Handwara's Malala - A Portrait in Courage
- In Current Affairs
- 08:37 PM, Apr 26, 2016
- Anupama Handoo
We have all heard the story about a little boy who calls the bluff of an entire nation. While the rest of the kingdom is merrily congratulating the king for his finest robes acquired at a very high cost from the conning merchants; this little boy dares to shout... 'but the emperor is naked'. The whole kingdom gasps, parents try to correct him, sycophants try to drown the little boy's voice but the truth has been spoken. As the little boy insists that the emperor is naked people find the courage to say what they see and experience. The emperor retreats red faced. The conning merchants are punished ... probably! The story is ambiguous about the fate of the little boy. Was he hailed as the wise one or pushed off the cliff for calling the con?
Malala Yousafzai had the courage to stand up and say to Taliban that every girl has a right to education. She was shot in the head. By some miracle of fate, she lived to tell the story and is now a Nobel Prize winner - an ambassador for girl's education worldwide.
We saw similar courage in the past few days from a little girl in a little-known village in Kashmir valley -Handwara. When the local youth tried to molest the girl, she resisted. After their advances were thwarted, they fabricated the story that the army molested the girl. Tensions rose when a mob tried to attack an army check post to avenge the alleged misappropriation. In a bid to protect themselves from an aggressive and armed crowd, the personnel opened fire. When terrorists are hiding among ordinary civilians and mobsters use ordinary citizens as human shield collateral damage is inevitable. Two young lives with dreams and hopes were extinguished. Who was responsible? The armed personnel who opened fire in self-defense? Or the mobs who picked on a small group of armed forces with an aim to lynch them to death or to burn them alive. In a situation like this neither of the outcomes is fair. But then life in the trouble torn state is not fair for anyone.
In the face of these horrible accusations, the pressure, and the tensions, comes a tiny voice choking with tears - 'The army did not molest me'. Her mother says the statement was made under duress. News reporters created enough confusion - Was it the Army? Was it the Police? Was it a truck? Did she go to the toilet? Why did she go to the toilet? What did the youth mean by 'Are we kashmiris dead'? Was she having an affair with a non- Kashmiri? Or with an Army personnel?
Enough noise, enough confusion, to drown the little voice. But the little voice of the Handwara girl repeats with clarity and conviction 'The army did not molest me'.
With that little but firm voice not wavering, I have seen news reporters scrambling for cover. Elected politicians and self-styled leaders of all flavors (pro-Independence, pro-Pakistan and pro-Shariat, ex-militants etc) are churning out excuses for the event and somehow want to lay the blame on the army and the government. Mobs are trying to create an incident somewhere else... just to prove the tyranny of the army. For these vested interests young people like the ones who died in Handwara are only cannon fodder. More blood spilled means more press coverage: that's the simple equation. The youth of Kashmir have been sacrificed at the altar of jihad for far too long.
No one seems to be looking for the two youth who initially created trouble by threatening the Handwara girl. In my opinion the culpability of this crime lies with them. They stoked tension by falsely accusing the Army personnel and by instigating the crowd. It is obvious, in light of the more recent incidents, that further unrest is being planned in the Kashmir valley. Miscreants want to blame the army and put pressure on the new Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti to carve out a deal with the Center to remove AFSPA or to reduce the number of Armed Forces drastically.
In this noise and confusion, the little voice is lost. The Handwara girl, unlike Malala, won’t get any long term special protection or treatment. She is probably being harassed along with her family by organizations like JKCCS. Someone has possibly put a prize on her head to shut up the 'inconvenient truth' forever and to send a message to all dissenters. Unlike Kanhaiya she wasn't made a hero for saying the truth. Unlike Malala her courage and conviction have not been recognized. The media and the administration is probably waiting for a bullet to her head.
It's incredibly easier to lay a wreath than to acknowledge and follow a little tiny voice.
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