[Reader-list] Azadi: The Only Way – Report from a Turbulent Few Hours in Delhi

[Shuddhabrata Sengupta]

Dear Tara Prakash,

thank you for your response to my posting. To me, the slogan of  
'Islamic Republic of Kashmir' is indeed as offensive as that of  
'Hindu Rashtra'. And were slogans of that nature vocalized by a major  
section of the crowd, I would have responded when my turn came to  
speak, and I would have responded very, critically.

  I have also heard the coverage of the BBC Hindi service. Here is  
the link -

BBCHindi.com - Is Waqt (10.30 pm (India Time) / 17:00 hrs (GMT),  
broadcast on 21st October, 2010

https://www.bbc.co.uk/hindi/india/ 
2009/07/090701_radio_prog_ak2_tc2.shtml

Let me translate verbatim from the report -  (as I would have  
appreciated your doing)

" When Arundhati Roy spoke, she was interrupted by some of the  
present Kashmiri Pandits. When she resumed speaking, the report goes  
on to say, that
"What happened with Kashmir Pandits was unjust ," (the word used is  
'Anyay' ) and she raised a question as to whether an independent  
Kashmir can deliver justice to all its inhabitants. "

In reality, she asked the assembled people to deepen their  
understanding of freedom to include justice, so that no one would  
feel excluded from their understanding of 'Azadi'

The report then goes on to say -

"Some of the Kashmiri pandits raised slogans of Vande Mataram, and  
some of the others present raised slogans pertaining to Azadi and the  
Islamic Republic of Kashmir...Then, when Syed Ali Shah Geelani spoke,  
he answered Arundhati Roy by stating that he stands 'guarantee for  
the safety and security of all minorities in an independent Kashmir'."

We then hear an extract from Geelani's speech

  In the audio track, that is, in the clipping of ambience sound  
presented before the extract of Geelani's speech, in the programme to  
illustrate the 'slogans' - you can hear shouting, and the din does  
not allow you to make out words.

I was present on stage, I head 'Vande Mataram' and 'Bharat Mata ki  
Jai', I did not hear slogans pertaining to an 'Islamic Republic of  
Kashmir' although slogans of 'Azadi'  and slogans like 'Kaun Karega  
Tarjumani, Syed Ali Shah Geelani' (who will represent us, it is Syed  
Ali Shah Geelani) etc, were clearly audible. I saw one young person  
tried to say 'Naara e Taqbeer'. Nobody responded to him, not even  
with the customary, (and to my mind, inoffensive, 'Allah o Akbar') -  
which as I have said before is, no better or worse a slogan or  
utterance, than 'Jai Siya Ram'.

  If indeed slogans for an 'Islamic Republic' were uttered, then  
clearly, they were not uttered with much gusto, or with much lung  
power, or with much people power backing them. The LTG has excellent  
acoustics, and even the stray comments made by individuals during  
speeches (as for instance a gentleman sitting in the middle of the  
auditorium who tried to tell me something as remarkable as being to  
the effect that even 'Barkha Dutt was a pro-Azadi voice' (he also  
later said that 'no shoes will be thrown', when Arundhati spoke,  
because Kashmiris are a 'cultured people') from the audience were  
often clearly audible. The lady next to him, who repeatedly heckled,  
was also often clearly audible. So,  had there been a loud individual  
voice saying 'Islamic Republic of Kashmir; I would have heard it, and  
would have reported it.

In any case, presuming it was said, by some isolated person in the  
audience, and said, inaudibly, no one on the dias made any reference  
to an 'Islamic Republic of Kashmir'. To say that would be as absurd  
as saying that someone on the dias said that Kashmir is an 'atoot  
ang' (indivisible limb) of India. So to say (as the report does) that  
"slogans for an 'Islamic Republic of Kashmir' were uttered" to  
characterize the meeting is as misleading as saying that "the slogan  
of 'Vande Mataram' characterized the meeting".  In the radio  
programme,  which you can listen to at the link I have provided  
above, you cannot hear, any slogan pertaining to the Islamic Republic  
of Kashmir, you can however hear Syed Ali Shah Geelani giving his  
'guarantee' for the safety of minorities in a future Azad Kashmir,   
with crystal clear audibility.

I hope i have made myself, amply clear.

best,

Shuddha

On 22-Oct-10, at 9:00 AM, TaraPrakash wrote:

> "No provocative, secterian or hateful slogans were raised by the
> majority of the people present."
>
> It is a cleverly written sentence that you can't really deny. It is  
> time for SASG to make right kind of noises. But since there is no  
> denying that struggle in Kashmir is primarily Jihadi, there always  
> are in the entourage who will raise slogans, that may not sound  
> provocative, sectarian or offensive to the self styled spokes  
> person for the self styled tallest leader of Kashmir, but to me  
> they are. I heardthe coverage of this event on BBC. No need for  
> excitement, it was BBC Hindi that covers local news from India.  
> Whoever threw that shoe, or whatever object, on SASG or on whoever,  
> did the biggest service to the event. Conspiracy theorists will  
> claim it was done by one of "the majority" The event wouldn't get  
> so much coverage as it did if that incident did not happen.
> Coming back to the coverage on BBC, which is not Times Now or NDTV,  
> it said slogans were raised in favor of "Islamic Republic of  
> Kashmir" To a secular mind the conception of "free" Kashmir as  
> Islamic Republic should be as offensive as India's conception as  
> Hindu Rashtra. The correspondent on BBC said usual slogans  
> associated with Kashmiri freedom movement were raised. My  
> understanding is that he meant the secular slogan of Allah ho Akbar  
> and the slogan denoting freedom "Kashmir banega Pakistan." But I  
> understand the majority did not raise those ones. The majority in  
> Kashmir doesn't raise them either.
>
> Before the Indian government used very effective jammers, I could  
> listen to Sada-e-Hurriyat, a radio station operated from some  
> undisclosed location, and available on shortwave band. It used to  
> be crude, out of tune songs and full of filthy language against  
> "Hindu dogs". I used to enjoy sheer indecency that was not readily  
> available at that time on Radio. Alla hoooo used to be usual  
> refrain of the songs. The one I liked the most had a line that  
> translated as: "we will cut the head of the worshipper of monkey."
>
> We are being told that Kashmir "freeKashmir" will be truely free,  
> even for those with different faith. But they don't seem to agree.  
> Duplicity of Hurriyat can be ignored only by SASG's entourage.
>
> Talking about terrorism in Kashmir, we were told in the below mail  
> that there is no terrorism in Kashmir except ..." Looks like Jaish- 
> e-Mohammed admited today from Pakistan that 2 of their operatives  
> were "martyred" by Indian army. I don't think they were trying to  
> spread the message of peace and harmony with Indians.
>
> Moreover, one who says common Kashmiris are not terrorized by stone  
> pelters and ultra nationalistic zealots is telling a plane lie.  
> Keep the heat on, spread the message far and wide. Keep dreaming,  
> but if you are banking on Obama, "free" Kashmir will never be in  
> the US's interest . So they will never support it, making right  
> kind of noise is a different issue.
>
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Shuddhabrata Sengupta"  
> <shuddha at sarai.net>
> To: "sarai list" <reader-list at sarai.net>
> Sent: Thursday, October 21, 2010 6:21 PM
> Subject: [Reader-list] Azadi: The Only Way – Report from a  
> Turbulent Few Hours in Delhi
>
>
>> (Apologies for Cross Posting on Kafila.org)
>>
>> Dear Friends,
>>
>> I was present and speaking a few hours ago at a meeting titled   
>> ‘Azadi: The Only Way’ on the situation in Jammu and Kashmir,   
>> organized by the Committee for the Release of Political Prisoners  
>> at  the Little Theatre Group in Delhi yesterday (21st October). I  
>> was not  present from the beginning of the meeting as I was  
>> traveling from  another city, but can vouch for what occurred from  
>> around 4:30 pm  till the time that the meeting wound up, well  
>> after 8:00 pm in the  evening.
>>
>> The meeting took place in the packed to capacity auditorium of  
>> the  Little Theatre Group on Copernicus Marg at the heart of New  
>> Delhi.  Several speakers, including the poet Varavara Rao, Prof.  
>> Mihir  Bhattacharya, Sugata Bhadra, Gursharan Singh, G.N.Saibaba,  
>> Professor  Sheikh Showkat Hussain of Srinagar University, the  
>> journalist Najeeb  Mubaraki, a repesentative of the Naga Peoples  
>> Movement for Human  Rights and Justice, the writer Arundhati Roy  
>> and myself spoke at the  meeting. (I may be missing out some  
>> names, for which I apologize, but  I was not present for a part of  
>> the meeting, at the very beginning)  The climax of the meeting was  
>> a very substantive and significant  speech by Syed Ali Shah  
>> Geelani of the Hurriyat Conference (G), which  spelt out the  
>> vision of liberation (Azaadi) and Justice that Syed Ali  Shah  
>> Geelani held out before the assembled public, of which I will   
>> write in detail later in this text.
>>
>> The artist known as ‘Inder Salim’ originally from Kashmir,  
>> currently living in Delhi, made an intervention by inviting the  
>> assembled  people to take (with him) the stance of a masked stone  
>> pelter for a  brief, silent moment. Students from the Jawaharlal  
>> Nehru University  sang a song, ‘Tu Zinda Hai to Zindagi Ki Jeet  
>> Mein Yakeen Kar’  invoking the delights of life and liberation. In  
>> conclusion, the  meeting adopted a resolution, which was read, on  
>> behalf of the  Committee for the Release of Political Prisoners,  
>> by Mihir Bhattacharya.
>>
>> The atmosphere, for the several hours that I was present, was   
>> absolutely electric. The vast majority of the audience was warm  
>> and  appreciative of all the speakers. They were patient and  
>> respectful –  and despite grave provocation from a section that  
>> identified  themselves as ‘Indian patriots’ and partisans of the  
>> ‘Kashmir as  indivisible part of India’ position - that repeatedly  
>> tried to  interrupt the meeting and heckle speakers, and on one  
>> occasion even  tried to throw an object at the dias – did not  
>> stoop to be provoked  by these pathetic attempts at disruption of  
>> a peaceful gathering.
>>
>> No provocative, secterian or hateful slogans were raised by the   
>> majority of the people present. The only provocative posturing  
>> that I  witnessed was undertaken by the self-declared Indian  
>> patriots, who  were not stopped from having their say, but were  
>> requested simply not  to disrupt the proceedings.
>>
>> When their behaviour crossed the limits of public decency, they  
>> were escorted out of the premises by representatives of the Delhi  
>> Police.  The Delhi Police, to their credit, did not act against  
>> the majority  of the audience, simply because the majority of the  
>> audience  conducted themselves in a completely civil and  
>> democratic manner.
>>
>> There was no attempt made at intimidation of any kind. Professor  
>> SAR Geelani, who was conducting the proceedings on behalf of the   
>> organizers – Committee for the Release of Political Prisoners   
>> (CRPP) , repeatedly asked the people obstructing the speakers to   
>> conduct themselves in a cultured and dignified manner. His pleas  
>> were  disregarded by the section of the crowd that let its  
>> ‘Indian  patriotism’ get the better of its civilisation. When  
>> things got a  little too hot on occasion, the majority of the  
>> audience present  simply drowned the rude remarks and indignant  
>> posturing of the small  minority of self styled Indian patriots  
>> and champions of the ‘Kashmir  as indivisible part of India’  
>> position – in wave after wave of  cheerful but firm hand clapping.
>>
>> While there as enthusiastic cheering and sloganeering from the   
>> majority of the young men and women assembled at the gathering,  
>> there  was no attempt while I was present to give the slogans a  
>> religious or  secterian colour. When Syed Ali Shah Geelani said  
>> that the people of  India and Kashmir are tied together by the  
>> bonds of insaaniyat  (humanity), when he quoted Gandhi, or spoke  
>> of the necessity of  conducting a non-violent struggle that was  
>> devoid of hatred, or even  when he said that he wished to see  
>> India rise as a great power in the  world, but as a power that  
>> felt no need to oppress others, he was  wholeheartedly and  
>> sincerely applauded, by the majority of people  present in the  
>> auditorium, regardless of whether or not they were  Kashmiri.
>>
>> Yesterday’s meeting needs to be seen in the context of a momentum  
>> of different events, which have included public meetings at  
>> Jantar  Mantar, meetings in the Jawaharlal Nehru Universtiy and  
>> Delhi  University, film screenings and talks, independently  
>> organized  exhibitions on the history of Jammu and Kashmir in  
>> educational  institutions, photographic exhibitions on the  
>> situation in Kashmir  today that have taken place recently at the  
>> India Habitat Centre,  while Kashmir has reeled under the  
>> brutality of the occupation that  has resulted in a hundred and  
>> eleven deaths of unarmed or stone  pelting people, including  
>> children and teenagers. The momentum of  this process, which  
>> recognizes the urgency of the situation in  Kashmir, needs to be  
>> taken to its logical conclusion, until the world  and the  
>> international community sits up and takes notice of the true   
>> nature of the hold of the Indian state on Kashmir and its  
>> people.We  need many more such meetings and gatherings in Delhi,  
>> and indeed in  every large city in India.
>>
>> It must be maintained so that even a Barack Hussein Obama,  
>> scheduled  to visit New Delhi in November, is compelled to  
>> recognize the fact  that the conduct of the Indian state in  
>> Kashmir, based as it is on  brutal violence and intimidation,  
>> based as it is on a disregard of  every norm of the conduct of  
>> civilized governance is unacceptable to  the world. You simply  
>> cannot claim to be the world’s largest  democracy and preside over  
>> the deaths of 70,000 people in twenty  years. You cannot claim to  
>> be judged as a democracy and have laws  like the Armed Forces  
>> Special Powers Act. You cannot claim to be a  democracy and have  
>> your police and paramilitaries beat children to  death openly on  
>> the streets, or rape and kill young women with  impunity. A state  
>> that does so is an oppressive, immoral, occupying  power, and  
>> needs to be resisted by every right thinking person in the  world.  
>> The Indian state’s record in Kashmir over the past several decades  
>> is not only an oppression visited on the people of Kashmir,  it is  
>> an insult to the United Nations, to the world community, and to   
>> every principle of justice, fairness and democracy. It is an  
>> insult  to all the peace loving and freedom loving citizens of  
>> India that do  not wish to see oppression carried out in their name.
>>
>> This is the message that needs to go out, and is going out, not  
>> only  from the streets of Sringar, Baramulla and Kupwara, but also  
>> from  gatherings, such as yesterdays, from the heart of Delhi, the  
>> capital  of India. We, who are the friends of liberty and justice  
>> in India,  need to stand besides our Kashmiri brothers and sisters  
>> and say to  the world that we do not accept the lies put out by  
>> the Indian state  and its apologists on Kashmir. That is the true  
>> significance and  import of the process in which yesterday’s  
>> meeting plays an important  part. This process will not stop until  
>> the world takes notice. The  United Nations, and the broad  
>> democratic currents as well as the  political leaderships of  
>> Europe, the Americas, and of every  significant power in the world  
>> needs to know that hundreds of people,  young and old,  
>> intellectuals, writers, activists, lawyers, teachers  and others,  
>> Indians and Kashmiris can stand united, in Delhi, at the  heart of  
>> the Indian Republic’s capital, in refusing to accept the   
>> continued occupation of Jammu and Kashmir, by India and by  
>> Pakistan.  That they believe that it is only the people of Jammu  
>> and Kashmir who  must decide for themselves their own future  
>> destiny, peacefully, in a  climate free of coercion and intimidation.
>>
>> As Syed Ali Shah Geelani and Sheikh Showkat Hussain said, all  
>> that  they are asking for is the right to self determination,  
>> promised by  India, before the Untied Nations, to be freely  
>> enacted through a  plebiscite, in conditions of peace and liberty,  
>> without the presence  of armed force, for the inhabitants of every  
>> part of the undivided  state of Jammu and Kashmir – regardless of  
>> whether the results of  that plebiscite are in favour of India,  
>> Pakistan or an independent,  united, Jammu and Kashmir that can  
>> live in peace with all its  neighbours in South Asia.
>>
>> There was a great diversity of statements and styles  present in   
>> abundant splendour at yesterday’s meeting. There was no way by  
>> which  the meeting could be reduced or simplified a single  
>> monotonous  statement. Yes, all the panelists, spoke unambiguously  
>> about the  necessity for ending the military occupation by the  
>> Indian state in  Kashmir. This does not mean that their statements  
>> and sentiments were  a manufactured and processed uniformity. The  
>> people on the panel may  have significant political and  
>> philosophical differences amongst  themselves, they may even think  
>> differently about what ‘Azaadi’ might  mean, but this was a sign,  
>> not of the weakness, but of the strength  and vitality of  
>> yesterday’s gathering.
>>
>> ‘Azaadi’ if and when it comes, will not be the parting gift of an  
>> exhausted colonial power, it will be the harvest of the fruits of  
>> the imaginations and intelligences of millions of people, of  
>> their  debates and their conversations.
>>
>> What was extremely heart warming was the fact that each speaker  
>> spoke  of the fact that the voices of the people of Kashmir are no  
>> longer  alone and isolated, that there is a chorus of voices in  
>> different  parts of South Asia that echo and endorese their desire  
>> for  liberation from a brutal militarized occupation. From my  
>> notes of the  time that I was there, I recall that the writer  
>> Arundhati Roy, while  endorsing the demand of Azaadi for Kashmir,  
>> reminded the audience of  the need for the people of Kashmir not  
>> to be selective about justice  and injustice, that they must find  
>> methods to forge webs of  solidarity with all the suffering and  
>> oppressed peoples of India. She  was heckled and rudely  
>> interrupted by a small group of Indian  nationalists in the  
>> audience, who repeatedly raised the situation of  Kashmiri  
>> Pandits, Arundhati Roy, when she was able to resume  speaking,  
>> spoke unambiguously about the fact that she considered the   
>> situation of Kashmiri Pandits to be a tragedy. She was echoed in  
>> this sentiment later by Syed Ali Shah Geelani who said that he  
>> personally stands guarantee for the safety and security of all  
>> minorities,  Hindu, Sikh, Buddhists, Christians and others in a  
>> future free  Kashmir. He implored the Pandits to return to  
>> Kashmir, and said, that  they are an integral part of Kashmiri  
>> society. He spoke of the need  for ensuring that a free Kashmir  
>> was a just Kashmir, and that justice  meant that the freedom,  
>> safety and security of all minorities, of  their property, their  
>> places of worship, their freedom of conscience  be given the  
>> utmost importance. He reminded the assembled people that   
>> throughout these turbulent months, the people of Kashmir have   
>> continued to be hospitable to Hindu pilgrims, have set up   
>> ‘Langars’ (Kitchens) for them, and have cared for them when they  
>> have  fallen sick, despite being at the receiving end of the  
>> violence of  the Indian state.
>>
>> I spoke briefly, about the fact that I was proud that so many of  
>> us  had gathered in my city, Delhi, putting aside the abstraction  
>> of our politically determined, state given construct of  
>> citizenship, and standing, here, now, on the grounds of a concrete  
>> human solidarity  with the people of Kashmir. I spoke of the fact  
>> that there are  significant voices, even in the mainstream media  
>> who have been  compelled to recognize the urgency of the situation  
>> in Kashmir, by  the sheer determination of the youth of Kashmir to  
>> get the news of  what is happening in Kashmir out to the world. I  
>> spoke of the role  played by facebook sites like ‘Aalaw’ and  
>> blogs, and the fact that  the people of India and the world can no  
>> longer be kept in the dark  by a pliant media, as happened in  
>> 1989-90. I spoke of the ways in  which the viral circulation of  
>> leaked videos of the humiliation of  Kashmiri youth on facebook  
>> pages and online fora have successfully  shown us what the reality  
>> of Kashmir is today. I urged media professionals in the mainstream  
>> media to introspect and reflect on  the role that they may be  
>> compelled, against their own professional  ehtics, to play in the  
>> pyschological and propaganda war that the  Indian state is  
>> currently conducting. I spoke of my sense of shame  and remorse at  
>> the evasive and dissimulating role played by sections  of the  
>> mainstream media in India while reporting (or not reporting)   
>> atrocities that make even the images from Abu Gharaib pale in   
>> comparison.
>>
>> I am ashamed to say, that despite my respectful plea to the media  
>> to  play a responsible role in their reportage of Kashmir related   
>> matters, major channels like Times Now and NDTV once again let  
>> the  truth down in their reports on the days events. NDTV saw it  
>> fit to  simply report
>>
>> an incident of ‘shoe throwing at SAS Geelani’. A shoe (or some  
>> other indeterminate object) was indeed thrown, but not at Geelani.  
>> It  landed on a bottle of water in front of another speaker, while  
>> he was  speaking. So let’s at least set that record straight.  
>> Arnab Goswami  of Times Now, while conducting what he likes to  
>> call a ‘debate; on  the programme called ‘News Hour’ (neither  
>> News, nor just an Hour)  repeatedly uttered hysterical untruths,  
>> such as the presumption that  ‘No State permits the advocacy of  
>> secession and self determination’  and that a meeting such as the  
>> one I participated in yesterday, were  it to take place, say, in  
>> the United States, would immediately lead  to all speakers present  
>> (including, presumably, myself) in being  imprisoned on charges of  
>> sedition. I have to inform my readers here,  that on both counts,  
>> Arnab Goswami is wrong. Seriously wrong. Either  he is a  
>> misinformed idiot. Or he knows that he is wrong, and is lying  to  
>> his public through his teeth. We can choose to be generous about   
>> how he would interpret his motives, and assume he is simply a fool.
>>
>> Goswami, consequently demanded to know why we were not immediately  
>> imprisoned under section 124 of the Indian penal code. Arnab  
>> Goswami needs to be reminded, that in United States law, the  
>> provisions of  the Sedition Act are applicable only in times when  
>> the country is in  a declared state of war. And therefore his  
>> analogy does not apply, as  I am not aware that the Indian  
>> republic is currently in a declared  state of war, as per  
>> international law, (unless Arnab Goswami has  lost his marbles to  
>> the extent that he confuses the shadow boxing  that he does on  
>> television with a war declared by a state under  international  
>> law). That, furthermore, the provisions of the US  Sedition Law  
>> have been declared substantially void by the US Supreme  Court  
>> ruling in the Brandenberg vs. Ohio (1969) judgement, and of   
>> course, by the US Supreme court guaranteeing the primacy of free   
>> speech, including ‘seditious’ speech, including the burning of  
>> the  United States flag, under the provisions of the first  
>> amendment to  the US constitution.
>>
>> There have been repeated attempts made to pass a law that would  
>> make ‘flag burning’ an offence under US Law. Fortunately, (for  
>> liberty and free speech) as of now, these attempts have not come  
>> to pass, and currently, under US Law it is perfectly legal to  
>> advocate self- determination and secwssion, if done peacefully,  
>> even to the extent  of burning or destroying or descerating  
>> symbols of state authority  like the national flag. Furthermore  
>> several constiutions, such as the constitutions of Canada,  
>> Ethipopia, Austria and France, implicitly or explicitly, provide  
>> for a legal expression of right to self determination, provided it  
>> is exercised in a peaceful and democratic manner, as part of the  
>> freedom of expression principle.
>>
>> But the point that needs to be made is larger than whether or not   
>> Arnab Goswami is a fool and a charlatan. Yesterday’s meeting was  
>> a  historic opportunity for his channel, and indeed for all of  
>> the  Indian mainstream media, to report and take cognizance of the  
>> fact  that there is a significant section of Indian public opinion  
>> that is  actually in favour of ‘Azaadi’ in Kashmir. I am not  
>> suggesting that  this section constitutes an overwhelming majority  
>> at present (that  might change) but, that it does exist, and that  
>> it presents, cogent,  precise arguments, that cannot be dismissed,  
>> (as is being done by  Times Now and its ilk) by invoking the  
>> spectre of ‘terrorism’. There  is hardly any ‘terrorism’ in  
>> Kashmir today (if we don’t count the  Indian state and its  
>> terror) . The 111 people who have died in the  past months, have  
>> not died at the hands of non-state insurgents, they  have died,  
>> unarmed, facing the bullets of the Indian state. The  movement for  
>> Azaadi in Kashmir has left the culture of the gun and  the grenade  
>> behind. It fights today without weapons, armed only with courage.  
>> If there is a terrorist in Kashmir today, he wears the  uniform of  
>> the forces of the Indian state, and carries the weapons  supplied  
>> by the arsenal of the Indian state. To discount the voices  that  
>> rise in dissent against this reality as ‘terrorist sympathizers’   
>> as Arnab Goswami has done on his channel is to insult reality.
>>
>> Syed Ali Shah Geelani spoke of the bonds of insaaniyat that tie  
>> the peoples of Kashmir and India yesterday. I heard him say this.  
>> I was barely five feet away from him. I heard him speak of his  
>> regard and respect for the minorities in Jammu and Kashmir. I do  
>> not agree with  much of what Geelani Saheb represents politically,  
>> or ideologically,  but I have no hesitation in saying that what he  
>> said yesterday, was  surprising for its gentleness, for its  
>> consideration, for its  moderation, even for its liberality and  
>> open heartedness. This should  have been big news. That Syed Ali  
>> Shah Geelani said that he wants to  see a strong and resurgent  
>> India. I heard him say this. And was this  reported by anyone? NO.  
>> Was it reported that he was cheered when he  said this ? NO. Was  
>> it reported that no one had any thing angry to  say against the  
>> struggling peoples of India?  NO. Was it reported  that SAS  
>> Geelani expilicity said that he is NOT against dialogue,  provided  
>> that the five point formula put forward by him (none of  whose  
>> provisions – 1. acceptance of the disputed nature of the   
>> territory of Jammu and Kashmir, 2. repeal of AFSPA and other black  
>> laws, 3. release of political detenues and prisoners, 4.  
>> withdrawal  of the disproportionate presence of the armed forces  
>> and 5.  punishment to those gulty of taking life in the past few  
>> months –  require the government of India to think ‘outside’ the  
>> framework of  the Indian Constitution) are accepted as the basis  
>> of the dialogue? NO.
>>
>> Don’t you think that it makes BIG news that the tallest  
>> separatist  leader in Jammu and Kashmir actually, in a moderate  
>> voice, spells  out, in Delhi, the fundamental basis of a  
>> considered dialogue with  the Indian state, while offering it a  
>> chance to do so on bases that  are absolutely reasonable and  
>> sound, and honourable to all concerned?  Do you not think that a  
>> responsible media organization would consider  this a scoop, a  
>> major news stor?  But that is not what happened.
>>
>> Instead, Times Now, (and I am waiting for the morning newspapers  
>> to  see how far this muck has spread) chose to focus on the  
>> deliberately  staged disruption of a handful of agent  
>> provocateurs, our familiar  posse of self styled patriotic  
>> champions of the continued occupation  of Kashmir, who posed for  
>> the camera, hyperventilated, and occupied,  perhaps no more than  
>> five percent of the attention of several patient  hours. If you  
>> saw the news reports on Times Now’s ‘NEWSHOUR’  programme, you  
>> would have thought that all of what happened was their  presence  
>> as a ‘protest’ against the meeting. As someone who was  present  
>> through much of this, I am totally, utterly aghast that a lie  of  
>> such magnificient proportions could be dished out with such ease.   
>> I am aghast that Aditya Raj Kaul who was one of the panel invited  
>> by  Arnab Goswami to the Times Now Newshour show could lie with a   
>> straight face by saying that there was no attempt made to  
>> ‘disrupt’  the meeting by those who were there to represent his  
>> point of view.
>>
>> Someday, I hope that all of these people, the Arnab Goswamis of  
>> the world, find reason to repent for continuing to keep the people  
>> of  India and Kashmir in the dark. They had better think hard,  
>> because  the day when they will have cause to repent, is not far.  
>> Azaadi will  come to Kashmir, and with it, a glimmer of Azaadi  
>> will be the share  of those people in India who stood by their  
>> Kashmiri friends, in  their darkest hour.Going by what I witnessed  
>> yesterday, there will be  many such people, so Arnab Goswami and  
>> his ilk had better start  practicing how to say sorry, several  
>> hundred times a day.
>>
>>
>>
>> best,
>>
>>
>>
>> Shuddha
>>
>> ---------------------------------------------
>>
>> Shuddhabrata Sengupta
>>
>>
>> _________________________________________
>> reader-list: an open discussion list on media and the city.
>> Critiques & Collaborations
>> To subscribe: send an email to reader-list-request at sarai.net with  
>> subscribe in the subject header.
>> To unsubscribe: https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/reader-list
>> List archive: <https://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/>
>

Shuddhabrata Sengupta
The Sarai Programme at CSDS
Raqs Media Collective
shuddha at sarai.net
www.sarai.net
www.raqsmediacollective.net