Was the controversy over IC 814 created to hide the failures of the Vajpayee government?

Harinder Baweja : How difficult is it to create outrage? It’s quite easy, in fact, if you have a troll army willing to sideline facts and use propaganda as a potent weapon. It’s even easier if you’re the head of the BJP’s national information and technology department. Amit Malviya did just that when he/she tweeted on X soon after the series on the hijacking of IC 814 from Kathmandu to Kandahar released on Netflix. Always vocal on anything related to Hindutva, Malviya chose to frame the series in a Hindu-Muslim binary.

One tweet sparked outrage

he/she tweeted that the hijackers of IC 814 were dreaded terrorists who had adopted fake names to hide their Muslim identity. Filmmaker Anubhav Sinha legitimized their criminal intent by forwarding their non-Muslim names. The result? Decades later, people will think Hindus hijacked IC 814. This will not only weaken/question India’s security apparatus in the long run, but also shift the blame from the religious group responsible for all the bloodshed. This tweet created even more outrage on social media. That was its purpose.

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Propaganda became a powerful weapon

There were many voices telling us through sources that the series had hurt ‘religious sentiments’. This hurt led to the Secretary of Information and Broadcasting summoning the Vice President in charge of Netflix’s content. The Secretary probably knew deep down that the controversy was being fanned, while it is well known that the kidnappers used nicknames like ‘Bhola’, ‘Burger’ and ‘Shankar’. These are the names mentioned in the books as well. The government’s own website testifies to this fact, but no, how can facts be allowed to get in the way of propaganda? Yes, propaganda is a powerful weapon.

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The question of hurting religious sentiments

The problem is that it is being used liberally and always in the name of ‘hurting religious sentiments’. Amazon Prime Video had to face the brunt of this when it made a show called Tandav. There was a lot of uproar over ‘misrepresentation’ of gods and goddesses. Again, in the age of social media, where political troll armies come dressed as judge and jury, it is our cultural roots that are getting hurt. The troll armies are determined, selective and quick to get angry only when it suits them. The unnecessary controversy over IC 814: Kandahar hijacking is only the latest example of how attempts are made to ‘hijack’ political narratives by partisan members of the ruling party.

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There have been controversies before

Earlier, famous jewellery brand Tanishq had to withdraw a heart-touching ad. It featured a Muslim family preparing for a traditional baby shower for their pregnant Hindu daughter-in-law. The video ad showed the daughter-in-law getting married into a family that loves her like their own child. This was termed as a case of ‘love jihad’, a propaganda term for inter-religious marriages. Remember another example involving Fabindia, an equally popular ethnic clothing brand? The Hindutva troll army came down straight on them because they had released a collection called ‘Jashn-e-Riwaj’ during Diwali. But no, the celebration of tradition was deemed disrespectful. Fabindia hastily withdrew the ad after being accused of demeaning a Hindu festival.

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Why does selectiveness feel bad?

The unofficial ministry of virtue and sin speaks when it wants and is not afraid to take the side of its political masters. So, when an old man on a train in Maharashtra is scolded and slapped on the mere suspicion that he/she has put beef in the tiffin he/she was carrying to his/her daughter’s house, no one minds. When Muslims are forced to display their names on religious routes, no one minds. Of course, there is only praise when films like Kashmir Files, Kerala Story and Article 370 are not only made but also released at politically convenient times. What right-thinking person does not know that the IC 814 hijacking was planned by the ISI and that Masood Azhar’s brother was among the hijackers?

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Then the Vajpayee government had failed miserably

To me and many others, this artificial outrage was perhaps an attempt to divert attention from the fact that the government led by Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the first BJP PM, had handed over the most dangerous terrorists in exchange for the passengers on board the plane. The government failed on many counts. It did not have intelligence about the possible hijacking. It could not prevent the plane from leaving Indian soil when it landed in Amritsar for refuelling. It was unable to pacify the families of the passengers on board the hijacked plane. Initially it did not consider it necessary to inform them. The briefing session for the families began only when they raised a hue and cry which the government could not ignore.

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Azhar has become an asset for Pakistan

Instead of ignoring the anger and outrage created over the use of the codename, the government should remember that Azhar was so important to both Pakistan and the Taliban that they went to the extent of plotting a kidnapping to free him/her. The 1999 kidnapping is 24 years old, but Azhar remains an asset to Pakistan’s deep state. No one knows this better than National Security Advisor Ajit Doval. he/she was the chief negotiator in Kandahar. he/she knows how difficult it was for the government to bargain. The troll army will move on to look for its next target but security is not an issue that should have been ‘hijacked’ in the first place. IC 814 was hijacked. That is a fact. The controversy around it is clearly disinformation political information.