Why Gautam Gambhir should not speak on Kashmir ? Opinion

A week before a video of a group of Kashmiri youth heckling CRPF jawans has gone viral. There are different interpretations of the clip – on the one hand viewers feel there is commendable restraint by the jawans who are being insulted while others think while the jawans were largely outnumbered at the spot, it was the youths whose resentment of Indian forces is beyond doubt who were displaying restraint, by not beating up the soldiers.

Gautam Gambhir, captain of the IPL team Kolkata Knight Riders, tweeted, “For every slap on my army’s Jawan lay down at least a 100 jihadi lives. Whoever wants Azadi LEAVE NOW! Kashmir is ours. #kashmirbelongs2us”.

 

Gambhir’s tweets are problematic on multiple counts. First,this comment is not from some random troll lurking around the internet in order to threaten and abuse. Gambhir is a celebrated international cricketer with a large fan base across the country and over three million followers on Twitter.

Kashmiri novelist Mirza Waheed, author of acclaimed novels The Book of Golden Leaves and The Collaborator, is on point when he says that such tweets from a “star cricketer” should worry progressive Indians. “More than Kashmiris, it’s progressive India that should worry, and worry a lot, when star cricketers call for mass murder,” the novelist tweeted.

Second, Gambhir’s tweets show that the cricketer – like many other Indians – completely fails to understand the complexities and ground realities of the Kashmir conflict; and wearing his nationalism on his sleeve, he has jumped the Twitter gun.

For more news updates or India news, click to Times Now Live