Fighting the Floods?

When Kashmir Valley was hit by floods the earlier this month, its unprecedented intensity and savage fury took everyone by surprise. While entire localities were inundated in the blink of an eye leaving thousands stranded and in grave danger, the administrative machinery (as expected), was nowhere to be seen. Unable to grapple with this humungous crisis, the State government called in the army to conduct rescue and relief operations, as besides ensuring defence of the nation, the army is also mandated to provide assistance to the civil authorities during natural calamities. However there is a catch- under the Indian constitution, the army is only expected to assist the civil administration and not take over its role or responsibilities. Therefore, while Chief Minister Omar Abdullah did the correct thing by calling in the army for flood relief work, but by failing to kick-start his administration into action and take overall control over flood rescue and relief operations, he is guilty of having had abdicated his official responsibilities. When the State administration was unable to make any arrangements for accommodating and feeding the people rescued, the army established relief camps to provide them shelter and food. Thus, when journalists belonging to the national media reached the flood hit areas, all they saw were army men in action everywhere and since they reported just what they had observed, they cannot be blamed for any bias. 

Unfortunately, the problem with Kashmir is that everything here automatically acquires a political hue and therefore even the floods that have devastated the State could be no exception. Based on reports from their journalists that it was only the army personnel who could be seen carrying out flood rescue and relief work, some TV anchors and talk show experts drew conclusions to suit their own convinience. Expectedly, a contentious line of thought that had all the potential to generate a prolonged and heated debate emerged. As a result, all hell suddenly broke loose as instead of concentrating on the rescue and relief efforts, a verbal duel between the national and local media over the role being played by various organisations and groups erupted. While lauding the role of the army, the national media simultaneously put some awkward questions to the separatists and this politicised the issue. The separatists and their sympathisers responded in equal measure and in this war of words, the human tragedy that the floods have caused has been lost sight of. 

Things became worse when some TV anchors suggested that the people of Kashmir should not only be grateful to the men in uniform for having saved their lives, but also feel apologetic for having debased the army all these years by referring to it as an “occupational force.” Though this argument sans any merit, it was nevertheless taken as a serious affront and met with stiff opposition by the antagonists. However, instead of exposing the lack of logic and hollowness of this assertion, those offended retaliated by claiming that the army rescue and relief efforts were motivated and only a public relations exercise, whereas as per them, the reality was that the army was rescuing only the influential people and non Kashmiris. Since then, this battle has only accentuated with each side digging in its heels and unwilling to relent. The resultant situation is that while the national media sees the army as ‘heroes’ who are risking their lives to save the people of Kashmir, the local media views the army as ‘villains’ who are giving ‘preferential treatment’ to VIPs and non locals. 

There is no doubt that the national media should have been more careful in its choice of words and more civil while commenting upon the separatists. Yet, if they have behaved irresponsibly, does it behoove us to retort in the same undignified manner? If a section of the national media has deliberately played down the spectacular rescue efforts of the local residents, should we do likewise and deride the army rescue efforts? Now please don’t get me wrong and conclude that I am trying to speak up for the army. Knowing how easily most Kashmiris can easily be drawn into a controversy just by provocative statements and remarks, I only wish to convey a word of caution against making sweeping statements that would ultimately have an adverse impact on our credibility. Without meaning any offense, I would like to cite the example of the Hurriyat (G) chairman SAS Geelani telling a Pakistani news channel that, “Indian Army men were moving around in boats with TV crews only to stage an act of rescuing a few locals for the purpose of publicity and propaganda.” At a time when Kashmir flood rescue and relief work is under scrutiny of the independent and international media, making such factually inaccurate statements only helps reinforce the view being expressed by ‘hawks’ in the national media that the separatists are hell bent on maligning the fair image of the army by resorting to use of blatant lies just to conceal their own failings.

Let us therefore show character and despite provocation, desist from entering into petty arguments. Let us take pride in the fact that in these trying times, our own people rose to the occasion and were not found wanting. Let us not convey the erroneous impression that just because we have not being given due recognition by the national media for the spectacular role of our people in rescuing flood victims, we out of spite, are trying to belittle someone else’s contribution. We must take stock of the situation dispassionately and not let emotions or anger get the better of our rationale selves. We must remember that we have a substantial number of well wishers in India who have been seeing rescue work being done by the army. Thus, by chastising the army when it itself has never made any negative insinuations against us, we are only giving an impression of being prejudiced and this is exactly what the national media wants! So, let the separatists do and say what they want to, but at least the civil society should desist from entering into this blame game. Let us instead tell the world that what we are doing is nothing more than fulfilling our social responsibility and for this, we neither seek glory nor want any gratitude!

There is also no point in writing pieces over emphasising that our people did a great job by saving non Muslims as the same could easily be misinterpreted as the reflection of a communal mindset. The same holds good for writing pieces trumpeting the words of praise that a Mr ‘X” from Rajasthan, a Mrs ‘Y’ from Haryana, or a student ‘Z’ from Chandigarh had for us as it could well be perceived motivated acts undertaken (in Geelani sahib’s words), “for the purpose of publicity and propaganda.” This is extremely important since such narrations have little credibility as one comes across all sorts of stories nowadays. If there are ones which show our positive side in terms of how our people went out of their way to provide assistance to hapless tourists, then there are also stories of how some tourists were jeered and forced by our people to chant slogans of “Pakistan zindabad.” So, at a time when it is difficult to decide as to who should be believed, let those non Kashmiris who were rescued by our people do the talking themselves. I for one am more than confident that in the days to come, many a story of the heroic efforts of our people will come out and the world shall hear the truth from the horse’s mouth!  

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