As normalcy gradually returns back to the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir, some eminent personalities who seem to have vested interests in keeping the pot boiling are employing all kinds of artifices and deceit to perpetuate that everything is not hunky-dory. Self-proclaimed ‘liberal’ journalist Sagarika Ghose today tried to pass off a 3-year-old report maligning Indian Armed Forces as a recent one to insinuate that the Indian Armed Forces are employing brutal means to subjugate Kashmiris.
Sharing a 3-year-old dubious report, Sagarika tweeted that how security forces in Kashmir have been using slingshots for civilised crowd control. The timing of the tweet is of great salience as Sagarika proceeded to allude that the situation in the Valley is tense and forces are using brutal oppression to crush the alleged protest erupting in the state.
The suspicious report shared by Sagarika was published on February 11, 2016 by a certain Allison Jackson. Ghose, while sharing the report on Twitter did not mention that it is an old report and does not mean that the current situation in Kashmir is such. Moreover, the image of security forces using slingshot is from 2009 as mentioned in the description of the image.
Many Twitter users tried to highlight the provenance of the report to Ghose. However, this didn’t deter Ghose from continuing to peddle her agenda. One Twitter user suggested her to have a look at the date and the year but Ghose brazened out her stand claiming such methods are commonly adopted by the Indian Armed Forces in Kashmir reportedly from 2009.
There is perverse obstinance among certain sections of the society who cannot digest the fact that an overwhelming population in Kashmir have welcomed the central government’s decision to abrogate Article 370. The decision to bifurcate the state into two union territories has perhaps made a lot of detractors come unglued. They are wittingly or unwittingly toeing Pakistani line, providing them cannon fodder to lend credibility to their insidious crotchets. They are employing devious means and methods to undermine the government’s efforts to instil normalcy in the strife-torn region by purveying fake and outdated fictional stories of brutalities meted out to the people while belittling those who claim normalcy is prevailing in the Valley.
It is a fact that Sagarika is extremely critical of the current government. She seems to be on a constant look-out to find out ways to disparage the BJP government. Perhaps to this end, she wantonly shared an old piece of trash report to suggest that the government’s move to repeal the partition relic of Article 370 has backfired and that the Armed Forces are allegedly using inhuman methods to control the outburst.
However, this is not the first time that Sagarika Ghose has exhibited her unbridled disdain for the Armed Forces. Recently, Sagarika called the most decorated officer of the Territorial Army an ‘idiot’ because he respectfully disagreed with her assessment of ‘war’. Sagarika Ghose posted a tweet implying that she was a “liberal patriot” who works for “peace” and hence loves her country more than those wanting to send “sons of the poor” to the front lines to “satisfy their own elite bloodlust”. With an astute response, Major Navdeep Singh retorted back saying the Indian Army is not a militia satiating a tinpot leadership’s bloodlust but an ethical military working under a constitutional democracy to protect the people of India.
