AISA President Neha Bora delivered a powerful, thought-stirring speech that is pricking consciences. arguing that many Indians are only now beginning to understand the human rights concerns that Kashmiris, students, and activists have raised for years. Her central message was stark: when repression reaches your own doorstep, denial becomes impossible.
Speaking to a gathering, Bora claimed that the methods once associated with Kashmir are now being witnessed in Central Delhi. She alleged that years of reports of custodial violence, arbitrary detentions, intimidation, communication blackouts, and excessive use of force in Kashmir were dismissed by large sections of the country because those raising concerns were branded as “anti-national,” “Pakistani,” or “traitors.”
Recalling what she described as the brutality faced by many Kashmiris, Bora alleged that police beat people so mercilessly their bodies were left swollen and battered. She also spoke of homes being destroyed and families living in fear, arguing that much of the country believed such actions could never happen beyond Kashmir.
“People accepted those narratives because television channels and online propaganda kept repeating them,” she said. “If someone spoke up, they were immediately labelled anti-national, Pakistani, or a traitor, and everyone else accepted those labels without question.”
Bora then turned her focus to the present, arguing that many of those who once believed those accusations are now themselves facing similar branding. According to her, being called “Pakistani” or “anti-national” despite knowing the accusations are false has forced many to reconsider the narratives they once accepted.
She cited the treatment of protesters at Shaheen Bagh, students of Jamia Millia Islamia, activist Umar Khalid, and residents of Kashmir as examples of people who, she argued, were subjected to similar public vilification.
Her speech was ultimately a call for consistency in defending civil liberties. Bora argued that rights cannot be defended selectively, warning that when society justifies the erosion of another person’s freedoms, it risks normalising practices that may one day be turned against everyone.
In one of the speech’s defining lines, Bora summed up her message: “From Kashmir to Delhi, now it has happened to you. Only now do you understand what they were trying to tell you all along.”
JANPATH NEWS NETWORK (JNN)
Independent. Fearless. On the People’s Path.
