Anti-Establishment To Pro-Establishment: The Shehla Rashid Journey (image:instagram.com/shehla_shora)
In the wake of Israel Hamas war, Shehla Rashid, former Vice-President of JNU Students Union and human rights activist, credited PM Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah for the “bloodless” political solution in Kashmir. Her opinion evoked surprise and headlines, because, once a staunch critic of PM Modi-led Centre and of the authoritarian politics is “singing hymns about good governance”.
Her shift, precisely a U-turn came to public notice when she and IAS officer Shah Faesal on July this year withdrawn petitions they filed before the Supreme Court challenging the abrogation of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir in 2019. A month after Mr Rashid being granted removal of her name from the list of petitions, on social media platform X, she appreciated both the Central government and J&K administration”s “clear stance” in the scrapping of article 370, saying “the human rights record in Kashmir has improved,” and it has “helped save lives overall.”
However inconvenient it may be to admit this, the human rights record in Kashmir has improved under the @narendramodi government and @OfficeOfLGJandK administration. By a purely utilitarian calculus, the govt”s clear stance has helped save lives overall. That”s my angle. https://t.co/O6zpqHBOwT
— Shehla Rashid (@Shehla_Rashid) August 15, 2023
Similarly, on October amid escalating Israel-Hamas War, Mr Rashid on a X post extended gratitude towards Indian Army and security forces in the country for enabling safety of Indian citizens. She added that the credit for “bringing peace to Kashmir” should also go to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister of India Amit Shah, Lieutenant Governor of Jammu & Kashmir Manoj Sinha, Additional Directorate General of Public Information of Indian Army and Chinar Corps of Indian Army. In another follow-up post she also claims that peace is impossible without security and further expressed gratitude to Central Reserve Police Force along with Jammu and Kashmir Police.
Peace is impossible without security, as the Middle East crisis has shown. The Indian Army @ChinarcorpsIA along with @crpfindia and brave personnel of Jammu Kashmir Police @JmuKmrPolice have made tremendous sacrifices to ensure long-term peace and security in Kashmir 🙏
— Shehla Rashid (@Shehla_Rashid) October 14, 2023
Her support towards Army and security forces is even more astonishing. In 2019, citing situation in Kashmir, she alleged through her post that Indian Army was torturing Kashmiris with the abrogation of Jammu & Kashmir”s special status. Following the post, Ms Rashid was booked under sedition charges for spreading fake news.
It was in 2016, Ms Rashid was caught attention of news headlines when she was tagged as “tukde tukde gang” along with Kanhaiya Kumar, and Umar Khalid. She was active in the agitations demanding the release of many students leaders including Mr Kumar and Khalid, who were arrested on the charges of sedition. Mr Kumar is now a Congress leader and Mr Khalid is in jail booked under UAPA alleging him for instigating the 2020 Delhi riots through speeches.
While handling sedition charges, Ms Rashid announced that she is quitting active politics. Shehla was briefly a member of Jammu & Kashmir People”s movement (JKPM), a political party formed by Mr Faesal”s party. In the X post detailing her decision, she wrote: “The government of India keeps inviting people to ‘join the mainstream’. However, the Centre’s actions have, for decades now, only served to push people out of the mainstream.”
I”d like to make clear my dissociation with the electoral mainstream in Kashmir. Participation in the electoral process in a situation where even the election rhetoric is to be dictated by the centre will only amount to legitimising the actions of the Indian govt in #Kashmir pic.twitter.com/7PMi2aIZdw
— Shehla Rashid (@Shehla_Rashid) October 9, 2019
“If the state really wants the youth of Jammu and Kashmir to join the mainstream, it first needs to demonstrate that it is capable of delivering justice,” she added. Ms Rashid emphasised: “I will continue to be an activist and raise my voice against injustice…”.
In the recent Facebook post, Ms Rashid narrated how she overcame the painful last two years of her life, “depth of despair and depression,” prepared for a series of competitive exams, and about social media break.
A lot has changed between 2019 and 2023.
