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Kashmir: Bogey of infiltrations being raised to curb citizens civil liberties

by Kashmir Times, 1 June 2011

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Kashmir Times, 31 May 2011

Editorial

Gripped by paranoia

Bogey of increasing infiltrations being raised to curb citizens civil liberties

The excessive curtailment of civil liberties by Jammu and Kashmir government, thankfully so far in not so violent ways, simply by invoking the doctrine of ‘prevention of agitations’ on the pattern of 2010 summer are anything but justified. The government has gone overboard in putting separatist leaders under house arrest even when there is no inkling of any kind of a major campaign for ‘azadi’ or anything else building up. Anybody who is seen to be in dissent with the State and its basic policies can face restrictions of movement. A recent example is curbs on human rights activist Gautam Navlakha who was detained overnight and then sent back to Delhi. The seat of power, Srinagar, has been virtually turned into city of siege with imposition of Section 144, forbidding assembly of more than five people, as if protests were a crime or an undemocratic act. On the other hand, the government is already boasting of normalcy and return of tourism. If there is a certain amount of normalcy, why is there the need to curtail the civil rights of people, arrest them, detain them or even throw them out of the state, keeping dissenters out of circulation? To legitimise its politics of control, the state government has raised the bogey of increasing infiltrations. The notion has been introduced by no less than the chief minister himself, even as army, which should be the most authentic official source on the levels of infiltrations since it mans the Line of Control, has totally rubbished such claims. A totally bankrupt administration is working overtime to what it deems nipping the evil in the bud, forbidding any space for dissent or protest. Less than a fortnight ago, Mirwaiz Omar Farooq was stopped from going ahead with his programme on the death anniversary of his father Moulvi Farooq and top separatist leader Abdul Ghani Lone. On the second anniversary of Shopian rapes and murders, the government has come with a surprising list of 14 drownings in Rambiara Nallah, making one wonder why it took two long years to come out with such statistics to endorse its pack of lies.

The moves are engendered by a willful and abject denial of ground realities and the wrongs perpetrated by the state. The government is in no mood to either make corrective measures or even acknowledge the wrongs in the past, leave alone address issues of legal justice which has been offered only in its breach. Months after 118 people were killed in the summer of 2010 by police and security agencies the state government did admit that over 100 of those slain were innocent people and still there is no inquiry or cases registered in these brutal deaths. The only inquiry in 17 cases has been pending and may eternally be unheard of. Instead gripped by a paranoia of a repeat of last year’s agitation, it has already begun putting curbs on people’s movement. Such violation of civil liberties does not help in preventing anger and agitations. Instead it can only add to more provocation of already angered people of Kashmir. The repeated parroting of assurances that the government would not allow a repeat of last year, without even acknowledging the severe trauma and distress of the people, can create a volatile situation rather than prevent it. Totally distanced from the masses and the ground realities, a government obsessed with a paranoia fails to realise that tourism is not an indicator of normalcy, the existence of democratic rights and civil liberties is. Unfortunately, it refuses to learn lessons from past mistakes and by failing to respond to the anger of last year appropriately, and instead adding to the existing one, it may only be fuelling trouble, not preventing it.