Last week, the security clearance of English TV news channel Al Jazeera was withdrawn by the Indian government. In other words, it will have to stop broadcasting in the country. While the government did not provide explanation, media reports suggested that the decision was taken after the broadcast of a documentary about militancy in Kashmir. Senior officials told the Indian daily The Economic Times that the final decision was now in the hands of the Union Ministry of Home Affairs, which wold hear a review petition from the channel. While the home ministry is in charge of issuing security clearances, the information and broadcasting ministry issues the broadcasting licence. According to official documents, the home ministry gave clearance to Al Jazeera on December 3, 2010, while it was withdrawn on May 29, 2018.
The channel, run by AJI International Private Limited, told the Centre that it had allotted a significant 10 minutes to the Centre’s efforts in the Valley and the view of its officials in the complete version of the documentary, which has been missed in the edited version presented to the home ministry. This is not the first time that Al Jazeera had been on the receiving end on the government’s strictures. In 2015, the channel was suspended for five days for, what it said, incorrectly showing the map of India with respect to Jammu and Kashmir. At that time, the channel put out a blank screen for five days with the following message: “As instructed by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, this channel will not be available for five days.”
According to government figures, India has 867 private satellite TV channels, out of which permissions for 236 channels have been withdrawn at different times due to various reasons. Out of these, permissions for 147 channels were cancelled between 2015 and June 2018 alone. Sources also told the paper that the government would be cracking the whip on foreign journalists reporting on Kashmir. In May this year, the Ministry of External Affairs had sent letters to foreign journalists and reminded them to seek prior permission to travel to certain areas under the Foreigners (Protected Areas) Order, 1958. These include Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim and parts of Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir and Rajasthan. The media is also being barred from presenting independent views on Kashmir. Those who try to raise their voices are threatened with dire consequences.
In 2011, Angana Chatterji, co-convener of the International People´s Tribunal on Human Rights and Justice in Indian Held Kashmir and also the eyewitness of those unmarked mass graves which she found during her visit to Baramulla and Kupwara districts, had also faced tremendous harassment by Indian security and intelligence personnel for her writings and deep concern over human rights violations in IHK. According to a report written by Riyaz Wani published in Tehalka on 23th September 2011, the Kashmir government deported human rights activist Gautum Navlakha from Srinagar airport. In November 2010, US academic Professor Richard Shapiro, husband of Angana Chatterji, was also denied entry by immigration authorities in New Delhi because he was a frequent visitor to Kashmir and interacted with various human rights activists, scholars and youth to learn from their experiences.
At that time, deported American radio broadcaster David Barsamian had also said that India denied him entry because of his views on Kashmir. He ironically commented that he was happy that he escaped without being tortured. Those independent observers and writers had mentioned that Indian security forces fought a desperate battle but failed to stem the tidal wave of popular uprising in the valley. The ruthlessness of the Indian counter-insurgency campaign has taken a heavy toll on those demanding right to self determination and the freedom fighters’ lives, but failed to bow Kashmiris down. India’s subjugation of Kashmiri people by denying them the right to self- determination and the violation of basic human rights by Indian army in Kashmir have brought utmost shame and disgrace to the country, which claims to be the largest democracy in the world.
According to a report on Human Rights violations in Kashmir published across the web sites state that between 1989 to date approximately 100000 Kashmiris have been killed by Indian security forces. Additionally, there have been 7500 custodial killings, over 107,351 children have been orphaned, 22,728 women widowed and 9,920 women gang raped, which has brought ignominy to so-called largest democracy in the world. In fact, the above figures send shivers down the spine of all the conscientious people. Indian authorities had confirmed the existence of mass graves in Kashmir, containing bodies of more than 2,000 people. It is also pertinent to mention here that 8,000 Kashmiri people are missing and most of them believed to have been killed by the Indian security forces in fake encounters. To end the nightmare of Kashmiris, international community must pressurize India into implementing the UNSC resolution on Kashmir.
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