West Indies Celebration In Kashmir, What Happened Next?
By Yasir Altaf Zargar
03 April, 2016
Countercurrents.org
Cricket is a game and is being enjoyed across the globe when it comes to world cup. This year after the Asia cup, the world t-20 started but it didn’t carried happiness for the Asian teams. Before the start of final match all the teams of Asia disqualified and people were disappointed from the said performance of Asian countries. The defeat of India by the hands of West Indies brought disappointment to many Indian fans, but in Kashmir the situation remained different.
Kashmir is an internationally recognised a disputed nation. Due to the harsh behaviour of Indian governance towards the people of Kashmir, Kashmiri’s have never supported India in any game or in any event. The people of Kashmir are likely to support any other nation who will be playing against India. It is because of Indian oppression against the people of Kashmir, that it failed to win hearts of people and the effects are now obviously visible to everyone. The people of Kashmir always like to enjoy India’s loss whether it is cricket or hockey. There is also a fact that Pakistan enjoys unconditional support from people of Kashmir that is why people of Kashmir went to each stadium where Pakistan played the 2016 t-20 world cup. The social media in Kashmir circulated the post images which were taken by Kashmiri supporters with Pakistani players. Some videos showed the aggression of Pak supporters from Kashmir, that’s how they were singing paeans to praise the players of Pakistan. Unfortunately everything brought disappointment when Pakistan lost the match that was being played in b/w Pakistan and India. Pakistan didn’t qualify for semi-finals but India did, the performance by Virat Kohli helped team India in entering the semi-finals of 2016 t-20 world cup. The brilliant performance by kohli didn’t help his team in defeating the West Indies that India failed to qualify semi-finals. The situation in Kashmir turned in celebration when Russel slapped the ball out of the stadium which helped his team in entering the finals of t-20 world cup 2016 by defeating India in their home ground.
People of Kashmir came out on streets, celebrated India’s loss. Slogans were chanted, fire crackers were burnt by hailing the efforts of West Indies and the troll of “MAUKA MAUKA” was being commented on social media as well. Indian supporters ruthlessly abused many Kashmiri’s and blamed them for being apostates. Some were given name as traitors where some were honoured with the tag line “anti-nationals”.
Meanwhile whole Kashmir was celebrating India’s loss so were some students at NIT Srinagar. This jeered some so called nationalists in NIT Srinagar who led procession by chanting “BHARAT MATA KI JAI” on the soil of Kashmir. The tri-colour was hoisted inside the campus which made sense how intolerance level is haunting them. The nationalists didn’t stop their activities but attacked many local students and teachers. They were behaving like the ABVP activists, the BJP student wing as we saw what happened inside JNU. The outsiders and locals on the next day confront each other. The outsiders in some videos were visibly seen destroying the property of campus, kicking some locals and the police was not taking any step. The outsiders even blamed locals for hailing/chanting Pakistani slogans for which the non-locals chanted anti-Pakistani slogans. Hoisting tri-colour in a disputed region has always questioned India’s administration in Kashmir. To prove that people of Kashmir support India they always hoist tri-colour on the streets of Kashmir. This really sounds occupational hazards. The situation which prevailed inside the campus pushed authority to close the campus for few days.
On one side Kashmiri’s are being thrashed in every Indian state and on other side the murky politics is being played with people. The PDP led by Mehbooba has made her stand clear that she will continue the collation with BJP. A mistake which sheikh Abdullah did during his tenure, the same mistake is being repeated by the new politicians, accepting the Delhi demands and selling Kashmir at national level.
Kashmir has always seen many uncertainties. And the current uncertainty is proving how the situation Kashmiri’s has to face. The beef ban, attack on Zahid and now the attack on students inside universities and colleges is making sense of fetid environment. The politics has taken thousands of lives. The so called nationalists should refrain attacking others, it is an individual’s choice what he should celebrate and what he shouldn’t. The choice should be confined up to the person only. Let’s pray for those who faced the havoc.
Let’s hope for peace and the solution for Kashmir issue.
Yasir Altaf Zargar is a web security analyst. He tweets as @zargaryasir and can be reached at:[email protected].