Jammu and Kashmir HC: Rein in channels and hysteria

The Jammu and Kashmir high court has directed the state government to take action against those national TV news channels which have created “hysteria” about Kashmir and its people. It also said reportage by a section of these channels has pushed the Valley’s young IAS officer Shah Faesal, who topped the civil service exam in his maiden attempt in 2009, “to the edge”.

A division bench of the high court comprising Chief Justice N.N. Paul Vasanthakumar and Justice Muzaffar Hasnain Attar expressed displeasure over the media coverage and observed that the “hysteria created by some national news channels” has created problems for the government, local news agency KNS reported. The division bench observed, “The government needs to take some action against such news channels and regulate them.” It made it clear that the media is not above the law and needs to be made aware of it.

The division bench, which was hearing a PIL, also took note of the article, “Between the Studio and the Street”, written by Mr Faesal, who is currently serving as director, school education (Kashmir). The court said, “He has been pushed to the edge by (the hysteria). If he resigns, then he would be pushed to the other side of the divide.”

Last week, Mr. Faesal, 30, threatened to quit his government job if mainstream media of the country does not stop dragging him into its ‘ridiculous debate’ surrounding the happenings in the Valley. For past seven years, Mr. Faesal has been referred to as ‘a new role model and an icon for Kashmiri youth’ and following the killing of Burhan Muzaffar Wani, the new-age poster boy of militancy, which has pushed the Valley into a new and deadly phase of protests and turbulence, he is being repeatedly weighed against the slain militant commander during TV debates.

Taking a strong exception to him being made part of what he alleged is ‘propagandastic and provocative’ coverage of the ongoing unrest in the Valley, he wrote on his Facebook timeline last Friday, “By juxtaposing my photos with the images of a slain militant commander, a section of national media has once again fallen back upon its conventional savagery that cashes on falsehoods, divides people and creates more hatred.” He said, “At a moment when Kashmir is mourning its dead, the propaganda and provocation being dished out from red and blue newsrooms is breeding more alienation and anger in Kashmir than what Indian state can manage.” He also said, “Personal vulnerability apart, the very fact of becoming a part of a ridiculous debate is something which has disturbed me very much”. He asked, “Have I joined IAS to do a job or to become a part of your sadistic propaganda machine ” and then said, “In fact, when I qualified this exam I never thought of spending my whole life scratching the desk and if this nonsense around me continues, I might prefer to resign sooner than later.”

Meanwhile, in an embarrassment to the PDP-BJP government, J&K Finance Minister Haseeb Drabu’s wife Roohi Nazki on Friday asked the ruling combine to either stop the civilian killings in the Valley or step down. “The powers that be need to either step up and stop the wrongdoings. Or they need to step down. I guess they just need to step down,” she wrote on Facebook wall.

Ms. Nazki, who is the daughter of well-known poet, broadcaster and media personality and the Sahitya Academy award recipient Farooq Nazki and a former employee of Tata Interactive Systems, termed the happenings in the Valley over the last 14 days “immoral, unethical, tragic and wrong”. She said, “The brutal killings of children, the criminal blinding and maiming of protestors, and the shameless suffocating of an entire population is wrong. It is wrong even if it has been happening over the last two decades or so. It is wrong even if there are far too many agencies trying to keep Kashmir burning.”

Ms. Nazki who recently started a riverside tea room and art gallery called “Chai Jaai” which was incidentally inaugurated by Chief Minister, Mehbooba Mufti, further said, “In a democratic nation, a whole population is taken hostage for days on end without basic amenities, phones, newspapers and all of it is happening under the watch of a popularly-elected Government. They need to step down so that we can be convinced that every popularly-elected Government doesn’t necessarily turn into an unresponsive monolith as soon as it is sworn into power”.