CHANDIGARGH: The Tribune, an Indian Hindu daily, has been spreading anti-Muslim poison through its columns, Prem Bhatia who writes a weekly column in the daily specializes in highly communalized writings, Bhatia last week disclosed without mentioning any source that “mercenaries from certain Islamic countries other than Pakistan were now actively involved in secessionist at tempts in the Kashmir valley.” He then went on to stale: “These people have to be dealt with in the only way the enemy is treated in the course of war. There can be no human rights reservation in handling an invading enemy, Mercenaries going by the name of infiltrators, whether they come from Pakistan or any other part of the Islamic world, should not only be destroyed but their dead bodies should be put on public display. India must have no compunction in this matter. Let the human rights champions scream in horror. A war is a war whether it is direct or by proxy.”
Bhatia is a typical Indian drawing room reporter. Neither lie nor those who planted the mercenary ies- story on him cared to lay bare any facts on who these so called mercenaries were and to which Islamic country or countries they belonged. Nor had any specific particulars of an alleged mercenary been revealed. Bhatia and his wirepullers know that any such details are dangerous and are likely to expose their self-serving myths. Bhatia’s writing represents the typical Hindu war of propaganda against the people of Kashmir in particular and the Indian Muslims in general. Through him the Indian intelligence agencies have tried to whitewash their crimes as a mere reaction against the supposed foreign aggression on India.
Bhatia had written along identical lines against Sikhs some time ago. The only difference in that case was that no foreign mercenaries were mentioned. Bhatia’s theme then, as at present, was that Sikh militants should be destroyed whether through genuine or fake encounters and that no quarter need be given to human rights activists. Bhatia personally represents the typical Punjabi Hindu fascist fringe which is the other name for the Indian state. This fringe effectively controls The Tribune. Bhatia as an authentic spokesman of the fringe is allowed to continue his weekly column in The Tribune even after seven years of retirement from the newspaper, Bhatia has the support of the newspaper’s general manager S.D.Bhambni who is de facto editor in chief. The latter has sidelined the newspaper’s official editor in chief V.N.Naryanan, according to insiders. Meanwhile, most Hindus praised Bhatia’s call to destroy Muslims, Marxist Communist Party of India politburo member Jagjit Singh Lyallpur in a letter to the newspaper strongly protested against Bhatia’s article as highly objectionable. Lyallpuri deplored Bhatia’s plea for display of dead bodies as barbaric and an attempt at subjugating the people of Kashmir through such barbarism, Lyallpuri also condemned Bhatia for suspecting the loyalty of all Indian Muslims to India and observed that Bhatia’s article had spread anti-Muslim poison.
Article extracted from this publication >> September 24, 1993
