Special Correspondent: A video that went viral on social media) shows a Kashmiri Muslim man, working as a pony/horse rider for Indian Hindu yatris, being harassed and pressured to chant the slogan ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’ by a Hindutva group of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) members disguised as yatris on their way to the Baba Budha Amarnath and Shiv Khori shrines in Jammu region of Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir.
The Kashmiri pony/Horse rider in the video is heard saying clearly: ‘Main Musalman hoon, theek hai, main nahi bol sakta (I am a Muslim; I cannot say it).’
The group, according to the video, pressuring him includes Nakul Chaudhary, identified in the clip as a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) members and Vibhag Sangathan Mantri/divisional organisational secretary of the Hindutva Bajrang Dal.
In the first clip, when the pony/ Horse rider refuses to chant, a member of the group asks: “Toh Musalmaan ‘Bharat Mata ki Jai’ nahi bolega (So a Muslim won’t say Long Live Mother India)?”. A local police officer posted on yatra duty is seen intervening to de-escalate the argument.
Another yatri is heard saying, “Yaar, jo maksad ke liye aaye ho woh pura karo yaar. Kis maksad ke liye aaye ho (Fulfil the purpose for which you have come).” To this, members of the RSS group reply, Hindutva Hindu slogan “Bharat Mata ki Jai bolne (to say Bharat Mata ki Jai).”
In a second video from the same location, the same group is seen targeting the Kashmiri horse rider again, saying: “Hinduo se paisa kama raha hai aur Bharat Mata ki Jai bolne se darta hai (He is making money from Hindus, yet he is afraid to say ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’)?”
Throughout, the member is seen repeatedly asking the group to let him do his work and refusing to comply.
The Budha Amarnath Yatra to the Baba Budha Amarnath Temple in Poonch and the Shiv Khori cave shrine in Reasi are yatris in the Jammu region, held annually in August-September. Like the Amarnath Yatra in Kashmir valley, these Hindu yatras are heavily dependent on local Kashmiri Muslims who work as ponywallahs, porters, guides, drivers and shopkeepers. Kashmiri Muslims have been “part and parcel” of facilitating Indian Hindu yatris in the region for centuries, a tradition often cited as an example of Kashmiriyat, the syncretic cultural ethos of the Valley. However, in the present India under Narendra Modi, Hindutva gangs are sent to occupied Kashmir in the guise of yatris as part of the BJP regime’s policies to distort the Muslim majority outlook of the occupied territory.