The US House Foreign Affair’s Committee on South Asia Human Rights, ironically enough, turned out to be an exercise in genocide denial and denial of Radical Islamic Terrorism. Fortunately for us, all of it amounts to little more than public posturing and impotent rage. However, in the written submissions that were made by three people from a ‘Hindu’ background, numerous audacious remarks were made that beggars belief.
In this article, we shall go through ten of the worst arguments that were made.
1. “In confronting the Pakistan sponsored militancy, the Indian army and state police have also committed grave human rights abuses. However, what the foot-soldiers of the Pakistani military and ISI have done to ordinary Kashmiri Muslims in the last 30 years, pales in comparison to the human rights violations committed by the Indian state.”
-Aarti Tikoo Singh
To even suggest a thing is an absolute insanity. Pakistan is a state that uses terrorism as state policy against India and its foreign policy concerning India is ‘bleed India with a thousand cuts’. In this process, hundreds and thousands of Indian soldiers and civilians have lost their lives and continue to do so. Therefore, such a claim is completely contrary to observable facts and basic common sense.
Note: Aarti Tikoo has issued a clarification on this statement in her written statements. She said the last line of the paragraph was a ‘typo’. Following is the updated statement which she has submitted a correction. However, one wonders how the statement is better since she is still talking about ‘Indian state atrocities’.
2. “Pakistan’s cross border jihad in the last three decades has led to the rise of a radical fringe within Hindu society which has manifested itself in cow vigilantism and lynchings of innocent Muslims over beef.”
–Aarti Tikoo Singh
The ‘beef lynchings’ have nothing to do with Pakistan. The Indian ‘intellectual elite’ cannot get away with making such preposterous claims about Indian society. The ‘lynchings’ that we do see is a consequence of the cattle smuggling that is rampant in the country. Unfortunately, some innocent Muslims may die as a consequence but the blame for it cannot be put on Hindu society or Pakistan. Vigilantism is a law and order issue and the secular state of India must take its share of the blame for failing to enforce its own laws as must smugglers who steal cattle.
3. “If Pakistan continues to use jihad as a tool of foreign policy towards India, it will only strengthen the extremist elements among Hindus.”
-Aarti Tikoo Singh
Pakistan has done a lot to be blamed for but the strengthening of ‘extremist elements among Hindus’ is not one of them. The blame for that must go to the Indian followers of Radical Islamic Terrorism. When lakhs and lakhs of Indian Muslims march on the streets, rioting and pillaging across the streets of India, demanding the death of a Hindu for blasphemy, it is natural for the Hindu community to become conscious of their identity.
When Indian Muslims celebrate the murder of Hindus for blasphemy, it is natural for Hindus to react accordingly. When Hindu processions during festivals are attacked every single year, it is natural for Hindus to entertain notions that might be considered ‘radical’ in an elite company but are completely justifiable given the circumstances. The blame for it cannot be placed on Pakistan.
4. “US policymakers should understand that any tolerance for Islamist terrorism against India in Kashmir or other regions, will only further empower the fringe amongst Hindus.”
-Aarti Tikoo Singh
It is quite bizarre to think that US policymakers could in any manner affect the sentiments of the Indian population to Jihad. Perhaps the ‘intellectual elite’ sees something we don’t, however, on the face of it, it appears a rather cynical comment to make.
5. “The 2014 and 2019 elections have led to the repositioning of India as a majoritarian state. This new era combines nationalism, authoritarianism, majoritarianism, minoritization and populism.”
-Angana Chatterji
The sentence captures brilliantly the mind of the typical Leftist ‘intellectual’. Chatterji throws all the buzzwords that are likely to please the Democrat politicians. It doesn’t matter that her words have nothing to do with actual Indian realities. But it will sound good to important people, and that is all that matters.
6. Ultra-nationalist groups seek to weaponize and militarize society through “organization, vigilance and a capacity for violence”. “This form of vigilante violence, or the threat of it, is executed through the capillaries of the RSS-led Sangh Parivar’s vast [Hindu nationalist organizational] network, and generally reinforces already existing caste, gender, class, and communal-racial attitudes prevalent among upper-caste Hindus and aspirational lower caste groups.”
-Angana Chatterji
Chatterji’s words aren’t too different from the sort of garbage that is peddled by far-left propagandists in India. She appears to have been heavily influenced by the likes of Kavita Krishna and other Leftist propagandists. She doesn’t have any evidence to back her claims and it isn’t surprising considering the fact that none exists. She is just belting out the greatest chartbusters from the Leftist clown world because she knows her audience would love it.
7. “The legacy of Brahmanism organizes the supremacy of Hindus and Hinduness in India. Ethnic, minority and marginalized groups have been subject to the social and economic violence of Brahminism through which they are forced to frame their political and cultural aspirations within the dominant imagination of the nation-state… Persistently gender/hetero-normative and deeply xenophobic, these inequitable relations between majority and minority/Othered can no longer be viewed as an aberration or a fringe phenomenon.”
-Angana Chatterji
Here we find Chatterji using the term ‘gender/hetero-normative’, another Leftist favourite, and, of course, ‘Brahmanism’ without which any Leftist academic rant against India seems incomplete. Everything is blamed on the mythical phenomenon of ‘Brahmanism’ that does not even exist. It would be terribly impolite to demonize Hinduism outright. Therefore, these hacks do it by using the euphemism for Hinduism that is ‘Brahmanism’. When someone claims that they hate ‘Brahmanism’, what they really mean is that they hate ‘Hinduism’.
8. “Dear Chair and other members, as you would appreciate, the internet is not a luxury in today’s world. It is essential to survive in modern society. Without access to the internet, millions of Kashmiris have been deprived of means to access information and be active citizens of the world.”
-Nitasha Kaul
Only a ‘privileged’ person could ever make that argument. Correction, only a dumb ‘privileged’ person could make that argument. Firstly, Kashmir isn’t a modern society by any means. And that is entirely due to Radical Islamic Terrorism. Secondly, national security and public safety transcend any such argument. Internet access would have allowed terrorists to coordinate with each which would have no doubt resulted in a high number of casualties in the valley.
9. “Justification of denial of freedom through the promise of development is not only anti-democratic but outrightly colonial.”
-Nitasha Kaul
Given her Kashmiri Pandit background, one would have expected Kaul to have better knowledge about the issue at hand. But quite clearly, leftist indoctrination trumps common sense. To claim that India’s administrative reforms within its own territory are colonial is utterly ridiculous and it’s stupid. It also betrays a grave lack of awareness about the manner in which Radical Islam operates.
The Kashmiri Muslim community was a party to a genocide of Kashmiri Hindus. Through rape and murder, they forced the exodus of Kashmiri Hindus from the valley. Now, they have monopolized the term ‘Kashmiri’ through propaganda with the help of Leftist academics and are claiming the right to self-determination. It’s utterly ridiculous, the moral is lost the moment a community engages in ethnic cleansing.
If we buy what Kaul selling, it would mean accepting the following argument: A community ‘X’ can engage in the ethnic cleansing of another community ‘Y’ and then claim they have a god-given right over the land. When ‘Y’ tries to reclaim the land, ‘X’ claims ‘Y’ is a colonial power. And ‘X’ has the moral high ground in this case and the international world order should support ‘X’ on this issue.
Needless to say, it’s insanity to even argue such a case but insanity is precisely what the Left peddles for a living.
10. “During the beginning of armed uprising against the Indian state, following on from the widely reported electoral riggings in 1987, the mass migration of Kashmiri Pandits occurred.”
-Natasha Kaul
The twisted nature of the Leftist worldview is revealed in all its glory in this one single sentence. Violent Radical Islamic Terrorism becomes ‘armed uprising’, a genocide of Kashmiri Pandits is turned into ‘mass migration’. In a sane world, any individual who makes such disgraceful comments would be shunned by society at large. But in the clown world that we live in, such individuals are invited to engage in genocide denial and eulogize Islamic Terrorism at a US House Committee hearing.
