Backstory | In These Post-Pahalgam Times of Multiple Partitions, Will Media Do the Right Thing?

Abdul Waheed Bhat died on April 30, 2025, even as skirmishes broke out on the border between India and Pakistan. His end recalls the death of Bishan ‘Toba Tek’ Singh – the protagonist of Saadat Hasan Manto’s timeless short story, ‘Toba Tek Singh’, set against the backdrop of Partition.

Both Bhat and his fictional counterpart are designated as “illegals”, doomed to die in no man’s land. Both were taken to a place they did not wish to go. Bhat breathed his last in a bus stationed outside the gate of the Integrated Check Post in Attari. His visa had lapsed in 1980 and he may have continued living peacefully in Srinagar if the Union Ministry of Home Affairs had not instructed all Pakistani nationals staying illegally to leave India by April 27, 2025. Something similar happened to Toba Tek Singh. 

In Manto’s telling: “At Wagah…after the initial formalities were out of the way, the actual transfer began…When the guards threatened to use force, he (Toba Tek Singh) installed himself in a place between the borders and stood there as if no power in the world could move him.” He finally lay lifeless “on a stretch of land which had no name.” 

Manto revisited this theme in another short story, ‘The Dog of Tithwal’, caught between the armies of India and Pakistan, in which the dog is finally killed in the crossfire between the two sides. Ordinary lives have no chance of survival amidst the whiffs of grapeshot unleashed by warring armies.

Life mimics fiction, often enough, which is why we need to read our writers of fiction carefully in order to understand realities that escape the common eye, or even the trained eye of the journalist. Today, in this fraught period after the heinous attack on Indian tourists at Pahalgam on April 22, we need more than ever the inner eye of the novelist, the short story writer, the poet. 

It perhaps is no accident that Manto was both a journalist and a writer of fiction. Partition was the backdrop of some of his most powerful writing and he made full use of the ironies and the loss of identities it threw up. His writings have a lot to tell us about Partition and how it birthed and continues to birth ever-newer partitions. In today’s India, when we are living through multiple partitions, perhaps we read more carefully this man who was born in Ludhiana district and who died in Lahore.

So the question arises will the media do the right thing in these post-Pahalgam times. Doing the “right thing” has at least three dimensions. The first, of course, is the investigation into what went wrong on April 22. What became of the agencies required to secure the lives of Indians and their chain of command? A reader of the The Wire who wrote in has asked hard-nosed questions about the role, or rather the non-role of the Indian security forces (see the ‘Readers Write In’ section). 

The second dimension is a similar question but now pointed to the Prime Minister and the Union home minister who have thus far been drawing enormous political capital by flogging two major tropes: “we have solved the Kashmir issue” and “the number of tourists coming into Kashmir is a sign of normalcy in the Valley”. 

Both tropes collapsed once those gunshots rang out in the Baisaran meadow, but mainstream media forgot to ask some searching questions about them, or at least raise them in their reportage. The Wire is among the handful which chose not to forget.

The third dimension is the question whether the media spent enough effort to process the experiences of the survivors in a granular way at a time when it was possible to talk to them at length – that opportunity has passed since they have now returned to their respective homes.  

Some conversations did make it to the mainstream but notice the manner in which they were handled, especially by news channels. Those that furthered the favoured narrative of communal division were promoted while those that did not were quickly shut down. The case of Himanshi Narwal was particularly striking. She made it to national attention through the force of circumstance. It was her photograph seated next to the body of her slain husband that came to symbolise the dastardly nature of Pahalgam attack. 

The media trailed her consistently unlike most others. They captured the way in which the Delhi chief minister consoled her, and the way she broke down at the Karnal funeral of her husband Lieutenant Vinay Narwal.

But things went awry when the courageous young woman decided to speak her mind. 

According to a report in The Hindu, Ms Narwal told the media during a blood donation camp organised on her late husband’s birthday that the family wanted peace: “I don’t want any hatred towards anybody. The people going against the Muslims and Kashmiris, we don’t want this. We want peace and only peace.” 

Her words were inspiring and particularly healing at a time when attacks on Kashmiris were being reported across the country. The wife of a former admiral of the Navy, Lalita Ramdas, wrote to her, “I am so proud of you as I watch the clip of your words to the press, over and over again. Your extraordinary strength, composure and conviction when you speak out against hate and targeting of Muslims and Kashmiris after the horrific killing of so many innocent men in Pahalgam on the 22nd is truly remarkable. And so badly needed in our times” 

Also read: Lalita Ramdas Praises Himanshi Narwal For Speaking Against Targeting of Muslims and Kashmiris

But Himanshi was also the target of unimaginably ugly tweets after she made those public comments. The digital bilge that came her way should have triggered a thorough media expose on who exactly these monsters were who could hound a young, grieving woman. Sadly, only a few online portals were up for the task.

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Why the new Digital Personal Data Protection Act could damage Indian journalism 

In 1993, May 3 was designated as the World Press Day. So, today is the right moment for us to hit the pause button in order to understand the various challenges that Indian journalism is currently facing.  

Every day, we are confronted with the disturbing reality that the ground under their feet is shrinking. The terrorist attacks at Pahalgam, and their aftermath, have led to a concerted assault on freedom of speech and expression. One news channel, 4PM, has been banned for raising uncomfortable questions, while two of India’s most courageous women satirists have had FIRs lodged against them: Neha Singh Rathore, a Bhojpuri singer who has over time emerged as a much loved critic of the ruling establishment; and Madri Kakoti, an assistant professor at Lucknow University, better known by her comedic nomenclature, Dr Medusa.  

The other very unfortunate development is the use of legislative enactments to freeze speech.  A recent instance of this was the introduction of the rules governing the Digital Personal Data Protection Act (DPDP Act), 2023. They are full of potential potholes, especially for investigative journalists, as transparency activists like Anjali Bhardwaj and Amrita Johri, and lawyers invested in freedom of speech issues like Apar Gupta have pointed out. 

Under the pretext of protecting “personal information”, this Act amends the Right to Information Act (RTI) of 2005. The point to note is that Section 8(1) of the original RTI Act already prevents anyone seeking personal information which has “no relationship to any public activity or interest”. But now that section has been amended to mean that any information which can be classified as “personal” cannot be accessed. There is no exception for journalists either.

In other words, it would be impossible for an investigative journalist to do a story on, say, who the real donors in the electoral bonds scheme were, because it would be deemed as violating the right of these individuals to  keep their personal information from becoming public. If journalists want to know more about who the beneficiaries of large write-offs of loans by public banks are, they will not be able to get that information. 

There are other provisions of the DPDP Act that are equally disturbing. Under these rules, journalists will be deemed as “data fiduciaries” and would be obliged to take permission from those they are investigating to use their data. If this is not done, they could end up being penalised by a special Data Protection Board, set up by the government under this Act, which has the power to impose stringent fines running in several crores. 

If this sounds absurd, well, it is. Journalists, once these rules come into force, will be reduced to being ciphers, forced to only publish material that the government allows them to publish. 

Meanwhile, even as journalists are being prevented from doing their job of fact finding and information gathering, the government is giving itself more and more powers to access personal data. Section 17(2) of the DPDP Act specifically states that “the provisions of this Act shall not apply in respect of the processing of personal data by such instrumentality of the State as the Central Government may notify…” 

Bhardwaj put it well during a recent public meeting, “This is no data protection law but more like a corruption protection law.”

On World Press Day, journalists everywhere in the country need to understand the full implications of this law and ensure that these rules are jettisoned and the Act amended to exempt journalists from its provisions.

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Readers write in…

Pahalgam attacks

Apropos the Pahalgam attacks (April 27), George Ninan writes…

“Fascinating that nobody seems to be asking what ever happened to the presence in the Valley and its encircling hills, viz. on either side of the Pir Panjal range, of 63 infantry battalions of the internal security Rashtriya Rifles, organised into 13 area, sub-area brigade groups; one army corps (15 corps) with its divisions, brigades deployed on the border, besides the corps with its divisions for Ladakh (14 corps), ditto the corps for Jammu (16 corps); border security force formations, battalions; CRPF and other gendarmerie armed constabularies; state police constabulary; all the military intelligence that could be wished for and more, RAW operations; IB operations; and the permanent civil service with decades of on the ground experience.

“For internal security the unit of deployment is a rifle company (just as for defence the unit of deployment is a battalion; for attack it is a brigade; for advance, a division at the very least). Hence the 63 battalions translate to 250 rifle companies for deployment by the G branch of Northern Command, Udhampur (the army group responsible for the front). in a conventional infantry battalion there would be three rifle companies and one support weapons (recoilless cannons, heavy mortars, heavy machine guns) whereas for internal security (IS duties) the support weapons being an overkill would be replaced by another rifle company. Are we to understand that with 250 rifle companies available the planners at Northcom G branch did not see fit to establish piquets, patrol points for Gulmarg, Sonamarg, Pahalgam, Bhaderwah (the most popular tourist spots). So what were our faujis doing if not being boots on the ground?

“Or has the malaise of the Indian military taken hold in the Rashtriya Rifles too? The command tenure is for two years, and on this depends the next promotion to brigadier. So every prudent battalion commanding officer ensures a zero-defect tenure, and the brigade too expects this of him. Don't stick your neck out, lie low, have a smooth tenure, don't look for trouble. But isn't that what a soldier is paid to do? Look for trouble, look for things that have to be done, be one step ahead of the enemy? Chess and Go players do this, why not our faujis?

“Our faujis are notorious for not getting out and going on a walkabout, to use military parlance, patrol. If patrolling had been the norm at the heights overlooking Kargil, then the Gilgit Scouts (now the Northern Light infantry) would not have been able to build bunkers of reinforced concrete with impregnable gun positions that required depleted uranium tipped projectiles (collected post haste from Tel Aviv at premium prices) to neutralise them. Such bunkers would have taken six months to build. Ditto Galwan, where of the 65 patrolling points our faujis had for unconscionably long periods omitted to touch base at 26 of them. Today it is occupied by China’s PLA. So why do they get military service pay, high altitude allowance, risk allowance, surely not to chomp on pakoras, kebabs, washed down with tea, whiskey? At Kargil the battalion at Battalik was tasked with trapping wildlife for a zoological park the faujis were setting up at Kargil town. Besides the brigade staff had been deputed to Udhampur for organising a golf tournament. 

“Surely it is not the role and function of the cabinet committee for security (CCS), or the MoD, to superintend the deployments; nor for that matter of the CDS, COAS, Military Ops Directorate, Military Intelligence Directorates at Sena Bhavan. 

“Did nobody in the general staff of the brigades, divisions, corps, command, ever complete a military appreciation and point out the vulnerabilities, list the options, and advise their commanders. So what do they teach them at DSSC, Wellington? Surely not to cheat and fudge as has been recorded in painful detail 

(https://www.stimson.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/TheWellingtonExperience-SA-100820-WEB.pdf)”

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On behalf of the members of South Asians for Human Rights (SAHR), Dr P. Saravanamuttu and Sushil Pyakurel, bureau members of SAHR write in…

South Asians for Human Right (SAHR), a regional network of Human Rights Defenders vehemently condemns the terrorist attack against 26 tourists in Pahalgam on 22 April 2025. 

As a result of the recent terror attack, the response of the government of India has been swift and critical: They include among others, the suspension of India’s participation of Indus Water Treaty of 1960, paving way to curtailing the water flow of the three western rivers of the Indus basin into Pakistan; immediate closure of Attari -Wagah border, the main border point of the two countries; and the cancellation of SAARC Visa Exemption Scheme (SVES) granted to Pakistani nationals. Pakistan also has set up countermeasures regarding the same. SAHR notes that all these actions upon the occurrence of the act of terrorism have severely deprived the rights and freedoms of the people of Pakistan and India and their effects inevitably spilled over to the region compromising the peace in South Asia.

SAHR resolutely advocates for thorough and impartial investigation into this incident to disclose the perpetrators.  Consequently, it strongly urges the governments of India and Pakistan to act cautiously with prudence to diffuse the ongoing tension immediately; while keeping in mind their unwavering adherence to the international obligations to ensure the rights and freedoms of the people. As nations possessing nuclear power in the region, it is the duty of these two nations to make an untiring effort to maintain peace and harmony in the region.

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The Gujarat point

Karthik on ‘It's Not Surprising J.D. Vance Went to Akshardham – But Before Modi, it Would Have Been’ (April 23)…

“The piece mentions Advani as "Gujarat born".  He wasn't.  He was born on 8 November 1927 in Karachi, in British India.  And the founder of BAPS, Sahajanand Swamiji, was born in 1882 under Bombay Presidency rule, not in present day Gujarat. 

My response: The reference  to L.K. Advani being Gujarat born was corrected shortly after publication and let us remember the Bombay Presidency did encompass present day Gujarat so that perhaps can be classified as a fine point.

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Questions over Waqf properties and Muslim rights

Crowly Mathew from Kannur district, Kerala, has this to say: 

“This is with reference to the piece entitled, ‘Waqf Bill Passage Proves Indian Muslims are Political Orphans’ (April 11). The piece observes that "Mob lynchings in the name of cow protection, harassment under various bogeys such as love jihad, corona jihad have met with silence from those in government".  As far as I understand the amendment of the Bill does not do any harm to the Waqf Board. All it does is to block false claims to properties sought to be acquired as Waqf property.”

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Firthous Abbas Ibrahim, treasurer and chief representative of the United Nations India Thowheed Jamaath Trust, Chennai, sent us this submission his organization made before the UNHCR:

“We are writing to share a matter of significant concern involving the recently passed Waqf Amendment Bill, which, in our view, poses serious implications for the rights of religious minorities in India, particularly the Muslim community. As an organization holding Special Consultative Status with ECOSOC at the United Nations, INTJ has officially submitted a detailed communication to the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCHR), urging intervention and international scrutiny of this legislation. Our letter outlined the potential threats the amendment presents to Waqf properties, minority rights, and religious freedom in India. We believe this issue deserves public attention and transparent debate, and we respectfully request your esteemed publication to consider highlighting this development in your columns.

Our organization remains committed to peaceful advocacy, legal redress, and international cooperation to safeguard constitutional rights and communal harmony.

Write to ombudsperson@thewire.in

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