A video showing a group of Kashmiri youth shouting pro-Azadi slogans and heckling some CRPF personnel on election duty on April 9 had gone viral on social media and generated outrage across India. The video showed one of the youngsters rushing towards a CRPF official with a stick in hand and hitting the official’s bag with the stick. Voices critical of the youngsters’ actions soon transformed into calls for a stricter security regime in the Valley and some even called for exacting revenge ‘for the humiliation’.
Soon, the issue was picked up by the media and its coverage further fuelled public anger. Some television talk shows portrayed CPRF officials as victims of “terror”.
Such coverage of the incident in Indian media was seen in Kashmir as a self-serving attempt to put a spin on the security situation of the Valley. After all, if some Kashmiri youth were seen in the video heckling at the CPRF personnel, there were other youngsters in the same video escorting those personnel through the area.
Soon, another video appeared on social media showing an Indian armoured vehicle using a young Kashmir boy as a human shield to deter stone pelting as it drove through a neighbourhood. The video soon went viral diverting attention away from the heckling video.
Ironically, public outrage over this second remained confined to the Kashmir valley. As acknowledged by former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah in a tweet, in the rest of India the response to the video ranged from a mild sense of discomfort to a heartless approval.
Other videos also appeared on social media highlighting atrocities of the Indian security personnel in Kashmir. A CRPF official is seen in a video firing at a youngster at point-blank range. The bullet hits the boy on his head and he collapses on the ground and dies. Other videos showed a few teenagers held in an armoured vehicle are forced to chant anti-Pakistan slogans; security personnel holding a youngster high up in the air let go off of him and he hits the concrete surface and falls unconscious; and an undressed youngster thrown on the ground and beaten savagely with wooden sticks.
Apparently, these videos have not been filmed by protesters but by security personnel themselves. These have been uploaded online to send a warning to youngsters putting up resistance against Indian security forces. However, the videos have had an opposite effect. Besides being a source of embarrassment for New Delhi, the videos have fanned more anger and a sense of alienation in Kashmir. This may be the reason why Army Chief General Bipin Rawat urged his soldiers to be conscious of “Army’s strong image”. He was responding to a question about the human shield video at a recent press conference.
The challenge to Army’s image is unlikely to go away, considering that new videos showing excesses committed by Indian soldiers keep appearing on social media. If the heckling video had meant to present the security forces as victims in the current turmoil, the graphic videos of atrocities that have followed it have brought forth a completely opposite scenario in the Valley.
All of these videos, however, have made little difference to Indian public opinion on Kashmir. The dominant discourse remains pro-Army and indifferent to Kashmiris. Some voices have even called for a ruthless crackdown on the on-going revolt. Senior BJP leader Subramanium Swamy has suggested that depopulation drive be carried out in the Valley and all its residents moved to refugee camps in Tamil Nadu.
New Delhi’s approach towards Kashmir is believed to be shaped by the National Security Advisor Ajit Doval. In a speech in 2010, Doval, then a retired former intelligence chief, had opposed engagement with separatist groups in Kashmir and called for a military response to the problem. This stance has since become famous as Doval Doctrine.
In this approach, the Valley’s descent into turmoil is seen as self-containing. Once stretched to its limits, the resistance is expected to end on its own. With three years into BJP’s rule, the Valley has stubbornly defied this expectation. This period has witnessed a progressive worsening of the situation in Valley. What had started off as a renewed effort for recruitment of local youth in the militant’s ranks in some areas of South Kashmir is now threatening to expand to all across the Valley. And, what had begun as a spontaneous participation of massive crowds in funeral prayers of youngsters killed in encounters with Indian forces has now graduated into a campaign to liberate militants held by security forces.
The advent of social media videos has added a new dimension to the tug of war between militant youth and Indian forces in Kashmir. The android phone with an internet connection has lent Kashmiri youth a powerful communication tool. It has enabled them to skirt the filtering of traditional media and bring raw videos of human rights abuses directly into public domain.
As things stand, the Indian government has little to no options available to defend itself against these videos. Its only option seems to be a permanent shutting down of internet, but this is an unlikely to happen. Though, the state government has proceeded in this direction. On April 17, the government indefinitely suspended mobile internet service in the Valley, silencing the social media for the time being. But make no mistake. Expect another barrage of videos to flood Facebook and Twitter the moment internet services are restored.
The writer is a journalist based in Srinagar