Sabbah Haji, the Director of Haji Public School in Jammu & Kashmir’s Doda who enjoys a good camaraderie with those in the liberal camp, has taken offense at the fact that the protests at Shaheen Bagh against the Citizenship Amendment Act are ‘too Indian’. She claims that she felt like an ‘outsider’ at these protests.
3. Attended protests at #ShaheenBagh + #JamiaMillia in solidarity against injustice, oppression and state violence, but as an outsider.
The extreme Indianness of it all was jarring for me, coming from where I do. (Understand, this is a real thing.) So aloof, but in solidarity.— Sabbah Haji Baji For Kashmir (@imsabbah) January 20, 2020
Haji’s first tweet in the thread was in response to a tweet by one Tanzeel Khan which was in reply to The Wire journalist Arfa Khanum Sherwani’s show of phony solidarity towards Kashmiri Pandits on the 30th anniversary of their ethnic cleansing from the valley. Khan claimed that a woman was stopped from holding up a placard that said ‘Free Kashmir from Indian Occupation’ and therefore, Sherwani had no right to speak of Kashmiri Pandits.
I would say talk about both, both need to be talked about. What happened to the KPs and what’s been going on in Kashmir for much longer, Kashmiri aspirations and its condition today. https://t.co/UXsUgtuJfl
— Sabbah Haji Baji For Kashmir (@imsabbah) January 20, 2020
Haji is often provided a platform by mainstream outlets to speak on matters related to Kashmir. The individual who finds even the Shaheen Bagh protests to have ‘extreme Indianness’ was interviewed by Priya Ramani in an article on LiveMint. She has also been awarded by liberal institutions for her work on education.
In the past, Haji has made the argument that there’s no need to integrate Kashmiris into mainstream India. She has also opined that Kashmiris do not feel unsafe because of Islamic terrorists in the Valley, who she calls ‘armed militants’ and implied that it is the Indian Army that is making Kashmiris feel unsafe. She also happens to be one of those Kashmiris who support Pakistan over India.
Amusingly enough, Shaheen Bagh is the same place where chants of ‘Jinnah Wali Azadi‘ were raised by the anti-CAA protesters. Thus, to claim that the protests have ‘extreme Indianness’ which makes it jarring is rather disturbing. At the same protests, children were used in order to peddle a nefarious agenda. These children were raising extremely disturbing slogans and they appeared to be indoctrinated into a cult of hatred.
In the protests, the sacred Hindu religious symbol of Swastika was desecrated by the anti-CAA protesters. The protesters also clashed with Kashmiri Pandits on the 30th anniversary of their genocide. However, even after all of this, the protests still demonstrate ‘extreme Indianness’ according to certain people.
