Rana Ayyub: An Epitome Of Bravery

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While I’m writing this, Rana Ayyub might be distributing relief packages and serving the poor, helpless and needy somewhere in India. She is not just a journalist but a humanitarian and an activist par human rights defender. She is fearless, brave and staunch democratic advocate. Since covid lockdown, rana ayub has travelled thousands of miles, visited thousands of homes and fed lakhs of people. For millions in India, she is not less than goddess. Recently she was threatened on social media, receiving multiple rape and murder threats from anonymous parody accounts. She is Gauri Lankesh in making. These threats never diluted her attire of speaking truth and demanding justice. She has been the leading figure in India, who incessantly opposed NRC, she was highly active during Delhi riots that happened over NRC protests. She authored the book, Gujarat files :anatomy of a cover up. In her book, Rana Ayyub documented the verbatim transcripts of recordings, made using a concealed recording device, of many bureaucrats and police officers of Gujarat. The recordings were made in the course of an undercover investigation to reveal the views of bureaucrats and police officers on the post-2002 Gujarat riots and Police encounter killings. Ayyub had been posing as ‘Maithili Tyagi’, a student of the American Film Institute, having an ideological affinity for the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh’s beliefs, to enable her to make the recordings. Through the convulsive evidence of her book, Amit Shah, current home minister of India had to face investigation and and was sent to jail.

To honour and respect the one, who speaks truth and stands for the cause of humanity and against the injustice, is well inherited trait of the people living in Kashmir . When it comes to the quantum of trust and faith, the people here have reposed faith and generally honour and respect the most prominent voice, an internationally acclaimed author “Miss Rana Ayub“. With the advent and accelerated foray of social media, the people here have absorbed it progressively, keeping their fingers on the digital software and are acquianted with the happenings in the rest of the world . My observational analysis, as I have interpreted the same, I must say that people dwelling here are very close to miss Ayyub , people living here mark her every word, she utters, listen passionately, whatever she speaks. Not a surprise at all, I have seen people thronging to bookshops here in Kashmir, searching for RanaAyyub’s book , her articles on Washington Post . People here are often seen quoting miss Rana Ayyub.

Over the years, the social dynamics of Kashmir has changed and has imbibed varied strata of mobilising attributes, and the narrative has shifted from being more conserved  to progressive liberalisation. The same is evident from the phenotype of young people, they choose to wear, whatever they want, they speak their choices,they don’t like to be caged,the young females here dream to be exactly like miss Rana Ayyub . If you will check the Facebook content of the youth,  I am sure you will get the pictures and qoutes of Rana Ayyub ,posted on their timeline and this very particular onset eventually speaks volumes of her acceptance in Kashmir . The people here keep a close watch on rana ayub , even most people desperately wait for her vedios and when she inks.

From the very beginning, Rana Ayyub has been the champion of equity, equality and the staunch advocate of democracy. She has stood against the atrocities being inflicted on Kashmir people, not only this, infact multiple times she resisted this kinda political manoeuvre. Whether it be her literature, her columns, her debates, her conferences, she sticks to the attire of Kashmiris and eventually displays the catarhall of problems that are encroaching the dignity and chastity of Kashmiris. Well it won’t be wrong to say that her life and her words are centered on rising extremism in India, in general and the sentiments of Kashmiris in particular. She has been the strong advocate of demilitarisation and giving the Kashmir their right to self determination. All this narration and her acts to strengthen the voice of Kashmir has eventually dragged her into a political juggernaut. While most extremists call her a traitor, leaving only fever to admire her. Their has been immense campaign against her, the plethora of Indian people and the hyper nationalist media have labelled her anti_nationalist. And you know why?because she voices the miseries of Kashmir and turns her to be the most generous, most admirable, and most lovable people for common Kashmiri people. She has unequivocally condemned the enforced disappearances that surface in valley, she has ardently raised the issues of custodial killings that continue in valley, she has drawn her repercussions on AFSPA and its prejudiced and unethical use to suppress the dissent

Well, when it comes to the majority Muslims of Kashmir, their is a general consensus of dislike when it comes to Narendra Modi. Now you might ask the question, why is it so? There are umbrella reasons for this disagreement with Narendra Modi. Whenever this name comes to the mind of common Kashmiri, the first thing that revives in the memory lane is “the episode of Gujarat riots, where thousands of Muslims where killed mercilessly and women were raped ruthlessly and several homes were abandoned. All this happened during the reign of Narendra Modi and Kashmiris generally hold Narendra Modi responsible for this carnage. There are many other issues like the abrogation of Article 35A and ram mandir issues that contribute towards this factor. Now Rana Ayyub has been vocal critic of Narendra Modi, so openly and honestly that even at certain occasions, she didn’t hesitate to call Narendra Modi a fascist and a killer. She has quite relentlessly spoken about Gujarat riots and has alleged Narendra Modi for the same. Their is an evident resemblance of ideas between Kashmiri people and Rana Ayyub on these aspects and this eventually turns Rana Ayyub to be the most accepted author, and more as a truthful human.

TAWFEEQ IRSHAD MIR, ORGANISING MEMBER KASHMIR LAW CIRCLE, MEMBER JKIFTS, FREELANCE WRITER, BASED IN SOPORE TOWN OF KASHMIR, CAN BE REACHED AT :[email protected]


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