Since the beginning of Countercurrents in 2002 I have covered many conflicts in different parts of the world, beginning with Iraq war. None as worse as this one in terms of communication crack down.

On August 5, 2019 the Indian government abrogated Articles 370 and 35A, that gave special status to Jammu and Kashmir in the Indian union and dissolved the state and bifurcated it into two Union Territories. It is 25 days since now. Jammu and Kashmir is incommunicado. According to media reports there are no internet, no telephone, no cable tv. People have to line up for hours in the government offices, where there are a few telephones opened, to talk to their loved ones. They have to disclose the purpose of the conversation first, to be allowed to use the phone.

People of Kashmir are completely cut off from rest of India and the rest of the world. Kashmiri students studying in different parts of India are running out of money. However a few landline connections have been restored in recent days in parts of Sri Nagar. It is very difficult to get through a call even where landline connections have been restored.

According to some media reports which are sneaking in, provisions are running out. Essential medicines are also running out.

A young doctor  who wanted to communicate to the world the plight of Kashmiris who are in urgent need of medicines was whisked away by police minutes after he spoke out about the health crisis facing Kashmir because of the three-week-old government clampdown.

The Telegraph reported:

Omar Salim, a urologist at the Government Medical College, had appeared at Srinagar’s press enclave to speak to the media, wearing a doctor’s apron. He held a placard that said he was making a “request and not a protest”.

He had barely spoken for 10 minutes when the police arrived and whisked him away to an unknown location, making it clear the authorities would not tolerate any questioning of their actions.

Efforts to find out where the doctor had been taken were thwarted by the information blockade. Government spokesperson Rohit Kansal, the only official interface between the government and journalists, skipped the evening media briefing the second day running.

Omar had said the information blockade and the travel curbs were endangering the lives of patients, particularly those who needed dialysis or chemotherapy.

He said he did not know whether the restrictions had caused any deaths but he did know patients who had had to postpone their treatment.

“I have a patient who required chemotherapy on August 6. He came to us on August 24 but could not obtain the chemotherapy medicine,” Omar said.

“Another patient whose chemotherapy drug has to be obtained from Delhi was unable to place an order for the drug. His chemotherapy has been postponed indefinitely.”

Omar added: “There are patients who require three dialysis sessions every week but are coming only once a week. There are patients registered under insurance schemes who have to pay out of their own pockets (for every dialysis) costing Rs 1,500 to Rs 1,800. It’s not a small sum for someone earning less than Rs 10,000.”

Omar said many patients are unable to make it to hospitals or to buy medicines because of the cash crunch at the banks.

“Most important, we have 15 lakh patients registered under the Ayushman Bharat scheme. We are the number one state in India in terms of the scheme’s penetration. None of the beneficiaries are able to come and claim the benefits because there is no Internet and the card system is defunct,” he said.

“(People registered with) many other health insurance schemes, like those for textile industry labourers, cannot claim the benefit because of the lack of access.”

Omar urged the government to restore the landline connections at all the hospitals and clinical establishments to avoid “disadvantage to the patients”.

The government had suspended all mobile, Internet and landline connectivity, although many landline connections have been restored in recent days.

“If patients don’t receive dialysis, they will die. If cancer patients don’t receive chemotherapy, they will die. Those patients who can’t be operated on can die,” he said.

Due to the communication breakdown, all the news papers and websites in the Kashmir valley have suspended publication.

Irfan Malik, a correspondent with the Greater Kashmir newspaper  was apprehended by security forces on August 14 night but was released by officials s after signing a bond.

In a shocking act India’s Media watch dog, The Press Council of India (PCI) moved the Supreme Court supporting the Centre and Jammu and Kashmir government’s decision to impose restrictions on communication in the state following the abrogation of Article 370. The council, a statutory body led by a former Supreme Court judge and meant to preserve freedom of the Press in the democracy, said the basic journalistic code of conduct framed by it required the media to indulge in self-regulation while reporting on subjects that may harm State interests.

The council, headed by Justice (retired) C.K. Prasad, has filed an application in the Supreme Court seeking to intervene in a writ petition filed by Anuradha Bhasin, executive editor of Kashmir Times. Ms. Bhasin had challenged the state of prolonged and intense media restrictions in Jammu and Kashmir after the Centre blunted Article 370 and scrapped the special rights and privileges enjoyed by the people of Jammu and Kashmir since 1954.

In Jammu and Kashmir three former Chief Ministers, 40 former ministers are under house arrest. More than 4000 people are detained including leaders of Chamber of Commerce.

On 18^th August  Deccan Chronicle Headlined, Forces deploy 1 million to guard every inch of Kashmir valley

Close to 9.5 lakh personnel from the Army, paramilitary and special forces besides Indian Air Force are guarding every inch of Kashmir Valley amid heightened tensions bet-ween India and Pakistan post the scrapping of Article 370 for Jammu and Kashmir.

While majority of forces were stationed in the Valley, the Centre, over the last month has deployed over 1.75 lakh additional personnel — which is unprecedented in the history of Jammu and Kashmir.

According to 2011 census, Jammu and Kashmir population is 12.5 million. Which means, a soldier for every 12 citizen of the troubled Kashmir.

On 24^th of this month opposition leaders under the leadership of Rahul Gandhi went to Srinagar to find out the situation in the valley. They were detained in the Srinagar airport and were sent back to Delhi.

Hong Kong protest is into its 19^th week. Millions are marching in the street. There is no communication crack down or unlawful force on the protesters. France’s Yellow Vest protest is into its 40^th week. There also there is no communication crack down. Even in Gaza even when the heaviest bombardment was going on there was no communication crack down. Why is it in Kashmir?

There are reports that the Israeli army is training Indian soldiers in counter terrorism. It seems that Israeli army has come to a stage that it has to learn lessons from Indian army. By the way, India is the largest democracy in the world!

Binu Mathew is the Editor of Countercurrents.org

Courtesy: Counter Current

The post Kashmir: The Worst Conflict Area In The World appeared first on SabrangIndia.

A child standing in front of his ground-flattened school after a bombardment in Ainjara village in rural Aleppo, Syria. Photo: UNICEF/Khalil Alshawi

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has condemned the reported attack today on a school in the western part of Syria's Aleppo city that killed a number of children.

According to a statement issued by his spokesperson, the Secretary-General “condemns the reported attack” and “reiterates his call on the Security Council to refer the situation in Syria to the International Criminal Court.”

“Such attacks, if deliberate, may amount to war crimes,” said the spokesman in the statement. “Those responsible for these acts must be brought to justice,” he added in the statement.

The attack, which reportedly left several children dead, comes a day after Mr. Ban's spokesperson issued a statement saying the UN chief was appalled by reports of attacks that killed students and teachers in a school complex in Haas village, Idlib governorate, Syria on 26 October. In the statement he called for immediate and impartial investigation of that and other similar attacks against civilians in Syria.

Meanwhile, the Indepenent, UK reported that at least 300 civilians have been killed in just 11 air strikes by the US-led coalition, a report has found amid concern for families trapped in Isis’ stronghold of Mosul. Amnesty International urged the Pentagon and its allies to “come clean” about the full extent of deaths in operations against the so-called Islamic State, with official inquiries so far acknowledging only dozens of casualties.

‘Crimes of historic proportions’ being committed in Aleppo, UN rights chief warns

 

 

 

The UN Human Rights Council in Geneva holds a special session on the dire situation in Syria, including Aleppo. UN Photo/Jean-Marc Ferré

Crime of Historic Proportions in Syria: UN  

Describing the bombardment and crippling siege of Syria’s war-ravaged eastern Aleppo as “crimes of historic proportions” the top United Nations rights official today urged the members of the UN Human Rights Council to “speak with one voice” in an effort to end the bloodshed.

“The ancient city of Aleppo, a place of millennial civility and beauty, is today a slaughterhouse – a gruesome locus of pain and fear, where the lifeless bodies of small children are trapped under streets of rubble and pregnant women deliberately bombed,” the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein told a special session of the Geneva-based Human Rights Council today as the 47-member body prepared to take up a draft resolution on the issue.
“The collective failure of the international community to protect civilians and halt this bloodshed should haunt every one of us,” he noted further, and warned that “its costs will be borne by our children, and future generations.”
The UN human rights chief further said the “civil war – now also a proxy conflict fuelled by cynical regional and international interests” – has killed well over 300,000, wounded and traumatized countless others, resulted in the abduction, summary execution or arbitrary detention of tens of thousands and displaced more half the Syrian population.
He further noted that hospitals, schools, marketplaces, water facilities and neighbourhood bakeries had been deliberately and repeatedly attacked and millions have been denied life-saving aid.
Noting that his Office (OHCHR) documented a number violations of international humanitarian law by all parties in Aleppo, High Commissioner Zeid said the attacks that have caused a number of civilian casualties constitute war crimes.

 

Most Syrians left in Aleppo are too poor to leave and live in the carcasses of apartment blocks. Photo: Tom Westcott/IRIN

“And if knowingly committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against civilians, they constitute crimes against humanity,” he added.
Mr. Zeid noted that though the responsibility for halting the Syrian crisis primarily fell to the UN Security Council, the General Assembly may also have a role.
Urging members of the Human Rights Council to set aside political disagreements and focus exclusively on the suffering of women, men and children, he stressed: “No hypothetical advantage in global gamesmanship could possibly outweigh this pain and horror.”
He further urged the Security Council to set aside rivalries and act as one, in accordance with international security and peace, and said “Influence must be used to advance a political solution to the conflict. Flows of arms and equipment to the parties to the conflict must cease.”
He also underlined the urgency of referring the situation in Syria to the International Criminal Court and said that all parties to the conflict “must know that they will be held accountable for the international crimes they commit – all, without selective protection or discrimination.”
Calling for an immediate, prolonged and all-encompassing ceasefire to enable humanitarian aid he called on the top UN human rights body to “speak with one voice” for the protection of civilians in what he called was the defining human rights crisis of our era.
The Human Rights Council’s special session comes just hours after Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and his Special Envoy, Staffan de Mistura, briefed an informal meeting of the General Assembly in New York, during which Mr. Ban said the horrors committed in the Syria conflict may amount to war crimes, calling on Member States “to cooperate and fulfil your collective responsibility to protect.”

The post Dozens of Children Dead in Attack on School in Western Aleppo, Syria appeared first on SabrangIndia.

The post Women’s Boat to Gaza set to arrive this week appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Photo credit: World Beyond War
 
Ancient Greek theatre of Sophocles, Euripedes and others is full of anti-war themes. The ancients apparently understood the menace of war better than some in our times. In the Greek comedy of Aristophanes from5^th century BC, Lysistrata, women denied sex to their husbands and lovers forcing them to think of peace, not war. Greek playwrights lived during constant wartime and knew the suffering inflicted by war. You require sensitivity for this which war-drum lovers seem to lack.
 
On the 15^thanniversary of 9/11, the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff of the American army Gen Dunford and about two hundred soldiers saw two classical Greek plays in Washington DC about the toll of war on the human psyche. The two plays, both by Sophocles, were Ajax and Philoctetes.
 
The mental and physical suffering of the Greek warrior appeals to the soldier spectators of the present day, as it resonates with their own experience of war trauma. Ajax screams, “Cut my throat right here. Right Now. And end my suffering.” This is the kind of suffering soldiers routinely face and our warmongers need to take note of this. Several such performances for soldiers have been organized by veteran director Bryan Derries – author of the book, What Ancient Greek Tragedies Can Teach Us Today. They provide a catharsis which is a major feature of the Greek tragedies: they make you think about war and peace and make you think calmly.
 
The deep psychological injuries soldiers suffer due to the violence and the stress are little known, especially, in India which explains its mindless, insensitive obsession with the military solutions.
 
At least 20 war veterans commit suicide every day in the United States, like farmers do in India. Many veterans are homeless. A large number of them suffer from nightmares, a sense of guilt and shame. The War Comes Home – Washington’s Battle Against American Veterans is the telling title of a book on the subject by Aaron Glantz. The fact that the United States with all its resources cannot handle this serious crisis should be a guide for those from growing economies, who want to rush into a war, and are obsessed with weapons and aggression. We rarely talk about this issue in India. War psychiatry is a big field of study in the US and one gets to hear very little about it in India. Our defence analysts are too focussed on strategy and use of arms and technology andfar less on the human angle of it.
 

Image credit: Pinterest

Our generals enjoy a fair amount of respectability, barring the moustaches, on the TV channels. One of the best film comedies of all times – Dr Strangelove by Stanley Kubrick, made in 1964, is a devastating satire on military generals’ intent on a nuclear attack that threatens life on the earth.
 
Think of what American general Power, the architect of the nuclear bomb attack strategy, said:
 
“Restraint? Why are you so concerned with saving their lives? The whole idea is to kill the bastards. At the end of the war if there are two Americans and one Russian left alive, we win!^“
 
To that, somebody responded that let one of the two be a man and another a woman.
 
Subsequent research has shown that the film was very accurate in its technical details and did not exaggerate the fact that psychologically unstable generals could create a nuclear havoc and could exercise the nuclear option without authorisation from the political authority.

 Dr. Strangelove is a powerful and sarcastic comedy about a commander of a US Air Force Base – general Jack D Ripper, who diverts his B-52 bombers from airborne alert to an attack on the Soviet Union with nuclear weapons. This threatens to set off a doomsday device which endangers all life on the surface of the earth.
 
Robert Oppenheimer – the father of the atom bomb, suffered from the pangs of conscience in the making of the nuclear device. Warmongers seem to have no such pangs of conscience. Oppenheimer was a great admirer of the Hindu philosophical text Gita and used its philosophy as an anodyne for his suffering. He was a gentle man in his personal life and it is a wonder how he could work on the said project. But he did advocate against further use of nuclear weapons. Some scholars have blamed the British for contributing to the Gita cult and its rationalisation of war, as earlier Gita had only a limited role in Indian religious thought.
 
Surely, terrorist threats from across the Indian border have to be dealt with sternly by the military, but militarism as a concept needs to be questioned worldwide, as we now have an underwhelming peace movement than that during the days of the Vietnam war.
 
India is in some ways an ally of the US military with the just-completed joint military exercise in Almora district – something which would have been unthinkable a few decades ago. But, such ventures should also be tempered by more sober ideas.  Eisenhower, in his farewell address as president, warned against the military industrial complex, and later events have proved how correct he was. There is also need to question the whole war apparatus especially when it involves imperial conquests. One such questioning voice was Maj Gen Smedley Butler, who wrote the book War Is a Racket way back in 1935. In it, he showed how war promotes business interests at the cost of massive human suffering. He fought in several countries and sarcastically said how he helped American oil interests in Mexico, National City bank in Haiti, Standard Oil in China and so on.
 
Many of us look at war as a fancy spectacle, impervious to human suffering.  Sanskrit words Yudhhasya Katha Ramya are often quoted to suggest that it is romantic to hear the tales of a war. But, this is only half of the proverb and is clearly misunderstood. The full proverb says that war looks attractive, because it is fought so far away from us. This is the real crux. We, in India, have not suffered from war unlike some other countries where almost every family lost a young man in those wars. So many of us have pretty fanciful ideas and little understanding of the financial and physical costs of military action.
 
While stressing that it is important to fight terrorism militarily, it is also important to point out that pacifism is not a sign of weakness. Some of the best minds from over the centuries have opposed wars. Bertrand Russell, eminent philosopher and mathematician, strongly raised his voice against war exactly 100 years ago, went to prison for his ideological convictions and wrote a tract named The Ethics of War. It is also necessary that the voice of the common people needs to be heard on these issues. Some powerful truths can emerge from them.
 
Kavita Gadgil, mother of a soldier, is one of them. She in a way is in the same situation as Cindy Sheehan in the US is. Like Cindy, she lost her son in the military service, though not during a war. Both women have fought against the injustice done to their sons. But Cindy has emerged as a major heroic figure because she turned her personal loss into a crusade against America’s arrogant militarism.
 

Photo Credit: The Star

She attracted nationwide attention in America by offering vigil while President Bush enjoyed a long vacation on his ranch, just before being caught unaware by the criminal neglect of New Orleans floods. She was demanding justice saying her son Casey was killed in the Iraq war because of the unjust policies of the Bush administration.
 
Mrs Gadgil lost her son Flt Lt Abhijit Gadgil while he was flying the MIG 21  Air Force plane in 2001. She also launched a crusade but it was for a comparatively limited goal. She wanted to absolve her son of the insinuation by the authorities that he died because of his own mistake. She exposed the establishment by studying a series of MIG crashes and proving that there was something inherently wrong with the aircraft and its maintenance. She doggedly pursued the case and it was during this time that I met her a couple of times in The Times of India office.
 
She says that the film Rang De Basanti is based on the story of her son which she had discussed at length with the film’s makers. About her more recent work, let me quote from a media report.
 
“A little away from the Khadakvasla dam in Pune, at an unassuming bungalow bordered with mango trees, is the bungalow that houses the Abhijit Air Safety Foundation (AASF), a registered trust and memorial set up in the memory of Flight Lieutenant Abhijit Gadgil, by his parents Captain Anil Gadgil, a former Indian air force officer, and Kavita Gadgil. In the compound stands a MiG 21 fighter aircraft, which acts as a source of inspiration for the students training in aviation and aviation-related fields. The aircraft is also a constant reminder of Kavita’s fight for Abhijit and all other pilots who lost their lives in the fatal MiG 21 crashes.” (Femina, October 10, 2012).
 
Cindy Sheehan became something of a celebrity in America, because she was seen as a representative of a powerful force against all the evils, treachery and selfishness of the imperialistic policy pursued by the then President Bush and his supporters.
     
The issue of war-mongering and patriotism reminds me of Jane Jacobs, perhaps the most outstanding architectural critic in the world. This is her birth centenary year. But the greater thing about her, to my mind, is that during the brutal war waged by America in/on Vietnam, she chose to migrate to Canada so that her sons wouldn’t have to join the military and fight an unjust war.
 
Some so-called patriots who are steeped in ignorance and prejudice would term her act as unpatriotic. These so-called patriots seldom raise their voice against the issues like poverty, exploitation and inequality. Cindy Sheehan says that the word 'matriotism' should replace the word patriotism. Matriotism loves the country, but does not want to defend the country’s wrongdoings. Warmongers are cowardly men who hide behind the flag and send your children to die in their wars. These cowardly men do this to fatten their own bank balances and to pursue their game of imperialism and plunder.
 
 Shakespeare shows in his play, Henry V, how senseless this whole business of the battles and the killings is. King Henry goes in disguise to meet his troops before the battle and gets to know their feelings. A soldier called Wiliams speaks for a long line of common soldiers who have died throughout the history for the quarrels of the kings. He talks of the severed legs and arms and heads of common soldiers chopped in battle and their suffering, and cries on the battlefield for which the kings must take blame.Other soldiers ask him very inconvenient t questions about the treatment of soldiers who die in the unjust battles.

Another point is that human beings do not like to kill other humans without a reason. One of the better aspects of the film Haider set in  Kashmir  and based on the play Hamlet, is that Haider lets his  stepfather go. He does not kill him. This is not really out of character of the protagonist based on Hamlet. A little written-about aspect of human life is that human beings do not like to kill each other. There is a brilliant study on this by Dave Grossman, a former Lt Col. In the US army.  He has written a book on killing – The Psychology of Learning to Kill.  Even soldiers have to be specifically trained psychologically to kill. Hatred is spread among them about the other country.

There is so much violence in the world that we think that it is a part of human psyche. Violence arises out of hatred and revenge. It is the spread of hate that drives people to violence.That is why propaganda and fascism are so dangerous.

Another aspect that parents need to take up very seriously, in particular, is the violent television programmes and games that children watch.  Grossman points out that such games are a training ground to promote violence and, it is necessary to stop teaching kids to kill. The violence hardens emotions of children and they feel that there is nothing wrong in killing.

So watch out if little children are becoming aggressive.  There is so much violence in TV programmes like Chhota Bheem. It is a sweet-sounding name, but it has too much violence.

It is possible to study violence in a constructive way. Even schoolchildren can be exposed to studying the horrors of the concentration camps in fascist Germany so that they can understand the phenomenon. I saw a French film recently. The film, Once in a Lifetime, made in 2014 is based on a true story. `Troublesome’ students in a high school in France are completely transformed by their teacher when she makes them study the themes of discrimination, violence and racism in Nazi Germany. They won a national award of the French government for the project.
 
I am a patriotic Indian and I am even proud to be an Indian. But, having said that I must add that a true patriot should be the first to criticise the wrong policies of his or her government. As the eminent thinker Noam Chomsky has pointed out, it would be very unpatriotic of an American not to oppose America’s war in Iraq.
 
Some people have very strange ideas about being patriotic and about the development of our nation. If one opposes some so-called development project one is condemned as unpatriotic or even a traitor, even if the project overruns adivasis and their land and destroys the environment.
 
It is possible to be an internationalist and at the same time to be true to one’s country. Be true to thine own self, as Shakespeare said.
 
Our best guides on this are two texts: Rabindranath Tagore’s Nationalism published in 1917 and Mahatma Gandhi’s Hind Swaraj of 1910. Both were prophetic and are highly relevant. Tagore warned that economic and political forces should not be allowed to overrun common people in the name of the Nation. Gandhi was against a centralised, monolithic state that enslaved and alienated people. He warned against the corrupting influence of political powers. Their vision is very true and still relevant.

(The writer was formerly with the Times of India.)

The post Perils of War: What Ancient Greek Tragedies Can Teach Us Today appeared first on SabrangIndia.

पहला वीडियो बनियान पहने एक कश्मीरी लड़के का है जो सीआरपीएफ के जवानों से घिरा हुआ है। वीडियो में वो चीख रहा है कि उसे और उसके गिरोह को अलगाववादी नेता सैयद अली शाह गिलानी 500-500 रुपए भारतीय जवानों पर पत्थर फेंकने की एवज में देते हैं। अपने सरकार समर्थित नज़रिए के लिए बदनाम इंडिया टुडे के एंकर राहुल कंवल ने इस वीडियो को प्रसारित करने से पहले एक ट्वीट किया, 'आज न्यूज़रूम में पत्थर फेंकने वाले एक कश्मीरी का क़ुबूलनामा जिसमें वो कहता है कि कश्मीर में उत्पात मचाने के लिए अलगाववादी उसे फंड देते हैं।'

मगर इंडिया टुडे की स्क्रीन पर जो वीडियो चलाया गया, वो 2010 का था। राहुल कंवल 2016 में यानी कि छह साल बाद इसे एक्सक्लूसिव रिपोर्ट कहकर चला रहे थे। हालांकि श्रीनगर के मशहूर टीवी पत्रकार मुफ़्ती इस्लाह ने राहुल कंवल के इस ट्वीट पर पलटवार किया। उन्होंने लिखा, 'एक चैनल एक्सक्लूसिव का दावा करते हुए अपने न्यूज़ चैनल पर आज कचरा चला रहा है। आदमी बन जाओ साथियों।'

ठीक इंडिया टुडे की तरह, कश्मीरी प्रदर्शनकारियों की हक़ीक़त पर पर्दा डालने के लिए ज़ी न्यूज़ ने भी एक स्टोरी चलाई। इस ख़बर में ज़ी न्यूज़ ने फेरन (सर्दी में पहना जाने वाला गर्म कोट) पहने एक शख़्स को सीआरपीएफ जवानों पर पेट्रोल बम फेंकते हुए दिखाया है। मगर इस मौसम में फेरन? वो लंबा ऊनी फेरन जिसे कश्मीरी ठंड के मौसम में पहनते हैं? वो जुलाई की इस गर्मी में पहने हुए हैं? ये सीधे-सीधे फर्ज़ीवाड़ा और झूठी रिपोर्ट है।

इस तरह के पुराने और छेड़छाड़ किए गए वीडियो चलाकर, ऐसे चैनल ना सिर्फ दर्शकों की बुनियादी समझ का मज़ाक बना रहे हैं बल्कि उन्मादी राष्ट्रवादी मीडिया झूठ, प्रोपगंडा और भड़काऊ ख़बरें दिखाकर हर दिन वही पाकिस्तान विरोधी घिसा-पिटा राग दुहरा रहा है।

कश्मीर पर जब भी खुले और साफ़ मन से रिपोर्टिंग का सवाल आता है तो इंडियन इलेक्ट्रॉनिक मीडिया का एक बड़ा हिस्सा बमुश्किल पत्रकारीय उसूलों पर ध्यान देता है। सेना और पुलिस के एक-एक शब्द मीडिया इस तरह चलाता है, कि जैसे साक्षात ईश्वर प्रकट होकर किस्सा बता रहे हों। ऐसा करके वह ख़ुशी-ख़ुशी सरकारी प्रोपगंडा का हिस्सा बनने के लिए तैयार रहते हैं।

कश्मीर में मौतों का डरावना आंकड़ा जब 32 पहुंच गया, तब टाइम्स नाऊ ने एक टिकर चलाया, 'पाकिस्तान समर्थित हिंसा में 32 मारे गए।' पाकिस्तान को लेकर हिन्दुस्तानी मीडिया के पागलपन की इससे शानदार मिसाल नहीं मिल सकती। इसके बाद टाइम्स नाऊ ने एक और कैंपेन चलाया। इसमें दावा किया गया कि पाकिस्तान ने कश्मीर में पत्थरबाज़ी के लिए 100 करोड़ रुपए बज़रिए सैयद अली शाह गिलानी भेजे हैं। वही गिलानी जो पिछले छह साल से नज़रबंद हैं। कई बार समझ में नहीं आता कि ऐसी ख़बरें देखने के बाद हंसा जाए या उनपर मातम करना चाहिए।

ख़ैर, बहुत सारे टीवी पत्रकार कश्मीर से जुड़े मोटे-मोटे सवालों का भी जवाब नहीं दे सकते। वो नहीं बता सकते कि ऑल पार्टीज़ हुर्रियत कांफ्रेंस एक समूह है या दल? या सैय्यद अली शाह गिलानी की हुर्रियत और मीरवाइज़ उमर फारूक़ की हुर्रियत में क्या फर्क़ है? या कश्मीर घाटी में कुल कितने ज़िले हैं और उनके नाम कैसे पुकारे जाते हैं? ऐसे पत्रकार कश्मीर की किसी भी ख़बर या कहानी के साथ बमुश्किल इंसाफ़ कर सकते हैं।

मगर मैं ऐसे चुनिंदा पत्रकारों को भी जानता हूं जिन्हें कश्मीर में संकट होने पर बाक़ायदा मैदान में उतारा जाता है। भारत सरकार के प्रोपगंडा में ऐसे पत्रकारों की भूमिका महज़ एक तोते जैसी होती है। ये पत्रकार कश्मीर में तथ्यों की रिपोर्टिंग के लिए नहीं आते। इन्हें कश्मीर में तथ्यों से छेड़छाड़ और उसमें फेरबदल के लिए डंप किया जाता है और ये बिल्कुल भारत सरकार के पिट्ठू की तरह काम करते हैं। ये पत्रकारों हमेशा आग बुझाने की कोशिश करते हुए नज़र आएंगे। ये ख़ुद को ज़मीन पर तथ्यों की पड़ताल कर रहे एक पत्रकार की बजाय सेना-प्रदर्शनकारियों के संघर्ष को निपटाने-सुलटाने वाला मैनेजर टाइप फील करते हैं।

जब कभी कश्मीर में इस तरह का ख़तरा होता है, सिविलियन वर्दी में 'ऐसे पत्रकारों का गिरोह' 'मिशन कश्मीर' पर रवाना किया जाता है। इन्हें एक ख़ास मकसद के साथ भेजा जाता है ताकि इनकी मदद से कश्मीर में दहकती आग को 'ठंडा' किया जा सके। ये पत्रकार बार-बार कहते नज़र आएंगे कि कश्मीर गुस्से में है, उनमें अलगाव पहले से ज़्यादा बढ़ा है वग़ैरह-वग़ैरह। मगर यही पत्रकार सेना-प्रदर्शनकारियों के बीच जारी संघर्ष और अंसतोष की जड़ तक नहीं ले जाएंगे।

ऐसे पत्रकारों का दूसरा डरावना सच यह है कि ये कश्मीर में राज्य प्रायोजित हिंसा की तुलना सुरक्षाबलों पर पत्थर फेंकने वाले कुछ प्रदर्शनकारियों से करते दिखते हैं। ये पत्रकार श्रीनगर के अस्पतालों में घूमकर पैरामिलिट्री और पुलिस के दर्जनभर जवानों के इलाज की वो तस्वीरें दिखाते हैं जो मामूली स्क्रैच का शिकार होते हैं। फिर सरकार समर्थित हिंसा की गैरवाजिब तुलना प्रदर्शनकारियों से करते हैं।
​​​​​​​
अभी तक कश्मीर में 48 मौतें हुई हैं। इनमें औरतें भी शामिल हैं। 3 हज़ार से अधिक घायलों में ज़्यादातर बच्चे हैं। इस बेशर्म आंकड़े के सामने स्क्रैच खाए जवानों की मामलों की कोई अहमियत नहीं है। ऐेसे जवानों की तस्वीरें दिखा-दिखाकर ये पत्रकार दरअसल भारतीयों में राष्ट्रवादी जोश भरने की कोशिश करते हैं। ये दरअसल ऐसी तस्वीर सामने लाने की कोशिश करते हैं कि हमारे बहादुर सिपाहियों को प्रदर्शन रूपी आतंकवाद और आतंकियों से हमदर्दी रखने वालों से निपटने में कितनी मुश्किलों का सामना करना पड़ता है। जी हां, ये पत्रकार बिल्कुल इसी भाषा का इस्तेमाल करते हैं, कश्मीरी आवाम की वास्तविक राजनीतिक इच्छा को अवैध और गैरकानूनी साबित करने के लिए।

Courtesy: Media Vigil, द हूट से साभार

The post ‘आज तक’ चला रहा है 2010 की बाइट ! कश्मीरी पत्रकार का खुला आरोप ! appeared first on SabrangIndia.