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| J&K again chooses to silence voice of dissent | | Gag on media | | Early Times Report
JAMMU, Dec 8: Habitual of living in a brutalized democracy, Jammu and Kashmir government has seemingly chosen to silence voice of dissent by using both administrative and political means.
A word has gone across almost in all the relevant quarters that either you are with the government or against it but you have no middle path to choose. From police to Jammu and Kashmir State Information Department, all are leaving no stone unturned in applying this mantra in whatever quarter it is required.
Harass and intimidate whosoever speaks or writes about the lacunas in the working of the state administration. If the recent incidents are any indication, those pointing towards wrongs being perpetuated by officials serving on important and significant positions are likely to be the targeted. Government has seemingly made up its mind not to tolerate dissent in any case.
It needs to be reminded here that Jammu and Kashmir is the only state in the country where political elite rules the roost and is also impervious to public scrutiny. For being a so-called special status state, administrative and political circles in Jammu and Kashmir leave no chance to abuse power for their personal aggrandizement.
They abuse power and even do not leave media out of their vindictive approach. From years of Late Sheikh Mohammed Abdullah, print media with anti-establishment approach has always battled for survival. Several newspapers saw light of the day, survived for some time and then died a silent death. The only reason was that they decided against becoming mouthpiece of government.
Ask the veterans and they would tell you how the democratic right to criticize government for its inaction and failure to redress public grievances has been violated in Jammu and Kashmir. They assert that those newspapers which would not adhere to government directions and openly write against its corrupt ministers and officers used to be harassed to the maxim.
Government would put blanket ban on issuing advertisements to these newspapers. Barring a few, most of the newspapers failed to pass this acid test and had to either follow the government line or close down their units. A number of promising journalists of the yesteryears vanished from the scene merely on account of their inability to modify their style of writing.
The approach continued till the beginning of militancy in the year 1989. It is after this year that government managed to create significant space for its propaganda in the print media. Anti-establishment newspapers began losing space and popularity among the readers while pro-establishment ones gained the upper hand.
And then, with the beginning of 21st century, economic interests took over the media groups across the state. Pro-establishment newspapers gained prominence and with their balanced and rational approach became favourite of almost every commoner. However, newspapers valuing journalistic ethos and working overnight to highlight grey areas of the government machinery are still in existence despite constant efforts of government to ensure closure of these newspapers. |
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