Targeting Kashmiris plays into Pak’s hands

Our fight is for Kashmir, not against Kashmir, not against Kashmiris.” These words from the prime minister came as relief, wrapped in more significance than any uttered by him in recent times. It was addressed not just to the breed of ‘hypernationalists’ who act before they think, both in violent ways.

It was a message also to Kashmiri students, workers, traders and labourers, spread across the mainland, that the Indian state was with them. Perhaps also to the world at large that India will not be indiscriminate in retaliation. Had the message come a little earlier, young Kashmiris trying to pick up pieces of their lives outside their strife-torn state may not have had to flee homeward or have only the Khalsa Aid camps for refuge. Even as the latter was worthy of the highest praise, the maximum infamy sticks to Uttarakhand and Maharashtra, from where most of the reports of attacks on students came in the aftermath of Pulwama. As they abdicated, the anarchy of groups of bigoted, hotheaded youth came to define India.

The false binary of Kashmiri Pandits that was widely cited as justification for mob fury is self-defeating. Two wrongs don’t make a right. Identifying the average Kashmiri as the perpetrator of Pulwama only strengthens Islamabad’s case, and creates just the kind of breeding ground it seeks. Remember only Pakistan premier Imran Khan’s lecture: “Why don’t you look at what makes young boys in Kashmir pick up guns. ...” Patriotic Indians will justly bristle at that bit of hectoring, but they may pause to ponder if targeting Kashmiri students, many of whom come with the prime minister’s scholarship, does not lend ballast to what India’s critics say. Pakistan would love nothing more than to see India’s scared educational institutions refusing to admit Kashmiri students, or sacking Kashmiri faculty members. That destroys the very bridge we would want to build.