftermath of the recent Pulwama terror strike?

The entire nation is angry that 40 of our were killed by a Jaish-e-Mohammad terrorist who was clearly trained and supported by elements in Pakistan, in all probability the ISI (Inter-Services Intelligence). (HT PHOTO)

Yes, the entire nation is angry that 40 of our were killed by a Jaish-e-Mohammad terrorist who was clearly trained and supported by elements in Pakistan, in all probability the ISI (Inter-Services Intelligence). Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s bold decision to attack and destroy terror camps at Balakot, Pakistan, was efficiently carried out by the Indian Air Force (IAF), and hailed by the entire nation.

However, after that, the chest thumping that Modi, BJP president Amit Shah and others did - with street language at times- was quite ugly. The BJP leaders could not explain convincingly where from they got the number of “350 terrorists killed,” and the end result was they had egg on their face.

The venom from our politicians was picked up by our news television stations and amplified a thousand times with excitable images of war and bombings. From there on it spread to the masses, influencing young impressionable minds. At a number of places in the country, our own Indian brethren - Kashmiri students and petty Kashmiri traders - were terrorised, assaulted and forced to flee back to Srinagar.

In schools and colleges, children and teenagers spoke the same language of hate and revenge. Although the hatred was directed against Pakistan and Pakistanis, it now degenerated to Muslims with many children abusing their fellow Muslim classmates.

The RSS-BJP leadership needs to ask itself: Will such mass hysteria make India a better place? Will it help resolve the painful tragedy that has gripped Kashmir for the past 70 years? Or will it only worsen the situation?

The fact is that India cannot win the war against terrorism without the support of the local population in Kashmir. India could wipe out Khalistani terrorists in Punjab because it was finally, the local population which stopped supporting the Pakistan-aided Khalistani terrorists.

The same needs to happen in Kashmir - and it will happen only when India is able to revive trust in the Kashmiri people, who as of today are deeply alienated from the Indian State.

The new kind of hatred that is seen in our children post-Pulwama-Balakot is shocking.

An anguished father of a young collegian shared his grief on WhatsApp and wrote: “I am from a proud middle-class family with family members dedicated to the armed forces. I did not join that tribe, but did reasonably well in my charter of life. All my batch-mates are multi-millionaires because they migrated out of India. I decided that I will live for my society and not waste my life in unknown territory. But today, my son told me that he wants to permanently shift out of our dear Bharat. Me, a good deshbhakt, wished him good luck and promised him educational loans for advanced studies.

“I thought he has a better feel about our country, mood and space than me. He can celebrate 15th August and 26th January in real freedom outside our country, unlike me. He does not want to live in a land which differentiates…”

I wanted greater clarity and asked my friend: “Differentiates in what way?”

He replied: “He has Hindu, Muslim, Sikh, Jain, Christian, Buddhist and neo-Buddhists as his friends…”