‘Unnecessary tweet’ of Mehbooba Mufti

Tariq Bhat/ Zahid Yaqoob

Srinagar, Oct 28: Former Chief Ministers of erstwhile J&K State — Mehbooba Mufti and Omar Abdullah –were the frontrunners to ban local Tv channels and seize media houses in recent past to “maintain law and order in Kashmir.”

In 2010, the Omar Abdullah led government imposed complete ban on all local Tv channels and seized their offices in Srinagar. The local Tv channels banned by Omar Abdullah government include SEN Channel, Take One (Kashmir), 9Tv, Vaadi Tv, JK Channel (Kashmir).

 

The Omar-led government accused these local channels of running “provocative programmes” in Kashmir. The ban order issued said: “These channels have been giving wide coverage to the provocative speeches and activities of secessionist elements for creating law and order problems.”

In opposition, Mehbooba Mufti in 2012, condemned ban by Omar led government on local media’s news broadcasting programmes, equating the ban with “the curbs enforced under Martial law and emergency situations.”

However, after returning to power in 2015, Mehbooba Mufti upheld the ban imposed by Omar led government and didn’t allow local channels to resume operations.

In July 2016, Mehbooba Mufti government banned the publication of newspapers from Kashmir for several days terming it a “reluctant decision” and a “temporary measure to address an extra-ordinary situation”.

The then government spokesperson and close aide of Mehbooba Mufti, Nayeem Akther had justified ban on publication of newspapers, saying “The undesirable step was taken to ensure peace in Kashmir.”

Later, in the same year, Mehbooba Mufti led government imposed ban on Srinagar based English newspaper Kashmir Reader.

The newspaper was accused of “enticing people and creating law and order problem in Kashmir.” The government has warned the newspaper of “forfeiture of its printing press and other properties used for the purpose” if it didn’t abide by the ban order.

The two Former Chief Ministers have played their role with responsibility by imposing ban on media houses in Kashmir in recent past to maintain law and order.

They can understand it better than any other person as how banning media house is important to stop “provocative programmes” or gag print media “to stop enticing and provocative content.”

After these two Chief Minister, no one in Kashmir banned the media house. The National Investigation Agency (NIA) only conducted searches in Greater Kashmir office on Wednesday.

The searches by NIA were conducted “in connection with a case pertaining to certain so-called NGOs and trusts raising funds in India and abroad in the name of charitable activities and then using those funds for carrying out secessionist and separatist activities in J&K.”

After Mehbooba Mufti, no media house was banned or stopped from publishing its edition till date, post August 5, 2019.

But Mehbooba Mufti has unnecessarily tweeted “The NIA raids on Greater Kashmir office in Srinagar is yet another example of the Government of India’s vicious crackdown on freedom of expression and dissent.”

An advocate at J&K High Court asked “The ban on publication of newspaper in 2016 was an arbitrary decision imposed on freedom of press. However, the search at one of the media houses today in Srinagar was a procedure of investigation.”

“Mehbooba Mufti must think ten times what she did in 2016 with freedom of press than making unnecessary tweets on the NIA investigation,” he added.