Does The Wire want ban on patriotic movies?
   06-Dec-2018

 
 
The recent article of The Wire ‘Uri’ Trailer: Brace Yourselves, More Toxic Hyper-Nationalism is Coming’ suggest that the patriotic movies like ‘Uri’ have overtures of intolerance and hyper-nationalism. Interestingly, The Wire has used the world ‘hyper-nationalism’ four times, once in the title and thrice in the article, to convey the message that the movie ‘Uri’ will increase the level of intolerance among the people. Ironically, The Wire overlooked the fact that the movie is based on the surgical strike carried out by Indian Army on 28-29th September, 2016 to avenge the death of 19 soldiers died in Uri attack on 18th September, 2016 and casted unfounded aspersions on the very intent of the movie.
 
 
While the timing of the movie is blamed and it was mentioned by The Wire that BJP would be the ultimate beneficiary of it but the present movie must have been seen more than just an opportunity for the BJP. Shamelessly, The Wire did not realize that every Indian respects army because of its sacrifices and service to the nation and not because any political party is in power. We consider ourselves as Indian first and our ideological differences are different thing altogether. The overwhelming response to the trailer, which is 50,000 views in the first two hours itself, is the clear example of it. The Wire called it an alleged attack, however, the proof of surgical strike is there in public domain, which was shared by Indian Army. So, it was beyond doubt that surgical strike did happen. The Wire had to remove the word ‘alleged’ after getting backlashes to save its own face and dwindling public trust in it.  
 
 
 
 
Surprisingly, The Wire finds problem with the opening title which mentions “19 unarmed military soldiers were martyred at the Uri base camp Kashmir” and the army men who wanted to take revenge for the death of their fellow armymen. The words like ‘Naya Hindustan’ and ‘Jai Hind’ and the dialogue “They want Kashmir and we want their heads!” were considered part of the conspiracy to instill hyper-nationalism. Going one step ahead, The Wire compared the soldiers of Indian Army to the beasts when it mentioned ‘From a blaring background score to beast-like soldiers who want nothing but the enemy’s blood’. But The Wire must note that the soldiers of Indian Army are not ‘beasts’ but ‘bravehearts’ who have been protecting Indian borders and calling them ‘beasts’ shows the hypocrisy of The Wire, which is not acceptable to any citizen of India.
 
 
The Wire writes ‘this war film is another addition to several other military dramas’. Ironically, it was unable to realize that the movie is based on facts and not on any fiction that has been dreamt of by the director of the movie. The Wire mentions “As consumers, we are just getting carried away by such messages without really thinking about the kinds of intolerance we’re encouraging and internalizing”. But it did not realize that the attack of Indian army on any enemy does not encourage intolerance, or its internalization, but patriotism among all Indians. It gives a message that we should not think twice to make any sacrifices for safeguarding our motherland. Unfortunately, The Wire was not able to understand the difference between patriotism and intolerance; as a result it has equated the trailer of ‘Uri’ movie with intolerance and hyper-nationalism.
 
 
 
 
The Wire writes ‘These tendencies are quite visible in the trailer’s comment section – which is full of abuses, calls for patriotism and national flag icons. On top of that, the video description of the trailer says, “Ye naya hindustan hai, ye ghar me ghusega bhi aur marega bhi!”’. In this dialogue the movie gives clear message that no nation should check the limits of tolerance of India, who is capable to give befitted reply yet the portal did not leave the opportunity to term it a sign of intolerance. It is also difficult to find abuses, which the portal talked about, and if the words like ‘Naya Hindustan’ and ‘Jai Hind’ is abusive then I believe that the portal would find entire nation being abuser because many Indians have often used these words with great pride since their childhood days. Every ordinary Indian revered the sacrifices of Indian Army.
 
Lastly, The Wire considered the Uri attack by army being ‘contested, highly politicised and acrimonious issue and it is only going to stoke the already-rising flames of toxic hyper-nationalism’ and this assessment of it is on unfounded ground. Though the entire globe was looking it as India’s correct response to terrorism The Wire cooks up fictitious stories. The entire article of The Wire is full of propaganda and away from the facts. While supporting any political agenda would be a different thing and can be criticized but the level of shrewdness shown by The Wire against Indian army is detestable. It seems that The Wire has lost its fine sense of judgment and it is focusing only on spreading the false propaganda.