By Inder Bisht for TwoCircles.net
“Kashmir has been put inside a cage, with the people’s mouths gagged. Only the eyes and ears are allowed to remain open…they (the people) are seething with rage,” is how Vimal Bhai, one of the four civil society activists who returned from a five-day fact-finding mission from Kashmir, described the events on Tuesday at the Press Club of India.
“The anger is building up and the balloon could burst soon,” he added.
The activists had shot a film called ‘Caged Kashmir’ on their experiences of the Valley which apparently was deemed ‘too sensitive’ and hence not allowed to be screened at the Press Club.
“The fact that this film can’t be shown today here because we were denied permission is a tragedy. If a simple film conveying the voice of ordinary Kashmiris can’t be shown in the Press Club of India, where will it be shown? You can very well anticipate that no other press club, University or public venue will allow this film to be shown,” said Jean Dreze.
The group, comprising economist Jean Dreze, Kavita Krishnan of All India Progressive Women’s Association’s (AIPWA), Maimoona Mollah of All India Democratic Women’s Association (AIDWA) and Vimal Bhai of National Alliance of People’s Movement (NAPM), narrated their accounts of their visit to the Valley which was quite different from the one most of the country’s mainstream media have been putting out since the abrogation of Articles 370 and 35 A, and simultaneous bifurcation of the state into two union territories took place on August 5.
Criticising the government’s attempt of sending out a sanitized picture of the Valley amidst a clampdown, the members rebuffed the statement of Governor Satya Pal Malik on Eid that the festival was celebrated normally in Anantnag.
“There is a question mark over his (governor’s) first name ‘Satya’ (truth) because when we reached Anantnag on the day of Eid, the city was deserted. Shops were closed and no one was out of their homes,” said Vimal Bhai.
“People had to offer the Namaz in their home because they were not allowed to go to the Idgaahs and mosques. Security officials objected to the sounds of azan too. Governor Malik portrayed it as if people chose to pray in their homes, which is wrong. Even images of Jammu were passed off as Kashmir to show a sense of normalcy,” he added.
On the question of political prisoners, Vimal Bhai said that at least 600 activists have been detained and put into different kind of make-shift prisons according to their “status”.
“While former Chief Ministers have been confined in guesthouses, the village-level activists have been put up in schools and other public buildings. These political prisoners have no idea what is going on even in their next village due to a communication clampdown,” he added.
The members said that a big protest involving around 10,000 people took place at Srinagar’s Soura on August 9 where forces responded with pellet gunfire, injuring several protesters.
“The next day we tried to go to the protest location but were blocked by CRPF barricade,” said the activists. They also met with pellet guns’ victims at Srinagar’s SMHS hospital.
“Two young men (Waqar Ahmad and Wahid) had faces, arms and torso full of pellets. Waqar had a catheter in which the urine, red with blood from internal bleeding, could be seen. Their family members, weeping with grief and rage, told us that the two men had not been pelting stones. They had been peacefully protesting,” said the activists.
During their visit, the team members said that no local agreed to speak on camera without concealing their identity because of the fear of the security personnel.
Dreze recalled some of the statements of the Kashmiris of his visit: ‘The more they repress us, the more we will emerge,’ said a person in Sopore. ‘Congress had stabbed us in the back; BJP did it to our chest,’ said another person, according to Dreze.
Anger was mixed with humiliation as Kashmiris were particularly incensed by the fact that they were not consulted by the central government before taking such a big decision.
Mollah added that the team didn’t see any signs of communal polarization at the ground level but cautioned that the administration is “pushing the people towards that”.
“They have discredited the politicians who were pro-India. So who are they aiming at?” Mollah questioned.
On the question of media freedom, the members recalled their conversations with the Valley’s newspaper owners and managers.
“Even innocuous pictures of empty streets on paper are being frowned upon by security officials. Invariably someone from the forces would come and express his displeasure of publishing such images,” said Kavita Krishnan.
Valley newspapers these days carry outdated sports news on the front page while inner pages contain marriage cancellation news only, the activists added.
“Kashmiri newspapers don’t have newsprint. The newsprint has to go through Delhi. So they can’t get it,” says Krishnan.
On the role of media, Dreze acknowledged that the Kashmiri media is as good as muzzled. “They are not allowed to do their work. There is no communication. Even if they know the facts they are not allowed to say or publish it beyond a point. The Indian media is, I am afraid, doing a poor job. That’s why we are here,” he said.
Dreze however praised foreign media, and called their reporting on the issue “pretty much accurate”.
Highlighting the partial role played by Indian mainstream media in the valley, Krishnan recalled an incident where an Indian television journalist interviewed a group of people who had expressed their displeasure about the current situation. However, Krishnan said that the journalist “right there” gave an opposite report on camera resulting in an argument between him and the group of locals.
However, notwithstanding the unsavoury incidents with the national media, the activists urged media professionals to visit Kashmir in large numbers as scores of people, including teenagers and young schoolboys, are missing from the distant villages.