Pit Bull Brahmin nationalist Aarti Tikoo Singh tweeted this petulant & pathetic post linking George Floyd protesters to Kashmiris: “Jihadi stone-pelters in Kashmir have finally made it! Inspired by THE award-winning pictures, now their Antifa buddies are pelting stones on security forces even outside the White House. Next year, please give Pulitzer to photographers for the best pictures on RIOTING in DC.”
Guess those Pulitzer awards to Kashmiri photojournalists really got her goat for exposing the occupation with such direct & honest power. Many Kashmiris who were/are under lockdown will not remember her testimony at the US Congressional hearings on Kashmir in October 2019 where she presumed to ‘speak for the people of Kashmir’, cynically defended the occupation using human rights language, & linked the Kashmiri struggle against colonialism & occupation with ‘Pakistani-sponsored terrorism’. Unfortunately for her, she shared the panel with Kashmiri scholar Nitasha Kaul & Indian scholar Angana Chatterji who is an uncompromising supporter of Kashmiri freedom. Counterposing Indian propaganda to the cogent testimonies of Kaul & Chatterji was a blunder. Singh made such a shabby showing at the presentations that she later denounced them as “prejudiced, biased, a setup against India & in favor of Pakistan”.
What is important about her recent tweet is its tacit acknowledgement that Kashmiris now play an international role in the struggle against racism & colonialism & also her racist association of civil rights protesters in the US with terrorism. She sounds like Trump. A journalist (so-called) of so little restraint doesn’t serve Indian propaganda very well, especially when it has so little to work with to justify colonialism in Kashmir & the persecution of Muslims in India.
This photo is a masked Kashmiri stone pelter at a protest in Srinagar on May 31, 2019, just a couple months before the complete lockdown of Kashmir on August 5th, 2019. It is part of the series by Dar Yasin which won the Pulitzer. Singh is right in one regard: the Kashmiri protester does exhibit the same courage as civil rights protesters in the US & is an inspiration to the oppressed around the world.
US Congressional hearings on Kashmir, October, 2019: