Even as Bharat was celebrating the oath-taking ceremony of the NDA government at the centre, a gruesome terror attack targeted pilgrims traveling in a bus in Reasi, Jammu. Around 10 people were killed and at least 40 injured on Sunday after terrorists fired indiscriminately on a bus carrying pilgrims. Following the firing, the driver lost balance and the bus fell into a deep gorge. The passengers didn’t move, pretending to be dead in a bid to save their lives, as terrorists went on firing indiscriminately, as per media reports. The 53-seater bus was carrying pilgrims from Shiv Khori temple in Reasi to Katra when terrorists opened fire at around 6:10 pm in the Teryath village of Reasi on Sunday evening.
The authorities suspect the hand of Pakistan-based terror outfit Lakshkar-e-Taiba behind the terror attack. The timing of the attack is crucial; it seems to have been orchestrated just in time to coincide with the new government’s oath-taking ceremony, thus bearing the dual motive of inciting fear in Bharat’s civilian population and threatening the government of Bharat with the probability of more such attacks.
The unfortunate terror attack reinforces the importance of dealing with Pakistan-sponsored cross-border terrorism with an iron hand. But what is also equally significant is the kind of response one expects from Bharat’s prominent personalities after such an attack. There should be nothing above national security and when it comes to terror attacks targeting innocent civilians, “intellectuals” and “celebrities” across the ideological divide should at least condemn such attacks.
But we have always seen a divisive trend wherein so-called celebrities and intellectuals selectively cry hoarse on issues affecting people in far-off lands just because the people affected belong to a certain community. But when it comes to issues affecting Hindus back home, they seal their lips in silence. What explains this dichotomy and apathy towards Hindu issues? Be it the issue of genocide of Kashmiri Pandits, systematic persecution of Hindus in Bangladesh and Pakistan, abductions and forced conversions of Hindu girls in Pakistan, the issue of vandalism of Hindu temples, love Jihad, fraudulent conversion of Hindus, etc. one doesn’t see any outrage from the self-anointed Bharatiya intellectuals and social warriors, leave aside international ones.
What explains this selective amnesia regarding issues affecting Hindus? Is it that Hindu lives don’t matter? The viral Instagram image “All Eyes on Rafah” was recently shared over 44 million times across social media. The “All Eyes on Rafah” image that went viral in the wake of the Israel-Gaza conflict was widely shared by celebrities and other prominent personalities from all over the world including Bharat. Bharatiyas started a similar social media trend titled “AllEyesOnReasi” to condemn the Jammu terror attack. Even though the hashtag trended on social media platform X on Monday, it received a rather lukewarm response from the Bollywood brigade.
The first few Bollywood celebrities to condemn the Jammu terror attack through their social media handles were actor-turned-politician Kangana Ranaut, Anupam Kher, Mohit Raina, Ranvir Shorey, and Ritesh Deshmukh.
“Deeply disturbed pained saddened by the attack on pilgrims in Reasi, Jammu, May Almighty give the loved ones of victims the strength to bear the pain. Prayers for the speedy recovery of the injured”, wrote Mohit Raina on X.
“Such a dastardly act at a time when India celebrates its new government. Hope the perpetrators are brought to justice”, wrote Ranvir Shorey.
Actress Raveena Tandon also condemned the Reasi terror attack. In fact, if one goes through her X timeline, she is constantly resharing posts of news related to the attack.
Netizens also expressed their anger at the hypocrisy of the Bollywood brigade resorting to selective outrage through their condemning the Reasi terror attack.
Here are a few reactions.
It’s worthwhile to mention that following the trending of the AllEyesOnReasi hashtag and the visible public anger at the hypocrisy and selective outrage of the Bollywood brigade, the woke industry found itself under pressure, and many other celebrities also started condemning the terror attack. Priyanka Chopra, Ayushman Khurrana, Richa Chadha, Samantha Ruth Prabhu, Rashmika Mandanna, Rupali Ganguly, Varun Dhawan, Preity Zinta, and Bipasha Bashu have also condemned the Jammu terror attack, as per media reports.
The Bollywood brigade aside, it’s shameful that none of the so-called Bharatiya intellectuals and social justice warriors have come out in the open categorically condemning the attack on Hindu pilgrims and calling a spade for a spade, that is saying it in the open that it is indeed Pak-sponsored Islamic terrorism that is behind such ghastly and cowardly acts targeting innocent Hindus. But alas, if they say this openly, their façade of secularism will wear off.
The opposition party Congress stooped to an all-time low by using the Jammu terror attack as a political opportunity to attack the ruling BJP. It said that the Reasi terror attacks exposed the reality of the BJP’s claim of peace and normalcy returning to Jammu and Kashmir.
Congress leader Pawan Khera reportedly said in a video statement that even as the oath-taking ceremony of PM Modi was going on and the Bharat-Pakistan cricket match was underway in the T 20 World Cup, J & K pilgrims had to bear the brunt of militant attack.
Ever since the Modi government abrogated Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir, the Congress has been whipping up the narrative that the BJP has invited even more trouble in the region by doing away with the special status of Jammu and Kashmir and thus essentially making Kashmiris unhappy. The Congress narrative then implicitly justifies such terror attacks by arguing that since the government abrogated Article 370, such stuff was bound to come.
Firebrand Dutch leader Geert Wilders was also one of the few prominent voices strongly condemning the Jammu terror attack. “Don’t allow Pakistani terrorists in the Kashmir Valley killing Hindus. Protect your people India”.
Geert Wilders’s no-nonsense approach while condemning the attack is indeed commendable because most Bollywood celebrities who condemned the attack on social media specifically highlighted the issue of Pak-sponsored terrorism. Hindu pilgrims being brutally attacked in Jammu is very much a case of Pak-sponsored Islamic terrorism, so it has to be outrightly condemned in those terms because Hindus are being attacked essentially because they are Hindus; they are becoming victims of a kind of terrorism nurtured and sustained by the fundamentalist Jihadi lobby. This has to be called out in the clearest of terms possible.
The BJP politician Nupur Sharma who has been mostly low-key in public life after being hounded by Islamists and being given multiple death threats over her Prophet Mohammad remarks, has also condemned the Jammu terror attack. “Terrorism in any form can neither be condoned nor excused. My heart goes out to the grieving families. Condolences to the bereaved families and speedy recovery to the injured”, she said.
There have also been media reports of social media site Instagram censoring the “All Eyes on Reasi” hashtag. According to a report by The Organizer, as soon as the “All Eyes on Reasi” hashtag began to gain momentum, Instagram banned the trend from its platform and hid the posts under this hashtag. Thus, users could not see this trend on Instagram. The Organizer’s report confirms what many netizens have highlighted on social media site X as well. One can see many posts about Instagram’s censorship of the “All Eyes on Reasi” hashtag and there are an increasing number of voices asking for a boycott of the social media site Instagram.
The Uninstall Instagram trended after the “All Eyes on Reasi” hashtag got hidden, as per various media reports. Netizens attacked the hypocrisy of Instagram questioning its attack on freedom of speech. Many x users have shared screenshots of Instagram displaying “This hashtag is hidden” when one searches for the “All Eyes on Reasi” trend.
This proves that the social media platform Instagram indeed displays blatant double standards and selectively silences issues affecting Hindus.
Civil society’s collective amnesia on Hindu issues is further exacerbated by the anti-Hindu and anti-Bharat bias of the big tech. We have written a lot about the anti-Hindu bias of Google’s AI algorithms. Social media’s covert censoring of content related to Hindu issues should indeed be a wake-up call for the government of Bharat to work towards creating an ecosystem for developing Bharat’s indigenous social media infrastructure.
