[Reader-list] Kashmir: One-sided coverage

[Shivam Vij शिवम् विज्]

One-sided coverage

In spite of the massive coverage in recent times, the point of view of
the Kashmiris hasn't found a voice in the media.

by SEVANTI NINAN
http://www.hindu.com/mag/2008/08/31/stories/2008083150100300.htm


Arundhati Roy, who, like Arun Shourie, needs a lot of space to have
her say, argues over seven pages in Outlook that the continued
military occupation of Kashmir must stop, and that we have there a
State whose younger generation ha s been "raised in a playground of
army camps, checkposts and bunkers, with screams of torture chambers
for a sound track".

Vir Sanghvi and Swaminathan Aiyar assert in columns in the Hindustan
Times and Times of India, after citing different sets of reasons, that
the time has come to give Kashmiris the right to self-determination.

On Times Now, on prime time over two days, Arnab Goswami celebrates
the patriotism of soldiers who have given their lives for Kashmir. On
the day of his funeral, two children of an army officer are put on air
to tell the channel's viewers about their father, with Goswami goading
them on. "Are you proud of your father, what would you like to tell
people on our show today?" he asks the 11-year-old son. The next
evening there is a special report, titled We love Kashmir Too, talking
to the families of those officers who have lost their lives in
Kashmir.
Voice of India

At the end, Sajjad Lone of the Peoples Conference is pitted against
two elderly former officers. One of them voices the sentiment that
India cannot leave Kashmir after it has been part of the country for
60 years, extremism etc. is all wrong, and "we are all brothers". Says
Goswami: "Sajjad this is the voice of India, it is very easy to have a
TV debate where you pit people against one another (Hinting at
Barkha's Dutt's show, is he?). This is the voice, Sajjad. You have
talked about the sentiments of the people of Kashmir, what about these
two, Sajjad."

Sajjad says, in Kupwara there is a village of 250 widows in a
population of 5,000. That is also the voice of Kashmir. If these men
have been killed, the question that should be asked is, how can we
trust the people of India? Whereupon, one of the two other men on the
show says he has been supporting an orphan girl in Kashmir. Lone says
that is gracious of him, but people from all over the world are
supporting orphans in Kashmir.

Later in the show, Goswami displays more sanctimonious nationalism.
Accusing Lone of trusting Rawalapindi more than Delhi, saying at some
point that this sort of intolerance happens only in Pakistan while
referring to what happened to Mojahirs. To which the PC leader says,
if you talk of Mojahirs, I can talk of Gujarat and hundreds of
communal riots here in last 15 years. Arnab Goswami then gives the
last word to Colonel Kanwar, who says to Lone, "We want to be living
happily with you", meaning Kashmiris. Off and on Times Now has been
talking of winning hearts in Kashmir. They are certainly going about
it the right way!

While all of this liberal, upper middle-class solution-mongering is
going on, local TV stations in Kashmir are stopped from broadcasting
news by a judge's order. One day the local newspaper, Greater Kashmir,
fails to come out on account of the curfew. Other newspapers are
similarly affected. On a single day, 13 journalists and photographers
are beaten by the police in Srinagar. Curfew passes given earlier,
they discover, are no longer valid.

On television there are many, many shots of mass turnouts in the
Valley for rallies and protests, but curiously no vox populi
soundbites from those crowds. When Kuldip Nayyar says on Times Now,
"What do they mean by azadi we should talk to them and find out. To
whom do we give? On that side there is no stable government," you are
reminded that for all the coverage we are not hearing at all from the
people milling on the streets of Srinagar.
Slanted view

Why not? An Outlook reporter in Kashmir says OB vans are not taken to
cover the large protests because the crowd attacks Indian TV crews,
and the Kashmiri journalists working for them. Syed Ali Shah Geelani
describes them in his speeches as being part of the Indian war
machinery. He told the magazine for good measure, "it is pointless
talking to Indian journalists… they have their national interest and a
Hindu point of view." On Doordarshan meanwhile there is little
coverage of the protests which the other channels are showing. On the
day of the march to the U.N. office, DD simply blacked out the event.

If the media in India reflects the country's exasperation with
Kashmir, they are freer to do so than the media, Indian or Kashmiri,
are in Kashmir to reflect what people there are thinking. The
exception is a few blogs. On
http://kashmir-truth-be-told.blogspot.com/ scroll down and read a
series of posts in which a young person who describes himself
(herself?) as being from rural Kashmir, agonises over the pros and
cons of the options a referendum would present.

Behind the sloganeering Kashmiris do as a reflex action whenever there
are TV cameras around, there are a people crying to be understood.
Ignoring that does not help.