Liberals in our country are endowed with a great gift. They have the extraordinary capability of making a mountain out of a molehill while pretending that the actual mountain that the molehill is sitting on doesn’t exist. They have convinced, at least themselves, that the molehill is the actual problem and our entire efforts must focus on that. As for the mountain itself, “The mountain is not real, you fascist.”
The esteemed intellectuals of this country have identified the biggest problem with the whole Kashmir situation. It’s men expressing their desire of marrying Kashmiri women. Ordinary people, who still have a sense of humour, understand that the men are joking. The jokes may be in bad taste, may be crass, shameful and misogynistic, but it’s nothing more than that.
No one is really packing all their bags and leaving for Kashmir all of a sudden just because they want to marry a Kashmiri woman. Therefore, the disproportionate amount of attention they are receiving from liberals is completely uncalled for. There are much bigger things that demand the nation’s attention.
There’s a good reason why liberals are focusing excessively on these crass jokes. The larger objective has always been to paint Kashmiri Muslims as ‘innocent victims’ of the ‘fascist’ Indian state. Liberals will latch on to absolutely anything to further that narrative, even crass jokes.
An author in The Quint says, “Your saviour complex is your problem. Your racist ideology is your problem, your patriarchal mindset is your problem.” The sheer hypocrisy of her words makes one’s head explode. The Kashmiri Muslim community is far more racist, far more patriarchal than any other community. And the saviour complex of liberals exceeds that of all other people. It’s a case of typical demagoguery that the author has engaged in and political grandstanding.
The opposition to the crass jokes by liberals in the name of feminism is particularly ridiculous. Liberals have been arguing against the abolition of Articles 370 and 35A which were patently discriminatory against women. One feminist organization, Feminism In India, even organized a protest in defense of the said articles. Imagine this for a moment, people who are actively supporting legal provisions that discriminate against women and treat them as second class citizens are demonizing others for bad humour. Think about it for a moment.
It should be clear to everyone that liberals don’t really care about Kashmiri women. If they did, they wouldn’t have come out in support of the instruments for their subjugation. If they had any shred for concern for Kashmiri women, they would have lamented the fact that even after all these years, child marriage in the state was legal until the 5th of August. Their primary objective is to demonize ordinary Indians and paint them in poor light. Their primary objective is to portray their political opponents as demons and themselves as the moral guardians of society. It’s obnoxious.
Liberals have been accusing Indians of other regions of the country of racism. Yet, they have completely ignored the fact that migrant workers are fleeing in huge numbers from Kashmir after a series of hate crimes and threats by local Kashmiri Muslims. Liberals have all the time in the world to counter and mock people for a few jokes made in poor taste and yet, they will not address the entrenched Xenophobia, Racism and religious bigotry in Kashmiri Muslim society. Why is that? I think we all know the answer to that question.
The same people outraging about Indians expressing their desire to marry Kashmiri Muslim women, albeit in a very crass manner that no sensible person would approve of, are the ones who deny that Love Jihad exists at all. There is overwhelming evidence that Love Jihad is a phenomenon that actually exists and not even minor girls are spared.
There is also credible evidence to suggest that Radical Islamic organizations have been engaging in a concerted effort to brainwash women of other faiths into converting to Islam to realize their goal of an Islamic Caliphate. And yet, for liberals, crass jokes are more of a concern. There’s another extremely damning incident that liberals bury under the bush.
All of us know what happened in Kashmir in 1989-90, we have all heard about the Kashmiri Hindu genocide. And we all know what was said from the pulpits in Mosques at the time. Kashmiri Hindus were told quite explicitly to leave their women behind. What would have become of those women? The plight of Yazidi women at the hands of ISIS makes it abundantly clear.
Thus, we have people, who ignore the monstrosity that was perpetuated in Kashmir in 1989-90 to this day when Kashmiri Muslims openly expressed their desire to make Hindu women their sex slaves, demonizing people for expressing their desire to tie the knot with Kashmiri women. It appears liberals want us to actually believe that the fate of a wife is worse than that of a sex slave.
Making a mountain out of a molehill to divert attention from the mountain itself is a classic liberal tactic to achieve their desired political objective. It’s no secret that liberals have allied themselves with the most toxic elements of Muslim society. Not merely that, they actively seek to silence moderate Muslims to benefit extremist factions. The crass jokes about marrying Kashmiri women are being hyped for the same reason. It’s not due to their commitment to women’s rights, if that were the case they would celebrate the abrogation of Articles 370 and 35A, it’s primarily because supporting Jihadists is conducive to their political interests.
Liberals also appear to have developed a sudden aversion to offensive humour. They have defended on every occasion extremely offensive jokes by standup comedians claiming that there was no reason for people to get offended as it was all in jest. Why are liberals offended now then? Moreover, they regularly crack Gaumutra jokes which is hate speech by every meaningful definition of the word and a term that was used by the Pulwama terrorist as well. And yet, now they preach. “Rules are for thee, not for me!”
Of course, in an ideal world, people should not be making such crass jokes. And we do not condone such humour. However, we do need to acknowledge the real reasons for it. As I have said before, unless we address the Xenophobia, Racism and religious bigotry of the Kashmiri Muslim community, it will be impossible for us to bridge the differences between them and people from other regions of the country.
