The phenomenal success of The Kashmir Files has not gone down well with a section of the so-called secularists who appear to be unhappy with the choice of the subject for the movie and its portrayal of the plight of Kashmiri pandits whose exodus from the valley remains one of the biggest tragedies of the country in the post-Partition era.
Political parties also remain divided over the issue, with Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal taking a dig at the BJP for trying to politicize the issue and seeking to divide the country along communal lines by making the film tax-free in the states ruled by the party. Responding to calls for making ‘The Kashmir Files’ tax-free in Delhi, the AAP boss suggested that the government should upload the movie on YouTube instead and make it free for all.
State BJP leaders have hit back, accusing Kejriwal of not only trying to extract political mileage out of the issue but also crossing all limits of political decency by making such a suggestion. Many people have also questioned the factual accuracy of the film that is based on the plight of Kashmiri Pandits who were driven out of the valley following a wave of terror attacks.
The Opposition has termed the film one-sided and too violent at the same time. They have also accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of taking the help of the film to polarize the voters of the country. The Prime Minister, referring to the response to ‘The Kashmir Files’, had said that the film rattled the “entire ecosystem” that claims to be the torchbearer of freedom of expression but does not want the truth to be told.
The truth is that the Kashmir Files is based upon the killing of Kashmiri pandits who had to quit the valley, which was their home, and live like refugees in places around the country and beyond. The pain of the massacre that the terrorists perpetrated to drive them en masse out of the valley persists. While most of the so-called secular parties of the country, including Congress, have displayed so much sympathy for displaced members of other communities and there has been a persistent campaign to appease a certain section of a community that serves as a vote bank, the voice of Kashmiri pandits was never heard.
Over the years, so many films have been made on terrorism and the plight of Kashmiri Muslims. Most of these films look at the Kashmiris with sympathy but hardly anyone ever tried to portray the plight of Kashmiri pandits on celluloid because this was unlikely to fetch votes. The makers of the Kashmir Files must be congratulated for highlighting a subject that had been wrongfully tabooed in the country’s political circles for a long time, as well as for treating the subject with a lot of empathy. The success of the film, instead of evoking jealousy, should be hailed.
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