MEDIA’S DIRTY GAME AND STONE PELTING DURING #KASHMIRFLOODS…

14-9-2014 6.10PM IST

Medhaj News: At a time when the Indian Army and Air Force is doing every bit possible to help hundreds and thousands of people stranded in Kashmir floods; when Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah apologises for the paralysis afflicting his government; when Central government is raising funds and sending teams to help the injured and the helpless; when people are helping each other selflessly; when Bihari Hindu migrant labour has taken shelter in mosques; Muslims are sleeping in Gurudwaras; and Sikhs are in temples—the right wing section of the Indian Media has taken this moment of all to hit below the belt, and unleash an agenda of falsity and divisiveness.

True, a few incidents of stone pelting at relief convoys and choppers have occurred; but these are STRAY in nature; it is unfair on part of the right wing media to show such incidents as a major development. When dams break in Uttrakhand, when there are floods in UP, Bihar and other areas, people often clash with police, relief agencies and NGO’s. In times of disaster, people generally are angry, especially in a country like India where disaster management is yet to fall in place.

But no one calls Biharis or Uttarakhandies divisive just because they express their dissatisfaction and violently protest against the establishment.

After the stone pelting at Army choppers, a leading Indian news channel reported that ‘there are separatists in Kashmir who are instigating such actions’. How can they make such sweeping generalisations? Isn’t this kind of reporting divisive?

Why is the right wing media trying to make Kashmir an exception?

There are genuine reasons for Kashmiri Muslims, Kashmiri Sikhs and Bihari Hindu migrant labour to get angry. The CM himself has accepted several lapses on the part of his government; the tragedy has taken everybody by surprise and thousands are stuck without relief. After conducting a ground investigation, Medhaj News has come out with four reasons for even the STRAY incidents of stone pelting:

1. The houses in Kashmir have slanting tin sheets spread over as roof. At places, submerged in water by about 16 feet, flood survivors are left with no option but to cling to roofs. The flying choppers make it difficult for them to maintain their balance and they often slip.

2. Some angry locals also claim that helicopters have saved only VVIPs, increasing angst among the flood victims. THERE IS A CLASS BIAS IN RESCUE OPERATIONS.

3. People are also angry with the aerial distribution of food items, as most of the Maggie packets and water bottles are washed away and people are jumping into water to retrieve them, increasing danger to their lives.

4. The people are also angry with the reporting done by a couple of media houses. It’s creating divide and making people furious, said a stranded man.

Maroof Raza, a Kashmir baiter said that the Army stands vindicated after they have saved 60000 lives in Kashmir. Does Army need a vindication, seriously? And that too while saving people from a natural disaster?

This kind of coverage is nothing but making people more furious when they are already knocked down by nature’s fury.

“The safer way to rescue stranded people in the city should have been done mostly by boats and rafts. Except in dire situation, the use of helicopters in the city especially those flying low make it difficult for shikaras, who are involved in most of the volunteer rescue operations in and around the city, to operate” opines a relief worker.

Kashmir is an integral part of India. And the concerns of the Kashmiri people are as genuine as the people of any other part of India.