Srinagar: Hundreds of Leh residents marched in protest on Wednesday demanding statehood and recognition under the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution. Similar protests were held in other parts of the Union Territory (UT), which was carved out of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) following the passage of the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019.

The protest was called by the Leh Apex Body, an alliance formed of social, political and religious bodies from Buddhist, Christian and Muslim communities in 2020. The Kargil Democratic Alliance (KDA) also protested in the Kargil Division demanding similar rights.

The two associations have formed a coalition for their statehood demand and resolved on October 26 to launch a long-term agitation for their four-point list of demands.

The demands include statehood for Ladakh, constitutional safeguards on the lines of the Sixth Schedule (which grants autonomy to tribal communities), additional Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha seats for Ladakh to “strengthen the representation and participation” in the democratic process and early recruitment to end the employment crisis. 

The protesters raised slogans and carried banners that listed the four demands, which were first raised after Ladakhis lost reservation over land and jobs with the abrogation of Article 370 on August 5, 2019. 

Wednesday’s protest rallies are being seen as the beginning of what the representative bodies are saying will be a “sustained agitation” likely to continue for the next whole year until the demands are met.

The associations have created a road map that will be followed, according to a social activist privy to the developments, by locals willing to go on strikes, hunger strikes and similar rallies. The road map is yet to be made public. 

Prominent Ladakh activist Jigmat Paljor said that the protest was also held because of the standstill following the dialogue initiated by the Union home ministry last year to address the issues of Ladakhis. 

“There has been a big delay and the dialogue did not proceed. Today’s protest is significant and also sends a message that the dialogue should resume and a discussion be held to fulfil the demands,” Paljor told Newsclick. 

This was the first major protest since the complete shutdown observed in the region last December. The development comes exactly three years after the region was declared a UT.

Initially, many residents had welcomed the Act due to their long-pending demand for a UT status. However, they soon felt vulnerable after losing their exclusive rights over land and jobs. Kargil residents have vociferously opposed the Act, which, they believe, has disempowered them and their representation in political affairs.

Courtesy: Newsclick

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The Delhi Police made a public statement to call out a local hotel whose receptionist / manager was filmed on video as she denied a room to a guest from Jammu and Kashmir. She claimed that the “special cell” and “Delhi Police” had “instructed” that identity documents from J&K were not to be considered as proof. The man offered to show his Aadhaar card and Passport, both of which would also have his address from J&K.  

Delhi hotel viral video: Owner blames guest amid #JammuKashmir ID row as police, #OYO react ?#ViralVideo pic.twitter.com/NMIxbo9eEH

— Editorji (@editorji) March 24, 2022

However, her claim was busted by the Delhi police who tweeted, “It is clarified that no such direction has been given by Delhi Police” and warned that social media users who were “are trying to discredit the image of Delhi Police through willful misrepresentation of the video in circulation which can attract penal action.”

A purported video is viral on social media wherein a person is being denied hotel reservation due to his J&K ID. The reason for cancellation is being given as direction from police.
It is clarified that no such direction has been given by Delhi Police.(1/3)@ANI @PTI_News

— Delhi Police (@DelhiPolice) March 23, 2022

Some netizens are trying to discredit the image of Delhi Police through willful misrepresentation of the video in circulation which can attract penal action.(3/3)@ANI @PTI_News #DelhiPoliceUpdates

— Delhi Police (@DelhiPolice) March 23, 2022

The Delhi Hotel was listed on Oyo Rooms, a popular hotel aggregation firm from where the Kashmiri man had confirmed his booking. Once the video of him being denied a room went viral, even Oyo Rooms took action and announced that the hotel had been taken off its platform. It said that it will also “check what compelled the hotel to deny check-in.”

pic.twitter.com/xookdsKhXW

— OYO4U (@OYO4U) March 23, 2022

The undated video is now being seen as an example of dicrimination and hate against Muslims, especially Muslims from Jammu and Kashmir in the aftermath of release of the movie The Kashmir Files. Scores of viral videos have shown how in the theatres showing the film, calls for Muslim genocide ar given, and anti Muslim soeeches made. However, if this video is confirmed as recent, it will also prove that the hate and discrimation is now normalised even in the National Capital. The video was first shared by Nasir Khuehami, who is National Spokesperson of Jammu And Kashmir Students’ Association who called it an “Impact of #KashmirFiles on the ground” 

Impact of #KashmirFiles on ground.

Delhi Hotel denies accommodation to kashmiri man, despite provided id and other documents. Is being a kashmiri a Crime. @Nidhi @ndtv @TimesNow @vijaita @zoo_bear @kaushikrj6 @_sayema @alishan_jafri @_sayema @manojkjhadu @MahuaMoitra pic.twitter.com/x2q8A5fXpo

— Nasir Khuehami (ناصر کہویہامی) (@NasirKhuehami) March 23, 2022

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Jharkhand: Youths attack Class 9 student for not chanting Jai Shri Ram!

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The Kashmiri Pandit Sangharsh Samiti (KPSS) is all set to go on a hunger strike starting November 22, 2020. This is the second time KPSS chief Sanjay Tickoo will go on hunger strike this year demanding that the Jammu and Kashmir administration delivers on promises made to Kashmiri Pandit families who did not leave the Valley during the exodus in the late 80s and early 90s.

At present there are at least 808 Kashmiri Pandit families still living in the valley, many in refugee camps. At least 150 of these are low-income families who fall below poverty line (BPL). Most struggle for basic expenses like food and medicine.

Security that was earlier provided to members of the community has now been withdrawn and Kashmiri Pandit families, especially vocal community leaders are now left to their own devices to protect themselves. Nearly 600 youth are unemployed. While they had earlier qualified for employment schemes of the government, a delay in implementation of the schemes led close to 100 of them becoming ineligible due to crossing age restrictions. The KPSS is demanding not only financial aid, but also swift implementation of government employment schemes. CJP has been supporting KPSS, which is it partner organisation, in their quest for Kashmiri Pandits in the Valley.

It is noteworthy that KPSS has sent over 110 memoranda since June, indicating the urgency of the situation, the last on August 12. Following this KPSS had a meeting with J&K Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha on August 27 who had then assured that action would be taken on the demands made by the group. But when the administration failed to walk the talk, KPSS members led by Tickoo went on an indefinite hunger strike on September 20, 2020.

At the time, the group had released a statement saying, “Disaster Management Relief, Rehabilitation and Reconstruction (DMRR&R) Department is punishing left out (Non-Migrant) Kashmiri Pandits – Kashmiri Hindus for staying back in Kashmir Valley. Since abrogation of Article 370 and 35 A we the Non-Migrant Kashmiri Pandits – Kashmiri Hindus living in Kashmir Valley are facing harassment and isolation at the hands of Relief Department. Despite multiple directions from Hon’ble High Court and recommendations from the Central Government through the Ministry of Home Affairs, Relief Department is playing with the life and security of the Non-Migrant Kashmiri Pandits – Kashmiri Hindus living in Kashmir Valley.”

Ten days later, Dr. Shahid Iqbal Choudhary (IAS), the Deputy Commissioner of Srinagar met with Tickoo and other protesters at the protest site, and gave the group a written undertaking promising that all genuine demands will be followed up, and requesting them to call off the hunger strike. But once again, the administration failed to deliver on its promises.

The group will begin it second hunger strike from November 22, 2020. KPSS lists the following under its Charter of Demands:

1)       KPSS demand Vigilance inquiry against the officers/officials of the Relief Department for deliberately stalling and sabotaging Relief and Rehabilitation of Non-Migrant Kashmiri Pandits – Kashmiri Hindus living in Kashmir Valley and misusing their official positions to harm Kashmiri Pandits – Kashmiri Hindus living in Kashmir Valley.

2)            Implementation of Hon’ble High Court directions and recommendations of the Ministry of Home Affairs regarding Jobs to the unemployed educated Kashmiri Pandit/Kashmiri Hindu youths.

3)       DMRR&R deliberately delayed the process by more than four years as such give one-time age relaxation to all the over-age candidates’ w.e.f. 31.05.2016 (date of the judgment passed by Hon’ble High Court in OWP 1986/2013 titled Kashmiri Pandit Sangharsh Samiti and others Vs. Union of India and others)

4)            Easy and stress-free process of providing Bonafide Certificates to all the aspirants (Non-Migrant Kashmiri Pandits / Kashmiri Hindus) as per SRO 425 dated 10.10.2017.

5)            Monthly Financial Aid to 808 Non-Migrant Kashmiri Pandit – Kashmiri Hindu families living in Kashmir Valley

6)            Providing accommodation to all deserving Non-Migrant Kashmiri Pandit – Kashmiri Hindu families living in Kashmir Valley as per recommendations of the Ministry of Home Affairs.

7)            Extension of benefits of Migrant Welfare Fund to the Non-Migrant Kashmiri Pandits – Kashmiri Hindus living in Kashmir Valley.

Related:

KPSS begins fast-unto-death
J&K administration ignoring non-migrant Kashmiri Pandits: Sanjay Tickoo
Day 4 of Fast-unto-Death: KPSS decries Relief Department’s Apathy
KPSS hunger strike still going strong
Victory! J&K administration relents, KPSS calls off hunger strike

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In an order issued on November 12, the J&K administration has once again extended the ban on 4G internet in the region until November 26. Such extension on the restriction on high speed internet has been a continuous cycle since January 2020.

The administration cited the recently announced elections to 280 District Development Councils and bye-elections to more than 13,400 posts in panchayati raj institutions/urban local bodies across J&K as one of the reasons behind continuing the ban.

“During the last fortnight, there have also been targeted killing of the civilians, political activists, that manifest the nefarious designs of the (militants) to dissuade general public from participating in the election process,” stated the order issued by Principal Secretary Home Shaleen Kabra.

“Such unlawful acts heavily rely upon high speed mobile internet connectivity and are required to be thwarted by taking appropriate pre-emptive measures to create an environment of safety and security for the contesting candidates and the general public,” the order further states.

In August 2019, Jammu and Kashmir, among other restrictions, had their internet suspended completely. The communication blockade remained throughout the festive season, New Year’s Eve and was partially lifted in January, 2020 after the apex court hit the gavel. Internet was restored in 2G speed and restriction on access to social media was also eventually lifted. Although it remains a mystery how any social media platform would load on 2G internet speed.

The region was barely managing when coronavirus hit the world and even essential services such as education, health care and justice system went virtual. For a Union Territory that had been under lockdown since August 2019, the nation wide lockdown did not structurally make much difference, except that it was now all the more cut off from the rest of the world and now even bore the risk of losing a school year or worse, losing lives. Unable to access services online with the snail paced 2G internet, the people have been only left in a lurch. While the rest of the country was keeping itself together by having at least access to adequate and good speed internet, J&K remained to be at comparatively more of a disadvantage than the rest of us.

A ray of hope was the petition filed in the Supreme Court highlighting the real issues being faced by the region, especially in the times of an unprecedented health crisis. The petition filed by Foundation for Media Professionals stated, “With limited and restricted access to the internet by allowing only 2G speed in the UT, patients and doctors are unable to access latest information, advisories, and guidelines”. The petition laid out real time difficulties being faced by health care personnel in the UT and stated, “Various public health practitioners, medical professionals, and doctors have repeatedly expressed their concern about wasting precious time trying to download the latest studies, protocols, manuals and advisories on treatment and management of COVID 19. In some cases, doctors are not able to access these resources at all, due to the internet speed being too slow to download heavy files.”

Yet, while making its decision in April, 2020, the top court did not pass any specific orders for restoration of 4G internet instead set up a Committees led by the Secretary of Ministry of Home Affair to review the situation and consider the alternatives suggested by the petitioners. A contempt petition had to be filed to get this Committee in motion and when compelled by court orders to give a report after review, the committee decided to restore 4G internet in just 2 districts, Ganderbal and Udhampur, on trial basis.

The outcome is, the Union territory continues to use low speed 2G internet for anything and everything they might need to do virtually.

Recently, the Department of Telecommunications amended its rules which effectively meant that the validity of any administrative order of suspension of internet cannot be for more than 15 days. Since the situation in J&K is no longer of complete suspension but only of partial ban on speed of internet, the situation has been left in a limbo.

The order may be read here.

Related:

Cannot suspend internet for more than 15 days says Centre
J&K: 4G will be restored on trial basis in two districts for limited period
Kashmiri student urges PM to restore 4G internet

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Psychiatrist Anirudh Kala, academic Brinelle D’Souza, journalist Revati Laul and human rights activist Shabnam Hashmi, who were in Jammu on October 6-7, who were as part of a fact-finding team in J&K, have said in the report that more than half the people they contacted in Jammu “froze” when they heard they wanted to meet them.

“They refused outright to meet us or even engage with us on the phone, even when we made it clear we were not going to mention any names”, says the “citizens’ report”, titled “Kashmir Civil Disobedience: Trauma, Resistance, Resilience Two Months On”.

Pointing out that “the centre of this terror is located in Jammu’s commerce, its business community”, the report says, “In the grip of this coma (was) the head of the chamber of commerce, who called for a blockade to be held on the September 16” but withdrew the announcement on September 14 within a few hours, stating “the government had given him an assurance that business would not be hit.”

The authors quote an insider as stating “that the story doing the rounds was that he was scared of being sent to prison”, even as quoting another businessman, on various committees, as telling them, “It’s widened the rift between people. Trade is hampered, work is not happening. Banks are not functioning. 60% of Jammu’s trade is with Kashmir, so that is affected.”

Asserting that this is the “untold story of Jammu and its trauma”, the report quotes a transporter as saying, “Post the abrogation of 370, Kashmir has had one eye taken out, Jammu has had both eyes removed.”

No doubt, according to the authors, unlike the Kashmir valley, Jammu was not in a lockdown, there was no civil disobedience, landlines, mobile networks, shops, restaurants and malls were open and WIFI connections worked.

However, they say, the internet was an “abominably slow” with files that took three minutes to transfer in Delhi, were buffering all night in Jammu.” Tourists were absent. “We were the only occupants at our hotel, the Ashok, which has 45 rooms, most are booked out at this time of the year.”

Outside, the authors say, “The security forces that were omnipresent in Kashmir, were much fewer and far between by the day. After dark, the picture changed and cars were stopped and checked regularly.”

Not without reason, they say, distress was writ large on a contingent of transporters and traders whom they met. Pointing towards how the Rs 35,000 crore business in Jammu was on a standstill, a businessman said, if earlier 500 trucks at the railway station “would have a trip a day” now those trips are “down to one trip in four days. That’s business cut down to a quarter already.”

Yet another businessman said, “We are in the Dussehra season. The wholesale market, the mandi is normally so crowded there’s no place to stand. Now it’s desolate. This is the apple season in Srinagar. Last year, in this season, Rs 7,000 crore of business was done.”

He added, “This time the government is saying they will buy fruit worth Rs 8,600 crore from Srinagar. How will this fruit get to the mandi? When individuals aren’t being able to go and pluck fruit from their orchards because of the overall climate of fear?”
 

 

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The shutdown was imposed around the time the Central Government with Parliament’s approval made fundamental changes to J&K’s status under the Constitution of India. A few weeks ago, the media reported the Government’s claim that all landline services across the State and post-paid mobile telephone services in some parts of the Valley had been restored. Speaking at an event organised in New Delhi by the Former Civil Servants Forum, the Union Home Minister (HM) is reported to have said that the restrictions are only in some minds and not in J&K (perhaps he referred to the minds of those opposed to the changes being imposed on J&K including Opposition Parties).

The Union Home Ministry has now confirmed the HM’s statement. A few days ago the Home Ministry has given a reply under the Right to Information Act, 2005 (RTI Act) saying, they do not have any papers relating to the restrictions on telecommunications imposed in that State. It has also claimed innocence of knowledge vis-a-vis the widely reported arrests and detentions of politicians and social activists who are residents of J&K.

The Union Home Minister is also reported to have asked participants at that the New Delhi event, whether lack of telephone services is a violation of fundamental rights.  It appears that the Home Ministry officials slipped up in briefing him about the recent Kerala High Court’s finding that access to the Internet, especially through mobile telephone service providers, is a fundamental right deemed to be a part of the right to life under Article 21 and the right to education guaranteed under Article 21-A of the Constitution.

As a result of this innocence of basic and crucial knowledge of rights, not only the several fundamental freedoms of Kashmiris, but also the rest of India’s right to know have taken a severe beating under the enforced policy of One Nation, One Constitution.

The RTI Intervention with the MHA

Three weeks after the Central Government successfully moved Parliament to take away the special protection given to J&K under the Constitution of India, on 30th August, 2019, I sought the following information from the Union Ministry of Home Affairs through an online RTI application:

“1) a clear photocopy of any order(s)/direction(s)/instruction(s) issued for suspending Internet and telecom services, in Jammu and Kashmir in August 2019;
2) a clear photocopy of any order(s)/direction(s)/instruction(s) issued for suspending radio broadcasts and satellite television services in Jammu and Kashmir in August 2019;
3) a clear photocopy of any order(s)/direction(s)/instruction(s)/advisory(ies) issued requiring the Amarnath Yatra pilgrims to leave Jammu and Kashmir in 2019;
4) a clear photocopy of any order(s)/direction(s)/instruction(s)/advisory(ies) issued requiring the departure of tourists from Jammu and Kashmir in 2019;
5) a clear photocopy of any order(s)/direction(s)/instruction(s) issued in July-August 2019 for detaining or arresting leaders and members of all political parties currently active in Jammu and Kashmir;
6) the names of political leaders and members of political parties belonging to Jammu and Kashmir currently under detention or being held in police or judicial custody along with the exact geographical address of the places of their lodgement as on date;
7) the title of the law, rule or regulation along with the text of the relevant provision under which such political leaders and members of political parties in Jammu and Kashmir who are placed under detention or being held in police or judicial custody as on date;
8) the names of Right to Information (RTI) activists in Jammu and Kashmir who have been placed under detention or are being held in police or judicial custody and their village/town/city of ordinary residence, along with the exact geographical address of the places of their lodgement as on date;
9) the title of the law, rule or regulation along with the text of the relevant provision under which such RTI activists in Jammu and Kashmir have been placed under detention or who are being held in police or judicial custody as on the date of this RTI application;
10) the names of other social activists in Jammu and Kashmir currently who have been held under detention or are being held in police or judicial custody and their village/ town/city of ordinary residence, along with the exact geographical address of the places of their lodgement as on date; and
11) the title of the law, rule or regulation along with the text of the relevant provision under which such social activists in Jammu and Kashmir have been placed under detention or who are being held in police or judicial custody as on date.”

The Central Public Information Officers (CPIOs) in the MHA seem to have played soccer with the RTI application for a few of weeks, moving it from desk to desk within the J&K Division of the Ministry. Both CPIOs eventually replied that they did not have any of the information sought in my RTI application. The second CPIO went a couple of steps further ahead to tell me that he could not transfer the RTI application to J&K as it was not covered by the Central RTI Act (On 31 October, 2019 the Central RTI Act will become operational in J&K and Ladakh because of the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019). He also said I could seek the same information from J&K if I were eligible to so do under the J&K’s own RTI Act of 2009 (which has been formally repealed by the J&K Reorganisation Act). Under the J&K’s RTI Act only local residents are eligible to file RTI applications with the State Government. Click here to read the RTI application and CPIOs’ replies.

What is wrong with the Home Ministry’s RTI replies?

There are multiple problems with the CPIOs’ replies which indicate lack of due application of mind to the issues involved:

1) Since 19 December, 2018, the State of J&K has been placed under President’s Rule imposed under Article 356 of the Constitution. All powers of the Governor and the State Legislature stand transferred to the President of India. The work of the State Government is being carried out under the guidance of the Central Government through the State’s Governor who has only babus to run the administration. Any order imposing curbs on travel and telecommunications will at least be copied to the Union Home Ministry in which the J&K Division is housed, if not actually directed by the MHA. So the CPIOs’ replies that they have no information about the curbs imposed and the arrests and detention of residents of J&K are not based on truth and reality.

2) The newly constituted Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs is reported to have sought extensive information about the situation in J&K including data about arrests and detenues of the very categories of people I mentioned in my RTI application. Ordinarily, the MHA has a duty to provide this information to the Parliamentary Committee unless it makes a compelling case to withhold it from the Committee in the interests of protecting national security. If MHA gives this information to the Committee, I will be entitled to receive it thanks to the proviso underlying Section 8(1)(j) of the RTI Act. According to this proviso, information which cannot be denied to Parliament or a State Legislature, shall not be denied to any person formally seeking it under the Act.

3) Further, orders imposing curbs on people’s movement and telecommunication services are decisions which affect the public at large. Not only people residing in J&K and their relatives and friends based outside but others like me who have friends and well wishers in J&K are affected by such curbs. So under Section 4(1)(c) and 4(1)(d) of the Central RTI Act everybody has the right to know all relevant facts that led to the imposition of the curbs and the justification for such administrative decisions. Both provisions can be found in J&K’s RTI Act also.

Whichever Government that imposed such curbs in J&K has not only kept those orders away from the public gaze but also refused to explain why such curbs are necessary over such a long period of time. In fact this is the core issue in at least one of the petitions pending in the Supreme Court of India filed by a local mediaperson. The Apex Court’s lack of adequate speed in ruling on the legality of these curbs has come in to a lot of public criticism – too numerous to by cited here. In fact a cyber satyagraha was observed across the country on Gandhiji’s 150 birth anniversary (2nd October, 2019) to protest these curbs and express support to those deprived of telecom services in J&K.
4) Come 31st October, the Central Criminal Procedure Code, 1973 (CrPC) will replace J&K’s own criminal law. Section 41C of the Central CrPC requires every District Police Control Room to display prominently on a notice board information about people arrested including their names and other details and the details of the police officers effecting such arrest. This will apply to all districts in J&K. Under the same statutory provision the J&K Police Headquarters will be under an obligation to maintain a database of information about people arrested or detained, not for its records but primarily for the reference of the general public. So this is an obligation to be transparent about arrests and detentions by the time this matter goes into appeals. The CPIOs have ignored all these matters while drafting their replies to my RTI application.

Is there a fundamental right to telephone services?

The Union HM seemed to be in doubt as to whether “lack of telephone services is a human rights violation” (or else he might have asserted that there was no such human right) at the public event he addressed on the last day of September, 2019. Ten days earlier, the Kerala High Court had ruled that access to Internet is a fundamental right. It is unfortunate that the MHA officials had not updated him on this development or he could have spared himself the embarrassment of asking such a question.

On 19 September, 2019, in the matter of Faheema Shirin R. K. vs The State of Kerala & Ors., the Kerala High Court ruled that right to access Internet, particularly, through mobile telephone service providers is deemed to be a part of the rights to life and privacy under Article 21 of the Constitution and the right to education under Article 21A of the Constitution of India. The Petitioner, an 18-year old girl student of a college affiliated to the University of Calicut, challenged the discriminatory rule imposed by a Warden of a Girls’ Hostel banning the use of Internet by inmates after sunset. This progressive judgement received only cursory attention in media circles whereas it should have been at the centre of the debate over the ongoing curbs on communication in J&K. The Court ruled that students have the right to access Internet through their mobile phones so long as they did not disturb other hostel inmates. The Court drew upon a slew of UN Human Rights Declarations and Resolutions of the Human Rights Council- both arenas where the Central Government has put in strenuous efforts to prevent and counter criticism of its actions in J&K.

While the Hostel authorities justified the curbs imposed on access to the internet in the name of “discipline”, the Court rejected that argument observing as follows:

“9…Though instructions are to be obeyed by the inmates, is there any justification in imposing such restrictions. However in this case the question to be examined is whether such enforcement of discipline by restricting the use of mobile phones would result in curtailing the right of the students to acquire knowledge by different means. Using of mobile phones by itself would not cause any harm to anyone. If a restriction is unreasonable and arbitrary and infringes the fundamental right of an inmate, it cannot be said that the student has to abide by such restriction, especially when the inmate is an adult…

18. Though it is true that the Principal of the college is the supreme authority to enforce discipline as held by this Court in Manu Wilson’s case, Sojan Francis‘ case, Indulekha Joseph‘s case (supra) and that there cannot be any dispute that rules and regulations lawfully framed are to be obeyed by the students and that teachers are like foster parents who are required to look after, cultivate and guide the students in their pursuit of education for maintaining excellence of education, the rules should be modified in tune with the modernisation of the technology so as to enable the students to acquire knowledge from all available sources. It would be open to the authorities in the hostel to supervise whether any distraction or disturbance is caused to other students on account of usage of mobile phone or take action when any such complaint is received. The total restriction on its use and the direction to surrender it during the study hours is absolutely unwarranted. When the Human Rights Council of the United Nations have found that right to access to Internet is a fundamental freedom and a tool to ensure right to education, a rule or instruction which impairs the said right of the students cannot be permitted to stand in the eye of law.

22. I am of the view that what is required is a counselling for the students, as well as parents in the colleges. The students in the hostels should be given counselling in order to inculcate in them self restraint in the usage of mobile phones, to make them capable of choosing the right path, to make them aware of the consequence of misuse as well as advantage of its proper use. It should be left to the students to choose the time for using mobile phone. The only restriction that can be imposed is that they should not cause any disturbance to other students. While acting in exercise of right to privacy, persons like the petitioner shall also see that such exercise does not invade the right to privacy of another student residing in the hostel especially in her room.” (emphasis supplied)

Although the judgement cited above has the force of law in Kerala only, it is a beacon of light to shine while testing the validity and constitutionality of excessive curbs imposed on telecom services not only in J&K but also other parts of the country. All eyes will be on what the Apex Court will do on Children’s Day, i.e., 14th November, 2019 when the two dozen petitions about J&K’s constitutional status and the state of affairs in that region will be taken up again. In all probability the the Central Government will justify the curbs on telecom services on grounds of protecting the defence and security interests of the State. How the Apex Court will test the proportionality of these curbs will be watched with great interest in all quarters.

Meanwhile, I will do the usual appeals in this case and report back.
—
*Programme Head, Access to Information Programme, Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, New Delhi

Courtesy: Counter View
 

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The Supreme Court has directed the Juvenile Justice Committee of the Jammu and Kashmir High Court to look into the allegations of illegal detention of children in Jammu and Kashmir in the wake of abrogation of Article 370, and submit a report before it within a week.

There have been certain reports specific to the serious human rights violations against children in the erstwhile state of J and K, which describe violations of very different kinds, ranging in seriousness from potential loss of life and liberty of the child, to being emotionally and intellectually drawn into the conflict. The directions were passed on petition filed by senior social activist, Enakshy Ganguly of Haq for Child Rights and senior activist, Shanta Sinha who is an anti-child labour activist of international reputation. She is the founder of Mamidipudi Venkatarangaiya Foundation, popularly known as MV Foundation, and is a Professor in the Department of Political science in Hyderabad Central University
 
The petition may be read here.
 

The petitioners had prayed for a regular status report from the government “detailing the current whereabouts, and the medical (both psychological and physical) status be provided on the specific children described in this petition, who have been detained or were detained and who have been beaten up in custody.:

Further they had also prayed for directions “ that all persons below the age of eighteen years who are detained in any police station, detention centre, jails, or any other confinement, by whatever name called in Jammu and Kashmir be identified through an age census conducted under the aegis of the Juvenile Justice Committee of the High Court of Jammu and Kashmir.
 
Petitioners had also asked for directions to the effect that “all children who are currently detained be produced before the Juvenile Justice Committee of the Hon’ble High Court and brought under their care and supervision, so that they may be provided with the necessary support” and that there would be “no detention of children be made without an Order in writing, stating legal provisions under which the detention order has been passed;” Also that the“ whereabouts of such children as detained under written, legal orders be made available to their parents/guardians.” Finally the prayers included directions to the High Court to review, fortnightly, the individual care plans (which should include compensation, rehabilitation, education, health etc.) prepared by the JJ Committees for all such children, as mandated by the JJ Act and further review the action taken thereunder by the JJ Committee in pursuance of such individual care plans; and directions for an enquiry to be conducted by a court appointed investigation team into the specific cases of children who have been maimed or illegally detained, or have died in the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir. Compensation should also be paid to all those “children who have been maimed or illegally detained and to families of children who have died.”
 
In their sharp and focussed intervention, the petitioners had detailed reports of serious human rights violations on children:
 
ü  reportage in mainstream newspapers are thus: the first pertains to illegal (if temporary) detention (and in some cases beatings) of young boys by security forces. The second concerns serious injuries and deaths of children through deliberate or accidental. The following specific cases are collated below:
A young boy as chased by the CRPF, while returning from a game of cricket. He somehow fell into the river and drowned while being chased. A copy of the report dated August 8, 2019; Indian Express reporting the drowning of a 16 years old boy. This report is annexed to the petition.

ü  On August 9, 2019 night raids were conducted in Soura, Srinagar. A mother reported that the police knocked at her door at 2 AM demanding that her school-going son be handed over to them. When she refused to let them take the child away, they took her husband as ransom, telling her to bring the child to the police station the next morning if she wanted her husband back. A copy of the report of The Washington Post dated August 9, 2019 about the night raids conducted in Soura is also annexed.as also reports of the boy was admitted to the pellet injuries to his leg, which bystanders said were unprovoked . This report is annexed to the petition.

ü  In one particular case of a 11-year-old boy from Pampore and has been widely reported, who was kept in detention without any formal records between August 5 and August 11, 2019. He has been quoted to say that there were boys even younger than him in custody from nearby villages. A copy of the newspaper article as reported in The Telegraph (14th August 2019) is also annexed.

ü   A copy of the news report about how students were being forced to write to the Prime Minister as reported in Livewire is also annexed.

ü  A copy of the Business Insider dated August 15, 2019 is also annexed

ü  A team of civil society members visited Kashmir and released a report. The report of the civil society members was reported by Pheroze L Vincent dated August 15, 2019. A copy of the report of the Civil Society members was reported by Pheroze L Vincent dated August 15, 2019 is also annexed.

ü  Caravan magazine carried a piece on the ground situation in Kashmir in its report dated August 16, 2019. A copy of the report dated August 16, 2019 reported in Caravan Magazine is also annexed.

ü  One especially concerning narrative is the following: ‘while looking for them, we found a small five-year-old girl, Muneefa Nazir, with her right eye bandaged. She was lying on the bed and sleeping, with Eid mehendi on her hands, as more than ten family members sat around her looking shattered. She had been brought the previous day at 6.30 pm from Safakadal after a CRPF jawan hit her with a stone from his catapult. She was sitting on her uncle’s bike.“We were going to distribute the qurbani meat,” Farooq Ahmad Wani, the uncle said. “She sat in front, on the fuel tank. Two people sat behind me. As I tried to cross the road, one CRPF jawan asked me to take another way. As he was talking to me, another CRPF guy across the road hit us with the stone. Muneefa was injured and started bleeding a lot. When I tried to confront him and ask why he did it, he cocked his gun and said I will shoot you if you don’t leave. All the others who gathered to support me also ran away after that.” He added that everything was peaceful and their shift was also coming to an end, at 6 pm, when the incident happened.’

ü  The Washington Post carried a piece on August 19, 2019 reporting that though the clampdown was slightly loosened the leaders were still detained. This report is annexed to the petition.

ü  Two boys aged 14 and 16 years were picked up in a night raid from Mehjoor Nagar, Srinagar in the intervening night of August 19-20, 2019. Their father Ali Mohammad Rah had not been allowed to see them as of August 20, 2019.

ü  Night raids were also conducted in the area of Nowshera during the night of August 19-20, and teenaged boys were illegally taken away. This report is annexed to the petition.

ü  “Nights fill us with dread,” says Zainab* (name changed), a resident of Baramulla in north Kashmir. Zainab is in her late forties, and her children have grown up, but as many as three children have been “picked up” by security forces from her area, during raids conducted at night. One of them, Qasim*, is about 10-11 years old, and stayed barely a few blocks away from Zainab. “They (Qasim’s family) heard someone banging on their door a few days back. It was quite late. They (security personnel) told the family to call Qasim. They pleaded with the forces not to take the boy away but they roughed up the father and took Qasim under detention,” Zainab narrates. This is one of the several instances of minors being detained by security forces in the Valley after the government decided to scrap Jammu and Kashmir’s special status on 5 August. The number of children detained is said to be running into hundreds. This report is annexed to the petition.

ü  Raids in south Kashmir are particularly severe. A large number of minors and youths have been picked up by security forces in places like Pampore, Awantipora, Khrew, Tral, and Pulwama, all of which are in the Pulwama district. A child was illegally taken away from Buchpora, Mehmoodabad at 1.40 am in the night of August 19-20, 2019.

ü  On August 20, Mohammad Altaf, a government employee reported that his son, 17-year-old Sameer Ahmed, had been on his way to a hospital, bearing tea and food for a relative admitted there, when he was detained at the Soura bus stop. “My cousin’s son was passing by and saw him,” said Mohammad Altaf. “We have been waiting [outside the Soura Police station] all day. We went inside in the morning. They had beaten him with chains.” Once again, there is no FIR, according to the family. This report is annexed to the petition.

ü  In the Eidgah area of Srinagar, a 12-year-old had been picked up on the afternoon of August 17, 2019 . He had been sent out to buy bread, his mother said, when stone pelting broke out. “I was inside the baker’s shop when there was a rush of people on the street,” said the 12-year-old. “They [security forces] came inside and took me out of the shop. The moment they caught me, they hit me with the butt of a gun and slapped me.” His mother, meanwhile, had heard a commotion on the streets and gone out to look for her son. A family which lives above the baker’s shop told her he had been taken by the police. She then took a lift on a passing bike and followed the police vehicles. At Ali Masjid, the old mosque near the Eidgah grounds, they found a police vehicle with a punctured tyre. They had her son but said they could not let him go, she recounted, he had to be presented at the police station. The boy was taken to the Safa Kadal police station, where he was kept in a lock up. “They asked me to write my name and details on a paper and sign it,” he said. “They also took my picture.” His family, meanwhile, waited all day near the police station. That day, reports had spread that an elderly man had died of suffocation from tear gas. It had led to more protests and tear gas shelling in downtown Srinagar, where the Eidgah is located. “We took refuge in a house near the station,” the mother said. At 9.30 pm, they let him go.
The boy was asked to report at the station the next morning. When he presented himself, they told him not to join protests again, slapped him and then let him go, his mother said.”
 
ü  A resident of Srinagar’s Umarhair neighbourhood states that on August 18th 2019, the Indian paramilitary forces and police conducted a midnight raid and broke into their home. Without any explanation, they picked his two teenage sons, Both are high school students. tried to stop the police from making arrests, but he was hit by batons. “They locked the women in one room and then beat me up,” he said. According to local accounts, at least 10 teenage boys were detained in the neighbourhood on the same night. Three of them, including were released a few days later. The signs of anxiety and depression are visible on the face of He told TRT World that he was beaten up soon after the Indian paramilitary troops pushed him into the car. “They slapped and kicked me in the vehicle,” he said. While he and others who are still in detention, were kept in a small room with 35 other detainees and were picked up on August 5, 2019 and held in a cell with four others, with new detainees arriving and leaving each day. On the second day of their detention, he said, the two boys were asked to tell the police the whereabouts of another boy. When said he didn’t know the boy, an officer hit him with a wooden baton five times on his knuckles and palms, he recalled. , said she came to see her son every day and officers sometimes let her speak to him. “He would cry and ask me to take him home,” she said. “It was very difficult to see him like that.”

ü  One person was awakened by a voice claiming to be a local cleric, asking him to open the gate to his home. Half a dozen armed policemen jumped over the wall and said they were looking for, he said. They whisked the boy away. Two days later Danish had still not returned. A copy of the report carried by Scroll dated August 28, 2019 is also annexed.
 
Finally, the submissions in the petition: the petitioners state that “admittedly, Jammu and Kashmir is passing through an ‘extraordinary situation’. It is most respectfully submitted that as a constitutional democracy, it is imperative, especially in these extraordinary circumstances that this Hon’ble Court ensures that no excesses take place against women and children, who are admittedly most vulnerable in such tense situations.
 
Further, in cases where teenage boys are picked up for fear of being ‘potential’ stone-pelters, it is imperative that the detention must be reported and monitored by a body such as the Juvenile Justice Committee of the High Court of Jammu and Kashmir, which has as its chairperson a retired judge of the High Court. Such a body already exists in the High Court of Jammu and Kashmir.
 
In WP(c) 8889/2011, the Delhi High Court had taken Suo Motu notice on the basis of reports that suggested that several times when children were arrested by Delhi police, they were lodged at Tihar jail, out of ‘sheer negligence’, ‘act of omissions’ or sometimes ‘deliberately’. The Hon’ble High Court held that “we are of the opinion that specific and detailed directions need to be issued to all the appropriate authorities for compliance so as to prevent the incarceration of children in conflict with law, in the jails or their subjection to the Adult Criminal Justice System.”
 
Accordingly it directed National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) to form teams to regularly visit jails and conduct age-based surveys of prisoners lodged therein to ensure that no minor is kept in incarceration in the jail. Such an action may also be mandated in the present case under the supervision of the existing Juvenile Justice Committee of the High Court.
 
Further, the petitioners state that while the authorities have stated that “things are improving and in fact schools have reopened from August 19, 2019”, however, mainstream newspapers report that classrooms were empty, as most parents did not feel that the children could be safely sent out. ‘On Monday, very few pupils arrived at any of the 190 schools that had opened in Srinagar. “It is a risk. I cannot risk my child’s life for some experiment,” a local police officer said. Communication blocks mean there is no way of contacting school staff in case of an emergency, he said.’ [ The Guardian (August 19, 2019)] Also, The Indian Express (August 19, 2019)]
 
In a strong and clear submission, the petitioners state that the situation in Kashmir today is urgent and disturbing from the perspective of children’s wellbeing. It would appear from the reports that the state is acting in violation of both specific laws with respect to children and also of constitutional principles and International Child rights commitments. With the abrogation of Article 370 and the consequent passing of the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019 the immediate safety and protection of Kashmiri children becomes the responsibility of the Union Government. It is in this context that the Petitioners pray that the Supreme Court act as parens patriae to the children and direct the government to submit a status report on actual detentions, injuries and deaths of children between August 5th 2019 to the present day.
 
It is pertinent to note that these very serious allegations of excesses on children are not being made in a vacuum. The reports of illegal detention of children after August 5th 2019, although unverified at this stage, are not without precedence. The Report of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner on Human Rights published on 14th June 2018 records the fact of arbitrary detention of children in Kashmir and also of maiming and injuring.
 
Additionally, the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (2008) has also taken note of the arbitrary detentions of Children in Kashmir. Children in the Kashmir valley have been regularly detained under the Public Safety Act (PSA). Although the Act makes no reference to the ‘administrative detention’ of children, the security forces and police routinely detain children, especially boys between the ages of 16 and 18 years.
 
Similarly the Juvenile Justice Acts precludes detentions of children in the adult prison system, or without any formal record of detention. K) The Central Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015 in Section 2(12) and the Jammu and Kashmir Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2013 in Section 2(m) both define “child” as a person who has not completed the age of 18 years. L) The statutes also define ‘child in need of care and protection’ as any child who is a victim of , or affected by an armed conflict, or civil unrest or a natural calamity [ Sections 2(14)(xi and Section 2(e)(x) respectively of theCentral and Jammu and Kashmir Act]. It is incumbent upon the state to provide such children necessary support and care. M) The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), which India has ratified in 1992 states in Article 39: “States Parties shall take all appropriate measures to promote physical and psychological recovery and social reintegration of a child victim of any form of neglect, exploitation, or abuse; torture or any other form of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment; or armed conflict. Such recovery and reintegration shall take place in an environment which fosters the health, self-respect and dignity of the child.”
 
The state has a constitutional duty to protect the rights of the child as guaranteed under the Constitution of India. O) It is relevant to note that such extraordinary situations have a deep and everlasting impact on the psychological well-being of children and by ignoring the urgency of the situation we may ‘lose’ a generation of citizens to state excesses. Community Mental Health Journal 55(3), March had published the results of a survey assessing the mental health of a thousand children from 12 schools in Shopian district: one out of every three of these children had a clinically diagnosable mental disorder, most commonly in the form of mood, anxiety or behavioural disorders. The study was conducted before the current troubles and thus the situation is only likely to worsen. This view is supported by the statement issued by the Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences (IMHANS), Srinagar .
 

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Image Courtesy: vifindia.org

To begin with, one needs to understand that there was nothing ‘special’ about the constitutional status of Jammu and Kashmir. The association of the word ‘special’ with the state of Jammu and Kashmir should have been revisited long back, at least in the academic circles. The only thing that was ‘special’ and rightly so, was the Constituent Assembly’s response to the wishes of the erstwhile Maharaja of Jammu and Kashmir, recognition of the State’s history and political inclination of the masses.

The inclusion of Article 370 in the Indian Constitution was representative of the fact that India’s federalism was accommodative and alive to political, geographical and historical realities. This should have never been understood as an aberration to the federal scheme, but hailed as an act which trusted India’s commitment to democratic ethics.

Kashmir and parts of Jammu have been under restrictions, with a massive crackdown on communications, for more than a month now. The atmosphere within the state and particularly Kashmir remains suffocating. While everyone in the country debates ‘Kashmir & Article 370’ the people and the media of Kashmir remain gagged. What contributes to the agony and pain of the people is that the discourse is one sided and misinformed.    

In the current atmosphere the central government has been elevated to the stature of a ‘guardian angel’ for the people of Jammu and Kashmir, seeking to pull out the State from ‘backwardness’, ‘miss-rule’ and ‘family raj’. The Government has made assertions about lack of jobs & industry, absence social justice legislations and even low land prices. These assertions have been rebutted in and outside the parliament by opposition leaders, civil society members and sections of the media. While the ‘backwardness’ is debated, nobody can deny Delhi’s love for the two families who have never left any stone unturned to further Delhi’s interest in the State.

What is most unsettling is that these mainstream parties, which have always been there in support of Delhi, risking their own credibility amongst the masses, have now been equated with the separatists. With numerous political leaders & workers, including leaders of trade and business organizations detained, the government seems to have questioned their political choices. This may change the political landscape of Kashmir which may not necessarily guarantee peace and stability in the region.

While change of leadership in Kashmir may have been on the Government’s agenda, altering the constitutional position of the State wasn’t the only way it could have been done.

The Temporary Nature of Article 370

Everyone seems to be beating the drums about how a temporary provision of the Constitution survived seven decades. Article 370 was enacted with the Constitution of India and came into force in 1950. It was placed along with the temporary and transitional provisions, because it vested the responsibility to finalize the state’s constitutional relationship with the union, on the Jammu and Kashmir’s Constituent Assembly, which was yet to convene.

Extension of provisions of the Indian Constitution with necessary modifications in their application to the state of Jammu and Kashmir was to be done with concurrence of the state’s Constituent Assembly, for matters that were beyond the scope of the Instrument of Accession. A temporary power was also given to the State Government to allow extension of provisions that fell within the three broad subjects provided in the Instrument of Accession. Justice A.S Anand also pointed out that the ‘temporary’ provision doesn’t mean that the article can be abrogated, modified and replaced unilaterally.

The second facet of the temporariness, is based on the amenability and revocability of the Article. The provision itself provided for the process to modify it or cease its operation. The role of the state constituent assembly was again pivotal in this regard, as its recommendation for either modification of the article or rendering it inoperative was required.

Therefore the provision had become permanent over time, particularly after dissolution of the State Constituent Assembly. It remained a ‘temporary and transitional provision’ perhaps because successive governments at the centre used it conveniently to extend provisions of the Constitution of India and other Central Statutes to the state of Jammu and Kashmir.   

Permanent Residency and the State Constitution    

Jammu and Kashmir is not the only state which had specific provisions for the permanent residents or domiciles. Other states also have such provisions, which are enacted upon legitimate exercise of powers. J&K had a local set of laws that protected the interests of the permanent residents by reserving for them, the right to buy immovable property, access to government jobs and scholarships. This was in the form of two notifications issued by the then Maharaja. The importance of these laws was recognized through the Delhi Agreement of 1952 and given protection through Article 35A, which formed part of the 1954 Presidential order, now superseded.

These notifications had come about only after an agitation led mostly by Kashmiri Pandits, Dogras and the affluent Muslims, who urged the Maharaja to protect interests of the local residents, in light of outsiders setting in the State during the 1920’s.

Article 35 A was a recognition of these concerns, which perhaps remain true for all isolated hilly communities.  It merely protected the state laws on employment, acquisition of immovable property, scholarships or other forms of aid. If a state law existed on these subjects, it was protected from challenge on the grounds of discrimination, but beyond it the protective umbrella of Article 35A did not exist.

The High Court of Jammu and Kashmir also looked into the Permanent Resident Law from the angle of gender equality. The court observed that Article 35A talks of protection from any challenge, to the state laws on permanent residency, by a Non-Permanent Resident on the ground of inequality. The court made it amply clear that Section 10 of the Constitution of Jammu and Kashmir guarantees ‘right to equality’ and therefore the question of absence of inter-se equality does not exist.

Even then if there were concerns with regard to the definition of ‘Permanent Residents’, the same could have been addressed. The Constitution of Jammu and Kashmir provided the State Assembly power to amend this definition.

The State Constitution & Flag

Concerns have also been raised with regard to the state having its own constitution. The call for ‘one nation one constitution’ flows from a flawed understanding of federalism. In a federal structure there exists a division of powers between the federal government and the federal unit. In the case of Jammu and Kashmir the division of powers was elucidated by the Instrument of Accession.  Justice Nariman observed in Santosh Gupta’s case, that the State of Jammu and Kashmir has its own separate Constitution and it is through this Constitution that the State is governed in all matters, except those which have been “surrendered to the Union of India”. Therefore reflecting that the power has been given to the Union of India and not the other way around.

The judgement proceeds to point out that the Constitution of Jammu and Kashmir and the Constitution of India do not share equal status, as the State remains an integral part of the Union of India, something that the Constitution of Jammu and Kashmir explicitly provided for.

It was through this Constitution of Jammu and Kashmir, that the Instrument of Accession was ratified. It declared in the preamble that, the Constitution will further define the relationship of the State with the Union. It provided under section 3 that Jammu and Kashmir ‘is and shall be’ an integral part of India, a claim that has been questioned by many in Kashmir. The Presidential orders of August 5 and 6 blatantly disregard this relationship that was based on consent, at least of the Constituent Assembly of the State.

Similarly the State Flag of Jammu and Kashmir was a reminiscent of the struggle years of oppression. It symbolized the sacrifices of the people and in the words of Mir Qasim ‘the unity of the peasantry and the working class’. Bringing the flag down while unilaterally breaking commitments of the past doesn’t look good for a nation that prides itself of being the world’s largest democracy. There was absolutely no reason for anyone to feel insecure about either the state Flag or the state Constitution. They weren’t representing a sovereign state, and neither were they claiming to be superior to the Tricolour or the Indian Constitution.

What does the change mean to the people of Jammu and Kashmir

There is confusion and chaos in most parts of the state. People are apprehensive about what will happen next. People are thinking if there is more to come. But it is important to analyse whether or not this changes anything on the ground; whether or not this brings peace and development and more importantly whether or not it integrates people of Jammu and Kashmir with the union.  

One needs to understand that the change affects only those, who believed that Jammu and Kashmir can share a constitutional relationship with the Union of India on the terms of the Instrument of Accession. It affects people who believed that the state could be a part of the Union with some autonomy. It affects everyone who argued for accession. But it certainly does not matter to individuals and political organizations who have been arguing to the contrary since 1947. The change in Jammu and Kashmir’s constitutional status does not perhaps mean a thing to people who have questioned the instrument of accession in the first place. For people who thought that the state flag and the State Constitution furthered a unionist agenda, Article 370’s absence does not make a difference. Therefore what is clear is that we may lose the unionist voice from Kashmir. 

One also needs to take note of the response from Jammu and Ladakh. Many, including the BJP leadership, are apprehensive about the fallout of this change. BJP leaders from Jammu and Ladakh seem to have now awaken to the need for protecting the interests of region. Some have suggested that the State could bring a law to protect agricultural land, while some are now urging for tribal status to Ladakh in order to protect its distinct culture. One fails to understand how the opposition to the protection offered by Article 35A goes hand in hand with such demands.

Article 370 and the Presidential Order of 1954, which provided for Article 35A, were negotiated, debated and discussed. These were remarkable features of the India’s federal character and represented the ideals of self-determination and democracy. These provisions signified anything but a ‘historical wrong’.

(The author has a Masters in Law and is currently working as a Legal Research Fellow in New Delhi )

Related Articles:
 

1.  A History of Article 370
2. This Parliament is being used to demolish democracy brick by brick

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Yousuf Tarigami is a member of the central committee of CPI (M) and was also the MLA 4 times of the J & K Assembly which has now been dissolved.

Yousuf Tarigami has been unwell from some time and is now under detention. Yechury had tried gone to Srinagar on 9th August but was denied entry in the city and detained at the airport.

Article 32 of the constitution gives the rights to individuals to move the supreme court and seek justice if any of their right has been violated or deprived. The matter is likely to be heard on 26th of August.

Courtesy: Two Circle

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The most-searched term the day before that was “India vs West Indies” and a week before “Bear Gryllis”, according to an IndiaSpend analysis of Google trends data.

These replaced the usually most-searched terms by Indians such as ”exam results”, “news” and “Whatsapp status”.

The analysis confirms academic studies (here, here and here) that indicate how the media set the agenda for online searches. Since these are often determined by government actions, this implies that government moves can drive or divert national attention online.

On August 5, five of the top 10 or half of the most searched terms were related to Kashmir, according to the data, which means the abrogation of special status for Kashmir diverted attention from other issues. The passage of 10 other bills by the Lok Sabha, parliament’s lower house, over the week following August 5 received no attention in the search trends.

If a topic receives more media attention, there are likely to be more searches related to it, predicted a 2010 paper by University of Minnesota researchers Brian Weeks and Brian Southwell.

Some events may not be driven by government action but by others’, but result in diversion of online attention. For instance, in February 2019, after more than 40 paramilitary troopers died in a car-bomb attack on a Kashmir highway, the word “Pulwama” replaced “Rafale”, which referred to a controversial Indian government arms deal.

Source: Google trends

The rupee also fell to its lowest value (Rs 71.2218) against the dollar this year in February 2019, a 3.6% fall compared to its value in July 2018, but this development was overshadowed by the interest in Pulwama.

Interest in Kashmir increased 257% between February 10 and February 17, 2019.

Our analysis also indicates that search interest can change almost immediately after a news break and flip back again when interest dies down.
From “Article 370”, back to “India vs West Indies”

“India vs West Indies”, a reference to the cricket match between India and the West Indies, was the most searched term between August 1 and August 4, 2019, after which it was replaced by “Article 370” on August 5.

Source: Google trends

The trend was reversed a day later, when senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and former minister for external affairs Sushma Swaraj died on the night of August 5. “India vs West Indies” was back at the top spot by August 7, with more than a million searches.

In the first week of August 2019, as India’s jobs crisis grew and the economy slowed down, Indians online searched for exam results, cricket and entertainment, our analysis showed.

This is because many results were declared for exams in universities in north India, entrance tests to Andhra Pradesh’s engineering and medical colleges, the Railway Recruitment Board and the Jaipur Vidyut Vitran Nigam Limited, a state electricity company.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) reduced the repo rate, the rate at which the Central Bank lends to commercial banks, by 35 basis points on August 7, its fourth successive rate cut, and lowered its GDP growth prediction, according to this RBI press release. The rupee depreciated, inflation fell, but except for “repo rate”, no search string related to the economy featured in the trends list, which continued to be dominated by results of sporting events and entertainment.

Kuldeep Sengar, a suspended BJP state legislator facing rape charges, did not make it to the trends list that week, nor did Unnao, the Uttar Pradesh city that is home to him and the victim.

Google trends indicate where public attention lies

Academic research backs the trajectory of online search trends.

Google trends provide a score measuring the popularity of a search term and its movement over time. This score is calculated by dividing the number of queries related to a search term by the number of queries received from a region during a time frame, explained University of California-Berkeley economist Hal Varian in a December 2011 paper.

The more attention the media provide to a topic, the more the audience is likely to consider it important, researchers Maxwell McCombs and Donald Shaw wrote in a 1972 paper on the media’s agenda-setting role.

When news consumers need to know more about a topic, they try to get more information on it, from Google search and other sources, according to Weeks and Southwell.

(Iqbal, an MA in economics from the Madras School of Economics, is an IndiaSpend intern.)

Courtesy: India Spend

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