On the evening of Oct. 19, 2020, as reporters and photographers for The Kashmir Times rushed to meet deadlines, government officials and the police swept into the newspaper’s offices in the city of Srinagar, chased out the staff and put a lock on the door that remains to this day. the raid was punishment for daring to question the policies of Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India. The newspaper, started by a noted left leaning social worker Ved Bhasin in 1954 and his daughter Anuradha Bhasin who is now the executive editor and has authored the new book A Dismantled State, The Untold Story of Kashmir.
After Article 370 was withdrawn, The Kashmir Times has been an independent voice in the state of Jammu and Kashmir and has been weathering several tumultuous decades of war and military occupation. The Kashmir Times may not survive during Mr. Modi’s regime . His repressive media policies are destroying Kashmiri journalism, intimidating media outlets into serving as government mouthpieces and creating an information vacuum in a region of about 13 million people. Mr. Modi’s policies and his regime is taking steps that could replicate this disturbing model on a national scale. On national scale Hindu-chauvinist movement, which has normalized intolerance and violence against Indian Muslims, has already put severe pressure on India’s once-rambunctious press, with journalists surveilled and jailed and the government using strong-arm tactics against media outlets to ensure favorable coverage. But in January, draft amendments by present regime about digital media guidelines were introduced that would essentially allow the government to block any content it doesn’t like. With these measures prevalent in the scenario in rest of India may end up looking a lot like Kashmir. In 2019, Mr. Modi’s government abruptly revoked Kashmir’s autonomous status without public input from the territory’s people, sent in thousands of troops and shut down internet access. The shutdown lasted nearly six months, forcing hundreds of journalists to line up for hours to file their stories via a single designated site that had internet access. Each had 15 minutes to do so. Internet speeds have been excruciatingly slow since. new rules were introduced in middle of 2020 that empowered officials to label media content in Kashmir as “fake news, plagiarism and unethical or anti-national” and to punish journalists and publications. The rules stated — ironically — that the goal was to “promote the highest standard of journalism.” Journalists in Kashmir even from noted global outlets are routinely summoned by the police, interrogated and threatened with charges such as income tax violations or terrorism or separatism. Several prominent journalists have been detained or sentenced to jail terms. Kashmiri people are living under a cloud of fear and a constant threat of intimidation.
A young noted journalist, Sajad Gul, has been constantly harassed for his reporting. He was arrested in January of 2022 and remains in custody. Many journalists self-censor or have simply quit. Fearing arrest, some have fled into exile overseas. The Indian government has put at least 20 others on no-fly lists to prevent them from leaving the country.
Journalism has always been hazardous in Kashmir. Kashmir the mountainous region divided between India and Pakistan, Indian Kashmir has been plagued by war and a separatist insurgency for decades. Journalists have been caught in the middle, threatened and intimidated by Indian security forces and militants, both of whom have wanted to control how the story is being told. At least 19 journalists were killed in Kashmir between 1990 and 2018. Kashmiri journalism has flowered since the advent of new platforms on social media . Newspapers and news websites proliferated, and a new generation of talented young investigative journalists brought a fresh eye to Kashmir’s problems with well-researched public-interest reporting that often boldly took on the government. The Indian government under Prime Minister Modi since 2014 has tried to silence more stringently since abrogation of Article 370 any separatist voices or those advocating conciliation or a negotiated settlement in Kashmir. Kashmiri newspapers are heavily reliant on government advertising and media subsidies, and the government uses that leverage to ensure that those newspapers tell the officially approved version of the truth. Baring few brave journalists majority journalists and media outlets have become a blatant government mouthpieces just to stay in business. An information vacuum stares over Kashmir, with the public blanked out— or misinformed — about what’s going on in the region. Indian population on the whole have lost interest about Kashmir and state of affairs in Kashmir. Other region Ladakh which was a region of Jammu and Kashmir state before 2019 august now a separate Union territory too is seeing a people’s uprising lead jointly by Kargil Democratic Alliance (KDA) and Leh Apex Body (LAB) taking forward the common minimum goals.
Prevailing lack of understanding and a pattern of ignorance the general public and a government free of scrutiny and accountability are a looming threats to democracy. The Indian government under Prime Minister Mr. Modi seems inclined on replicating Kashmir narrative across the country. The proposed amendments to national guidelines for digital media that were unveiled in January are strikingly similar to those imposed on Kashmir, empowering government fact-checkers to label online content as “fake or false.” the government implemented the proposed amendment guidelines and ordered online platforms to block links to “India: The Modi Question,” a BBC documentary critical of the prime minister. Indian tax agents later raided the British broadcaster’s offices in India. Such raids have been used repeatedly to pressure critical voices in the media. The prevailing situation in India and it’s politics is not just about press freedom that is at risk, but Indian democracy itself.
