NowTrending: Did a 14-year-old really just write a book on Kashmir?

What: Union Minister Jitendra Singh on Wednesday released a book, In the Times of Article 370, ostensibly written by 14-year-old Ayanna Kohli from Delhi. News of the book, which has come just two months after the article granting special status to Jammu and Kashmir was removed, was reported by ANI. Where some rightist readers took pride in a young writer taking up the subject, the news was met with unease in other quarters where it was dubbed as propaganda. Twitter users have since been finding a number of inconsistencies in the announcement. It appears the book in question had actually debuted in September. Further, while ANI and the book’s jacket credit the teenager as the writer, the foreword mentions it was co-authored by Kohli and her father Sunny. 

Who: In the Times of Article 370, by self-publishing company Notion Press, claims to be about life in the Indian Army. Ayanna Kohli, from the National Capital Region, drew from her father’s experiences in the army. It is seemingly based on true events, and contains elements of imagination and fiction. “The book narrates truth of terrorism as seen by an innocent child, though not born or brought up in Kashmir, but whose father, an Army officer, was constantly posted in anti-terrorist operations and she spontaneously drives the conclusion that revocation of Article 370 was necessary for lasting peace,” minister Jitendra Singh tweeted. According to her father’s Facebook page, the former soldier now works with the Ministry of Defence. The ANI report about the book release came with a quote attributed to no one in particular: “In last two months, I’ve travelled across the country, I can say the decision to abrogate Article 370 has been celebrated by each Indian.” Readers online assumed this was spoken by young Kohli, and demanded whether her travels had included Kashmir. Her father maintains the words were spoken by the minister, and not the teenager. 

How: From a Twitter account which has since been deleted, Sunny Kohli responded to a question by journalist Nitin Sethi, stating he had narrated the book to his daughter who then authored it. Another inconsistency emerged when journalist Barkha Dutt, who wrote the book’s foreword, clarified that she had based her endorsement on a chapter she was sent. That excerpt, she said, dealt with the life of a soldier in a conflict zone and made no mention of Article 370. Other well-known journalists as well as one RSS ideologue have also written blurbs for the Kohlis. 

Where: Kashmir is a complex subject even for adults to navigate. The idea of involving a teenager in co-writing a book that comments on the effects of Article 370’s removal — which is still a developing, far-from-resolved matter — is curious. Also confounding are the book’s swift turnaround time barely two months after special status was abrogated, and its chosen form of mixing fact and fiction. In publishing, as has been the case with films recently, there seems to be a haste to gain mileage by approving of government initiatives and policies.