Trigger-happy on Kashmir

Perhaps nothing symbolises the mindless edginess of the debased political discourse today as much as actor Paresh Rawal’s provocative statement about the merit of the army using writer Arundhati Roy as a “human shield” in Kashmir. By the very nature of the social media platform on which he made it, Twitter doesn’t advance thoughtful commentary. But Rawal’s flippant remark, amplified by the ‘echo chamber’ effect of the medium, comes across as degraded for the reason that it was articulated by a sitting MP from the ruling party. More than most others, a lawmaker such as he ought to have been more circumspect in his invocation of inflammatory rhetoric on so sensitive a subject as Kashmir.

And yet, Arundhati Roy’s delineation of the situation in Kashmir, in her commentaries over the years, is not above criticism. It is overly simplistic, and wholly lacking in nuance or balance. In her reductionist worldview, the Indian state alone bears the burden of responsibility for the troubles in the Valley. But Kashmir’s contemporary history is far more complex. Even given the artless, heavy-handed response of the Indian state over the decades, there are other geopolitical forces at play in Kashmir — including Pakistan-backed jihadi elements, whose larger aim is the disintegration of secular India — that Roy does not acknowledge. That incomplete narrative amounts to an intellectually dishonest denial of history on her part.

But Rawal’s thoughtless riposte is just as symptomatic of the downward spiral in the political polemics. And given Kashmir’s volatile situation, both Roy’s selective outlining of history and the fusillades of trigger-happy Twitterati (of the kind that Rawal let loose) can have serious real-life consequences. Beyond the proximate provocations, such interventions make the enterprise of winning hearts and minds in Kashmir all the more challenging. The first principles of free speech may defend the right of both Roy and Rawal to speak unfettered, but that freedom is best exercised with a modicum of responsibility.

Venky Vembu Associate Editor

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