Article 370 Movie: A Cinematic Expression of BJP’s Kashmir Policy
The Article 370 movie, which had its theatrical release on 23 February 2024 is a cinematic expression of the BJP’s vision of its Kashmir policy. Read More
The Article 370 movie, which had its theatrical release on 23 February 2024, is a cinematic expression of the BJP’s vision of its Kashmir policy.
Just, like the movie 'Uri: The Surgical Strike 'which was released in January 2019, the new movie Article 370 has also come ahead of the 2024 General Elections. The purpose of both the movies is to brainwash the Hindu voters in a bid to make them vote for the BJP in the upcoming Lok Sabha Polls.
The film Article 370 seems to be made in a hurry to persuade the people of the country that the BJP government is right in its decision to abrogate the Article 370 on August 5, 2019.
Film Plot
The movie weaves the narrative that back-channel diplomacy and other methods of negotiating with the separatists and the double agents are outdated policies, and as such the BJP is embarking on a brand new muscular policy to deal with the problems in Kashmir even if that means overriding the democratic and constitutional way of governance.
The film Article 370 does little to depict Kashmiris as human, and instead portrays the people living in Kashmir and its leadership as opportunists who use Article 370 as a pretext to milk the holy cow that is Bharat for their aggrandisements.
The film dramatized its parts to demonize the Kashmiri people and its leadership to score brownie points. Raj Zutshi, who plays a political figure, is depicted in a villainy caricature and shown as a cross between Farooq and Omar Abdullah.
Similarly, Divya Seth portrays Mehbooba Mufti as a manipulative monster while Arun Govil, who plays the Prime Minister, and Kiran Karmarkar, the Home Minister, are the good guys.
Takeaways from the Movie
Upfront, there are a few takeaways from the movie. First, while democracy is sacrosanct for India; its denial to the people of Kashmir is the new official line of the BJP government.
The second takeaway is that the land of Kashmir is more important than the people of the valley. The effort is to hammer the point that the land of Kashmir is an integral part of India and not its people.
The third takeaway is that all the political leaders in the Kashmir Valley are anti-national. They have links with the anti-India forces. They are Kashmiri first and not Indian.
The movie depicts that the ethnic and religious identities of the people should be secondary, and their primary loyalty should be to Bharat.
The fourth takeaway is that the Article 370 is the main source of separatism in the Kashmir Valley, and as such has to be removed, if Kashmir is to be freed from its siege within.
The fifth takeaway is neither the people of Kashmir nor Pakistan matters in the BJP’s vision of its Kashmir policy. The message given through the movie is, that New Delhi is prepared for a Gaza-like retribution in Kashmir and is ready to give an Israel-like response.
The movie tries to assure the Hindutva constituency that the BJP government has the wherewithal to brace for the Pakistani nuclear attack, as well as the Chinese nukes, even if that means periling India to a nuclear catastrophe.
These ideas are illustrated in an important scene after the Burhan Wani encounter when a senior Indian security officer says not to return the body of the alleged terrorist or his belongings to his family...
It leaves the audience to think about whether the land of Kashmir is important or the people who are considered terrorists by the Indian state.
The sixth takeaway is about the Kashmiri Pandit's grudge against the corrupt political leadership of Kashmir which comes out explicitly in this movie. The film peddles the story that Kashmiri Muslims are against the Kashmiri Hindus and the BJP government must set things right in their favor.
As such the protagonist Zooni Haksar, (Yami Gautam) a spy of the Delhi government, leads an operation in Kashmir and lays the groundwork for abrogation of the Article 370.
The next takeaway is that the BJP government is right to rule Kashmir even at the point of gun. It also endorses that Delhi Durbar’s centralization of power at the expense of constitutional morality of federalism is right while dealing with Kashmir.
The film talks about the business of terrorism to expose the nexus of the separatists and the local political leadership.
However, there is no attempt to see Delhi’s role in this matrix, particularly the BJP-PDP alliance where the former first chose to be the partner in the crime. Later, when this pragmatic approach caused a slip in the Hindu vote bank, the ruling party tried to get around the problem by abrogating Article 370.
The film mocks Jawaharlal Nehru’s alliance with Sheikh Abdullah but keeps mum why Narendra Modi chose to have a coalition government People’s Democratic Party, knowing well that Mufti and Mehbooba have links with the terrorists.
The official narrative of the abrogation of Article 370 talks about changing the old ecosystem but does not give any thought to what has changed after the abrogation of Article 370.
Contrary to the official narrative, a huge gulf has been created between the people of Kashmir and the rest of India. In Kashmir Valley, democracy, human rights, judiciary, and the entire land have been steamrolled by state repression since the abrogation of Article 370.
So instead of solving the problem, abrogation of Article 370, has created many more that will take a long time to heal even if a new policy is brought in place.
The icing on the cake is, that Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his talk show ‘Man ki Baat’ has endorsed the movie Article 370 asking the countrymen to watch this film as it highlights the achievements of the BJP rule.
Earlier, the Prime Minister also had words of praise for the movie Kashmir Files and The Kerala Story.
[The writer, Syed Ali Mujtaba, is a journalist based in Chennai. He can be contacted at syedalimujtaba2007@gmail.com]
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