Those who respected Press Council of India as an independent and honorable institution will be greatly pained, shocked and disillusioned on going through the contents of the report of its three member committee about human rights violations in Kashmir. Unmindful of its role and responsibility in projecting the facts objectively, the Committee has been less than fair to its own credibility and prestige by lending itself to serve as a mouth-piece of the Indian security forces and their masters in Delhi With all he journalistic sophistry used by it in molesting the facts, the Committee has failed to hide its intellectual chauvinism, aggressive and perverse patriotism, excessive loyalties and” holier than thou attitude in favour of the repressive and authoritarian agents of India imposed on Kashmir. It is rather sad and amazing that petty and partisan interests should so blind the expected conscience keepers of the society as to make them willfully bless human rights violations through state terrorism as “grossly exaggerated and invented”! Rather than indulging in polemics suggestive of the practice and procedure that the Human Rights Organizations should follow, the committee should more legitimately have bothered to conform to the minimum standards of law, decency and morality while passing sweeping judgments about the authenticity or otherwise of the excesses reported against the Indian security forces.
Take, for example, the alleged outrage of Kunan-Poshpora. The Visiting members of the Press Council were expressly told that out-of-hand denials of the incident had been issued at the highest governmental levels in Srinagar and Delhi so as to rule out any fair and impartial enquiry by any subordinate agency including the police who dealt with the pending investigation in a most casual and cavalier manner so much so that the victims had not been referred for medical examination for weeks together not withstanding he time honored requirement and well established practice of getting a victim in any rape case examined medically immediately after registration of the case
IT was also brought to the notice of the said members that, in the beginning, the investigation had been entrusted to just a petty head constable which was changed only when a powerful voice was raised against the manner in which the case had been allowed to be handled by the police. The said members were told that even after the investigation had changed hands, the case had not make any progress which had prompted the Jammu and Kashmir Peoples Basic Rights (Protection) Committee to file a writ petition in the High Court in the public interest to seek relief against the erring men and officers of the Army while also challenging the constitutional validity of Jammu and Kashmir Disturbed Areas Act (1990) and Armed Forces (Jammu and Kashmir) Special Powers Act (1990), Even a copy of the writ Petition was provided to the said members and they were expressly informed that the petition had been admitted to hearing by a bench of the Jammu and Kashmir High Court which had directed issue of notices to their spenders. Unless the intention has been to send warning signals to the High court, not to speak of the police investigation agency, the Press Council should have exercised restraint rather than acting as Godfathers of the security forces unit the forces were called upon Court to explain their conduct in the matter.
The unusual approach adopted by the Press Council is a tell-tale circumstance which surely does not change its prestige, much less, that of the security forces which the Council seeks to defend. On a party of reasoning, it was highly inappropriate for the Council 19 touch the matter concerning alleged killings on the border in Chowkibal area of Kupwara district when the matter, as the Press Council should be knowing, is sub judice in a writ petition moved by the Kashmir Bar Association before the Jammu and Kashmir High Court was pleased to grant interim relief in the matter which has been upheld by the Supreme Court with certain modifications.
Equally inappropriate was it for the Council to pass its Judgement on the exodus of the Kashmiri Pandit about which the allegations brought before the High Court in a year-old pending writ petition are that Shri Jag Mohan, the then Governor, planned the exodus to create a communal di vide within and outside the State and even provided transport during curfew hours to facilitate such exodus. The Press Council, as heretofore, should have adopted the attitude of wait and see” in the matter till the time would be riper for it to come to defend Shri Jag mohan and the cause exposed by him. Needless to emphasize here that, given a proper trial, the petitioners are bound to vindicate their stand, in all these matters, whatever the perceptions of the Press Council might be. A fair trial is bound to explode the myth floated by the Press Council in regard to their self-manufactured story of contradictions in the Kunan Poshpora outrage.
It is rather intriguing to note that there is a significant omission in the report of the Press Council about the atrocities perpetrated by the government on the local press in Kashmir to which pointed attention of the visiting members of the Council was drawn during their stay in Kashmir and they were told that reliance on an out-dated and obsolete law enacted by the autocratic regime of Kashmir 1914 A.D. amidst the scenario prevailing during World War I to age the press was totally unjust field in the context of the developments over the decades as a result of which Jammu and Kashmir State in India. It was specifically pleaded before visiting members Of Punjab and the action taken by the state government was wholly without jurisdiction. The visiting members pleaded ignorance about the latest development and promised to bring the manner to the Notice of the Press Council for appropriate action but, though very Urgent and important, the matter dies not even find mentioning the report, not to speak of recording the impressions of the Press Council about it. It cannot be gain said that this matter, more than anything else, fell within the legitimate functions of the Press Council, and therefore, deserved treatment of highest priority but if the Press Council has still chosen {to keep it out of the purview of its report, the reasons can better be imagined than described. Yet another matter which seemed to agitate the mind of the visiting members of the Council here, when informed about, but which they have chosen ignore in their report is the way the orders of the High Count did not receive the respect that they deserved from the security forces as also their patrons in the administration. In this connection it was specifically brought to the notice of the visiting members of the Council that, while admitting the writ petition, here in before: mentioned, challenging the validity of Disturbed Areas Act and Armed Forces G&XK) Special Powers Act, the Jammu and Kashmir High Court had directed that while enforcing these Acts, whenever a person is Picked up by the most inhuman manner, It was expected that the Press Council would deal with this matter in its report but, as an expediency, it has chosen to ignore.
With the electronic and press media being callous and indifferent and Press Council of India Playing a willfully partisan role, as evident from the contents of their report under reference, about the real happening in Kashmir can ever be narrowed,
How pitiable for the Press Council of India indeed not to realize that while the security forces are on -holds-barred rampage in Kashmir to the utter consternation and concern of all those who care for human rights and values, any attempt made to gloss over the atrocities committed by them is bound to recoil on its own image and credibility, apart from causing reparable damage to the national interest which it has sought to serve wrongly by coming to the fescue of the security forces and the it behind the-scene operators in Delhi and Srinagar.
(Justice Mufti Bahauddin Farooqi (Concluded).
Article extracted from this publication >> March 27, 1992
