THE sense of outrage over the gruesome killings of the tourists in Pahalgam continues to surge across the country. In this age when images bring home events on the computer monitors and smartphone screens, what else would one expect with the horrific spectacle? The pain is compounded with the knowledge that these were targeted with victims profiled on religious identity. None in their senses can remain unmoved by such a dastardly act and no amount of condemnation for the perpetrators can be quite enough.

But, the challenge that faces us as a people and a nation is how to unitedly respond to bring the perpetrators and their handlers to book. This is an absolute imperative. It is to ensure this that the all-party meeting resolved not just to condemn in one voice, but also to assure support for the government in nabbing the culprits. Such an unusually broad mandate is necessary at this critical juncture given the enormity of the challenge.

Deciding the do’s and don’ts in this moment of reckoning is urgent; the government’s prerogative to decide on the do’s is exclusive, but the onus on us as a diverse people is to ensure granite like unity based on don’ts . The terrorists now and perhaps always, target India by viewing our diversity as our vulnerability. Therefore, the denominational choice of the victims in Baisaran is sinister but understandable. Under no circumstances can we oblige the terrorist perpetrators with any success in their cynical plot for triggering polarisation.

But it is precisely here that we as a people find ourselves susceptible to the Hindutva campaign which uses polarisation to the hilt for political and ideological hegemony. The major instrument in furthering this objective is through the mainstream corporate media which invariably displays a bias for the ruling dispensation. 

But the real threat to sanity and stability is the vicious dimension that the social media has come to assume. The lethal nature of this disruption has become possible because of the infrastructure of hate driven by fake news spearheaded by the Hindutva forces anchored by the IT Cell. Quite some time back Amit Shah had informed us that they have created 32 lakh WhatsApp groups which could make anything viral within an hour across the country.

The results are for all to see. The UNESCO-Ipsos Survey on the impact of Online Disinformation and Hate Speech showed disinformation, fake news and hate speeches are a reality in India with 64 per cent respondents blaming social media feeds as the principal offender. Unfortunately, 1 in 2 urban Indians (56 per cent) claimed social media feeds as their top choice for news and information. The shrill hate filled narrative is searing through the social media space in the wake of Pahalgam. Predictably the prime target of this campaign is the Kashmiris in particular and the Muslims in general.

This is despite the facts on the ground. Kashmiris have been in the forefront in showing their solidarity with the victims. The Kashmiri Muslim pony handler, who tried to snatch the firearm from the terrorists to retaliate, was immediately sprayed with bullets suffering instant death. Drivers and other locals associated with tourism offered everything necessary from food to accommodation to comfort stranded tourists. The complete shutdown in valley towns and cities in condemnation of the terror crime and the possible loss of their livelihood has been unprecedented and in sync with the rest of the country. This grassroots popular action has got further reflected in the extraordinary compassion and solidarity shown by the J&K assembly.

But, the most heart rending development concerns the vicious cyber bullying of Himanshi Narwal who lost her naval force husband gunned down during their honeymoon in the fateful meadow of Pahalgam. Her plight underlines dangerous abyss that we have fallen in. Ironically it was Himanshi’s forlorn image with her husband’s dead body on her lap which embodied the enormity of both the tragedy and the crime and had gone viral.

But what attracted the vicious assault that she has come to face was her stoic response - “We don’t want people going against Muslims or Kashmiris. We want peace and only peace. Of course, we want justice”, refusing to march alongside the hate brigade.

There has been an ominous silence from the Hindutva top brass over the insensitive and criminal behaviour. The National Commission of Women had a benign tweet and a moral disapproval without any consequent legal and punitive action against those cyber bullies, not to speak of exposing their ideological roots. This is absolutely unacceptable and amounts to playing into the hands of the terrorist design.