The strange case of Zaira Wasim's deleted Facebook posts

We live in the age where tweets, Instagram posts and Facebook status updates have taken over as news. Often, it is mindless celebrity gossip and random tripe, but occasionally it leads to something more troubling.

The case of Dangal star Zaira Wasim falls under the latter. The 16-year-old Kashmiri actor, who played the role of Geeta Phogat in the critically-acclaimed Dangal, put up a message on several social media platforms apologising for "offending and displeasing people" with her recent actions and meetings with certain people.

Her post led to massive speculation, with many reactions arriving at the conclusion that Wasim was being trolled for having recently met Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Mehbooba Mufti. Many in the Valley see Mufti as a traitor for being the face of the BJP-PDP alliance.

There are plenty of other reasons (some very valid ones) for both nationalists and “separatists” to dislike Mufti, but troubling a 16-year-old child for having met the state’s chief minister is no way to go about it.

After her apology note went viral on social media and national TV channels, Wasim deleted it from all platforms and replaced it with another note that said that she wasn’t being pressured into writing an apology. In this post, which has since been deleted, Wasim says, “This post was not meant against anyone, just wanted to make sure that people were not hurt by what I was doing."

While Wasim is right in complaining about unwanted media attention (things, quite often, do get blown out of proportion on national news), the subtext of her posts reeks of fear.

Kashmir has, after all, been in the eye of a storm of violence for quite some time. Separatists have been known to attack anyone they believe is against their ideology.

Filmmaker Vivek Agnihotri of Buddha in a Traffic Jam and Chocolate fame too tweeted about being threatened in Kashmir. He wrote, “Last year, I was shooting with Yami Gautam and other Kashmiri girls in valley; they came armed to kill those girls. This is the reality of Kashmir”.

His claim, though unsubstantiated, seems all too plausible.

Wasim’s Facebook posts may be a peek into the lives of many Kashmiris who, for no fault of their own, may irk separatists/militants, and bear the brunt of it.

TheQuint reported about the kind of abuse Wasim seems to have been receiving on Facebook comments. From her fraternising with Mehbooba Mufti, to acting in a Bollywood production, Wasim has been trolled by several people. The comments range from calling her un-Islamic, to being downright derogatory.

It's shameful that people have nothing better to do than to bully a 16-year-old-child in the name of religion and what some think should be the ideal political philosophy for anyone in/from Kashmir.  

Also read - Why Dangal star Zaira Wasim meeting Mehbooba Mufti was made a big deal