While the film ‘The Kashmir Files’ is hailed all over the world for being the blockbuster of the decade, it has got some standard responses from the leftist ecosystem, denying the fact that thousands of Kashmiri Pandits were killed and lakhs were forced to leave the valley during the year 1990 by Islamists. One such attempt was made by journalist ‘Madhu’ of Matrubhumi news who interviewed Director Vivek Ranjan Agnihotri on Friday without watching the film, knowing the history and claimed that the genocide happened under the rule of Governor Jagmohan.
Madhu while interviewing Agnihotri stayed adamant that the then CM of Jammu and Kashmir Farooq Abdullah resigned on January 17, 1990, and Governor Jagmogan had taken charge of the state on January 19, which was the black day for the Kashmiri Pandits. She blatantly tried to shield the Islamic terrorists and the then government who was actually responsible for the genocide of Kashmiri Hindus. She also denied agreeing to the fact that Governor Jagmohan had reached the state on January 21 and that there was no government on January 19 and 20 in the state.
When asked if she had watched the movie before making judgement and has read up on the real history of Kashmir, the journalist turned red-faced and said that she had not watched the film but she knew that CM Abdullah had resigned before the killings happened and that Governor Jagmogan had taken the charge of the state.
“The film Kashmir Files narrates propaganda. It was seen by only 3 crore people and some of them even raised slogans against the ‘minority communities’. Why spread hatred via an art form and dig graves from the past”, she asked the Director on April 29.
Slamming the journalist for shielding the terrorists and peddling false information, Director Vivek Ranjan Agnihotri stated that all the films on Kashmir that have been made to date justify the acts of terrorists. “Kashmir Files is the only film that shows the real pain of Kashmiri Pandits and the victims”, he said. “My purpose behind making the film was to heal the wounds of the Kashmiri Pandits and show the world what they had to go through. You know nothing about the film and Kashmir’s history”, he said to the journalist.
The argument in the 10 minutes long interview continued between the duo as the journalist of Matrubhumi news kept professing that though the film was a big hit (and she had not watched it), it had failed to show the truth and that it was not supported by a section of society. She blatantly covered up for the leftist cabal who criticized the film for no legitimate reason. To this Agnihotri said, “The leftist people have been terror sympathizers. They have been extending ideological shields and support to terrorism and violence. They support those who carry guns and threaten citizens in a democratic, free country”.
He also stated that Arundhati Roy who has been the spokesperson of the leftist community was a close friend of Yasin Malik who killed four Indian Air Force officers in the Kashmir valley. “You know nothing and how come you are interviewing me on Kashmir Files! I have done massive research before making the film and there’s no reason I should believe that justifying terrorism is an intellectual act”, he said verbally hitting the journalist of the Kerala-based news channel.
The channel on April 29 smartly deleted the part where Agnihotri criticized the journalist for her wrong facts. However, the deleted part went viral on social media as it was shared by the Director on Twitter. “The part that was edited out by the brilliant journalist of Matrubhumi”, he tweeted.
The part that was edited out by the brilliant journalist of Matrubhumi. https://t.co/UPARS2BfCu pic.twitter.com/ZUAACyPFFh
— Vivek Ranjan Agnihotri (@vivekagnihotri) April 29, 2022
The film ‘The Kashmir Files’ takes the viewers back to 1989, when due to rising Islamic Jihad, a huge conflict erupted in Kashmir, forcing the great majority of Hindus to flee the valley. According to estimates, roughly 100,000 of the valley’s total 140,000 Kashmiri Pandit inhabitants migrated between February and March 1990. More of them fled in the years that followed until just about 3,000 families remained in the valley by 2011.
The movie which is based on video interviews with first-generation Kashmiri Pandit victims of the Kashmir Genocide begins with the episode of the year 1990 when the then CM of Jammu and Kashmir Farooq Abdullah had tendered his resignation. Abdullah had lost control back in 1984, probably after he had visited a conference in Kashmir and shared the platform with the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front’s (JKLF) leader Yasin Malik. Later Ghulam Mohammad Shah, who was supported by the Congress party replaced his brother-in-law Farooq Abdullah and assumed the role of the state Chief Minister.
Shah’s govt which was supported by the Congress party had furthered the Islamist agenda in the Valley. The Islamists were given political space under Shah’s rule- Hindu temples were flamed, mosques were built instead and slogans like ‘Islam Khatre me hai’ (Islam is in danger) were raised. In 1986, the state was placed under President’s rule as Congress withdrew its support from the Shah-led government. Further, in November, the President’s rule was revoked after the infamous Rajiv-Farooq accord paved way for the NC-Congress alliance to take over the reins of the administration. The coalition ministry headed by Farooq Abdullah was again sworn-in, pushing the state into the quagmire of uncertainty.
The Islamisation of Jammu and Kashmir had already begun in the 1980s when the government led by Sheikh Abdullah had changed the names of around 300 areas in Kashmir to Islamic names. It is since then that the Kashmiri Hindus were deliberately targeted and referred to as ‘Mukhbirs’, or informants of the Indian military. They were named on the hit list of the Islamist terrorist organizations and were later brutally killed.
