The thrashing of Kashmiri students in Chittorgarh’s Mewar University and hoardings in Meerut asking Kashmiris to leave Uttar Pradesh can only worsen the situation in the Valley. The Kashmiri sense of alienation, reflected in the recent bypolls, may aggravate. Whatever little that was sought to be achieved with a delayed, half-hearted realisation that the Army men were wrong in tying a Kashmiri youth to a jeep bonnet and the initiation of an inquiry has been undone by the latest incidents in Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. Already the video of youths heckling a CRPF jawan had generated a widely shared sense of anger against them.  Apart from those like Sonu Nigam seeking relevance by stoking communal tension, low-level and some not-so-low-level trouble-mongers are allowed to get away with mischief. They contribute to a nationwide buildup of anti-Muslim sentiment, which at places erupts in violence. Dubbing the Pehlu Khan killers “today’s Bhagat Singhs and Azads” by a saffron-clad president of the Rasthriya Mahila Gau Rakshak Dal is insulting to the national icons. More serious was a tweet calling for the killing of “100 Kashmiri stone-pelters” by no less than a serving member of the Lucknow bench of the Armed Forces Tribunal, Air Marshal Anil Chopra (retd). What impartiality or justice can be expected from such a member who hears appeals against a court martial? What is more worrying is the Centre’s resort to selective action. A BSF jawan has been sacked for a bad food video but the Air Marshal has not been touched. The Modi regime’s strong-arm response to the Kashmir stone-throwers contrasts with its soft approach towards those doing Muslim-bashing — physical or ideological — on behalf of the cow, the CRPF and the Army. Although the latest targeting of Kashmiris has evoked an appeal for their protection from the Home Minister, such gestures do not work in a charged environment. Instead of asking the BJP Chief Ministers in Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh to deal sternly with the culprits, the Home Minister has issued a general advisory to all states. Social polarisation brings out the worst in some of us — but this may be as per political calculations.