Sharing which information makes you secular and sharing which information makes you communal?

In a span of 24 hours I came across two videos on Twitter.

In one video there is a Kashmiri-Pandit woman explaining in detail how Hindus in Kashmir were murdered, slaughtered and raped and then eventually chased out of the valley. It’s a bloodcurdling video.

Here is a Twitter update with the video.

Then today early in the morning, I came across a video of allegedly right-wing hooligans beating up a Kashmiri roadside vendor somewhere in Uttar Pradesh. Although the culprits have been promptly arrested by Yogi Adityanath’s administration, it’s a disturbing video.

My wife sent me the Kashmiri woman’s video as a DM because no matter how heart-wrenching it is, it can be deemed as inflammatory.

But in the same vein, sharing the video of some hooligans beating up a Kashmiri roadside vendor can also be deemed as inflammatory because it can incite a backlash not just in Kashmir but also in Muslim-majority areas.

All mainstream journalists and left-liberals by now have shared the second video and expressed outrage, though, the culprits have been arrested, as mentioned above.

Soon you will read articles in the New York Times, Washington Post and other liberal newspapers in India describing how, due to a Hindu extremist government at the Centre, Muslims in general and Kashmiris in particular are being targeted. Someone may even say that they are being chased in the streets and killed routinely. Abdullahs and Muftis will issue clarion calls and will try to prove to the world look how Muslims in general and Kashmiris in particular are being victimized in Hindu-dominated India.

Whether the arrested people are actually right-wing hooligans or they were simply pretending to be from the right wing will be revealed sooner or later, I was just wondering, what prompts one to share one video and ignore the other?

I’m pretty sure most of the people who have shared and outraged against this video of a Kashmiri being roughed up also came across the video of that Kashmiri Hindu woman who narrates the horrible period when Hindus in Kashmir went through indescribable conditions.

As a neutral person who wants to highlight something terrible going on in the country, I have no problem sharing both the videos.

Even if I share both the videos, I will be considered communal if I share the woman’s video and a secular if I share the other video.

If I share the woman’s video I will be accused of spreading hatred.

But if I share the Kashmiri man’s video people will appreciate the gesture.

You won’t find articles in the New York Times, Washington Post and even in the liberal Indian media on the ordeals of that woman.

What happened to the Kashmiri woman and thousands of Hindus in the Kashmir Valley (I’m just talking about the recent future and not about hundreds of years of persecution of indigenous Hindus in Asia) is a civilisational atrocity and if I feel like talking about it, and raging about it and demanding for answers, I should be able to do it without guilt, without being branded as a right-wing extremist trying to incite hatred towards minorities.

Similarly, if I find the conduct of those alleged right-wing hooligans beating up an innocent roadside Kashmiri vendor, I should be able to express my anger without the danger of being labelled as left-lib sympathiser and contributing to their agenda.