Pahalgam attack: How wisdom, maturity beat communal polarisation in its aftermath

Widespread fears about further polarisation, which had already been haunting Indians at religious, social, political and electoral levels, are surprisingly coming to naught in the wake of Tuesday’s gruesome Pahalgam tragedy.

Instead, the stunning feeling of indignation, shock and despair kicked off by the ghastly killing of tourists at what was otherwise a sightseers’ paradise, nestled in the heart of Jammu and Kashmir, is unexpectedly giving way to a rare kind of mature, sane and imaginative response at a rather mass level.

Religion and tragedy

Friday mosque goers through most of Jammu and Kashmir as well as far beyond often tied black bands on their arms. These were meant to serve as an insignia of shared grief over the loss of 26 innocent lives days earlier at Pahalgam.

Also read: Onus of Pahalgam massacre is on Centre, but Omar will bear the brunt

Among other things, this again buries further down the ‘two-nation theory’ that was suddenly raised by the Pakistani army chief recently, clearly directed against India.

As the Pahalgam shooting of innocent Hindu tourists (after terrorists made sure the victims’ religious identity) came within days of the Pakistani general’s remarks, the Friday protests by Indian Muslims and before that a shutdown observed by shopkeepers in Muslim-majority Jammu and Kashmir point to a rejection by protestors of the narrow, divisive and myopic ‘theory’ that has left Pakistan quite stuck up with. And it has been so one way or the other ever since Pakistan was formed.

Again, it is this so-called theory based on warring communal identities that is being refuted by numerous candlelight marches that were out on April 25 evening on the streets across the country, courtesy both Hindus and Muslims, among others. This showed widespread solidarity with the victims of the unthinkable massacre and their poor and hapless kith and kin or dependents.

People join hands

Yet, it is a fact that before Pahalgam, the growing chasm between Hindus and Muslims in India was being taken for granted. The sharp rightward turn that India took a little over a decade ago hardly left hope for this to be bridged anytime soon. But in the situation created after Pahalgam, people cutting across competing identities have come together. So much so that all other considerations including the ones related to identity and its electoral impact appear to have taken a backseat.

The credit for this goes more to the common Indians than the political class. Soon after the 26 defenceless tourists fell to the bullets fired by about five desperados at the Baisaran meadow in Pahalgam, with many others injured, locals came out in some strength to help the devastated and dazed surviving visitors to the valley.

Kashmiri Muslims rushed them to safety. These instances have, indeed, set a rare example of different identities getting subsumed and seamlessly merged in the face of an unimaginable tragedy.

Hindu-Muslim amity

What is more heartening is that the same spirit is not only continuing but expanding too. This is evident from numerous social media posts where survivors can be seen unreservedly appreciating the support villagers and other locals offered them when they were on the verge of losing hope to survive.

It is more so since the police were nowhere to be found and it took the police force about an hour-and-half or so to arrive at the spot after the mayhem. All such posts are being greatly loved, applauded and widely shared by social media aficionados with otherwise impossibly difficult-to-access photos and videos of what happened.

Also read: Pahalgam revenge: Why India should not go for an Israel-like assault

A political twist via a cartoon was attempted to be added to this. The sketch showed a woman with her husband listlessly stretched over the ground after being shot. It had the caption -- ‘terrorists asked community (of victims before shooting) not caste’. The idea obliquely targeted Congress leader Rahul Gandhi who has been advocating caste to be included and enumerated in the next census. Such a bid to seek electoral traction by strengthening the status quo shows the intent to exploit the tragedy as much as possible.

Oppn corners govt

But this was not to be. The Congress and most other parties in the Opposition generally went into a huddle to weigh and mull over what had happened. Its sheer enormity was such that all these parties decided to throw their might with the government at the Centre, egging upon it to come up with a wholesome response to deter and eliminate the possibility of such incidents in the future.

Soon, Delhi called an all-party meeting with Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh hosting instead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi who was away in Bihar. From Madhubani in Bihar, Modi vowed to chase the blowhards behind the April 22 tragedy at Pahalgam to the end of the earth and punish them in a way they would have never thought of.

Yet, Opposition parties were dismayed by Modi’s absence. The government admitted “lapses” on its part because of which Pahalgam tragedy could not be averted. This was disclosed by a Central minister after the meeting, giving the impression that Modi was not to be made part of any such admission and, thus, he stayed away from the all-party gathering.

Electoral considerations

Bihar is to go to polls later this year and, thus, electoral calculations are thought to have taken the prime minister to the state. He may visit it again early next month. This is how the virtual battle set off by militants in Kashmir can well be trumped over by the impending electoral tussle in Bihar.

Vying parties chide each other for prioritising one issue against the other. The battle is not confined to social media alone but is morphing into actual assaults against Muslim Kashmiri students enrolled outside their province and spread across several states in India.

Somehow, the central and state governments are silent about this even as Rahul Gandhi and other Opposition leaders have appealed to shun violence so that all Indians can come together in the wake of the current crisis.

Parliament session

It is amid these circumstances that also have the potential to beset Indians against Indians on one pretext or the other that Rajya Sabha member and Bar Council of India chairman Kapil Sibal has demanded a special session of Parliament to discuss the situation thrown up by the Pahalgam tragedy.

Also read: Pahalgam attack: Meet the Kashmiri guide who risked his life to save 11 tourists

At the April 24 all-party meet only parties with five MPs or more were invited while independent MPs like Sibal and others from smaller parties, including those from Jammu and Kashmir, could not be included. Now these members and smaller parties expect to be heard by the prime minister in case a special session of the two Houses is called to discuss the Pahalgam horror.

The demand for a special session of parliament stems from the fact that the “lapses” admitted by the government at Pahalgam relate to security and intelligence gathering and its sharing but not the deficiencies, negligence and sloth at political levels. It is more so since unlike the now slain tourists, an MP from the BJP held his wedding anniversary revelry in Kashmir under heavy security cover. This was just about 10 days before Pahalgam’s terrorist strike and some 100 km away from the killing fields.