[Reader-list] Panun Kashmir makes a good case for a gag on the national media.

[Kamal Hak]

Dear Shuddha,
I am amused at the naivety of your interferences. But I appreciate your
concern for the freedom of expression. I am glad you have associated Panun
Kashmir with hard core nationalist position. Though it is terribily out of
fashion to say so on this forum, but I am sure hundreds and thousands of
Panun Kashmir supporters within the Kashmiri Pandits and outside would be
immensely proud of being nationalists to the core. However, that is not the
point I want to make here. I am impressed by your anti-Panun Kashmir
articulation here as it indicates your serious research into its
agenda, programmes and activities. I would highly appreciate if you could
enlighten us with some hard core researched facts about Panun Kashmir. I am
sure it would of great help to people like me and of interest to many on
this list. And in order to avoid any confusions, let me make it clear I am a
displaced Kashmiri  who fled Kashmir in April 1990 after repeatedly being
declared a Mukhbir from a neighbourhood mosque. It is a different matter
though in future the list might declare my flight from Kashmir a result of a
delusion or momentary bout of schizophrenia, which makes a person hear
voices when none exist. After all, wasn't it in your presence recently at
Janpath that I was told Jagmohan threw me out. Since you chose to remain
silent on the insinuation indicates your concurrence with the suggestion. It
also creates doubts in me. How come the people, essentially consisting of
post 1990 generation, know about the person responsible for my exodus while
I continue to be unaware about that? I must admit and it is normal human
phenomenon, people generally build conviction on perceptions which may not
be essentially correct. I, like many of us, have also build a conviction
regarding Panun Kashmir based on certain perceptions. Our perceptions could
be wrong and I am willing to correct those. I hope you will assist me in
doing so by enlightening me on facts about Panun Kashmir.

Regards,

Kamal Hak

On Tue, Aug 31, 2010 at 12:23 AM, Shuddhabrata Sengupta
<shuddha at sarai.net>wrote:

> Dear Gowhar,
>
> Thank you for forwarding this important statement that exposes the politics
> of organizations like Panun Kashmir.
>
> In other words, Panun Kashmir wants to act as a surrogate censor. It wants
> to punish the TV channels that do not toe the Panun Kashmir line on Kashmir.
> It would be wonderful for Panun Kashmir, if the darkness of the Emergency
> were to suddenly descend again upon India, in order to hold on to the
> immorality of the occupation of Kashmir. This simply proves my point that a
> hardline Indian nationalist position on Kashmir logically leads to the
> narrowing of the political and cultural space within India. Azaadi for
> Kashmir, would, ultimately, be good for Azaadi (as in Liberty) also in
> India.
>
> Incidentally, there are quite a few TV channels, such as Times Now, which
> have staunchly upheld the hardline 'Indian Nationalist' position on Kashmir
> that Panun Kashmir endorses. Nobody, in their right mind would insist that
> these stations be prevented from airing the views that they champion. I
> loathe Arnab Goswami, but he ought in my mind, be free to dish out the
> nonsense that he does. Consequently, I fail to see why that specific set of
> positions (the ones that Panun Kashmir would endorse) should monopolize
> airtime. Let those positions contend with all others, as would be the normal
> practice in any society that wants to keep its eyes and ears open.
>
> Surely, in the interests of a genuine 'national' debate, people who watch
> television should have the freedom to access as many positions as is
> possible on the Kashmir question. If some (by no means al) of the voices
> that have appeared on NDTV or CNN-IBN appear to present positions away from
> the hardline Indian mainstream position on Kashmir, then it is equally true
> that a disproportionate amount of screen time on other channels is reserved
> for the hardline Indian nationalist position on Kashmir. Surely, a mature
> viewer should have the right to make up his or her mind on the issue, one
> way or another, by being exposed to spectrum of choices on offer. I notice,
> even in a CNN-IBN programme titled YNOT which profiled the views of young
> Kashmiris, adequate representation was given to various different views,
> including that which is close to the Panun Kashmir position. Is it the case
> of Panun Kashmir that television should present ONLY the views that it can
> deign to agree with? Is Panun Kashmir not satisifed by the more than
> adequate amount of airtime its position gets on mainstream Indian
> television. Does it want to determine and micro-manage every second of
> television airtime?
>
> If that is the case, then a tendency such as Panun Kashmir needs to be seen
> as an enemy of freedom of expression, and should be identified as such. In
> the long term, an organization like Panun Kashmir, because it is against the
> freedom of expression, because it is obsessed with a narrow, secterian
> agenda, is against the interests of all Kashmiris, be they Pandit, Muslim,
> Non Believers, Buddhists or whatever, it is against their interests, be they
> committed to India, committed to autonomy within India, or committed to
> azaadi. Panun Kashmir is committed, in the end, only to itself.
>
> Having said that, I might point out, that several of us, including myself,
> have consistently argued AGAINST censoring the Panun Kashmir point of view
> on this forum, despite its shrillness, despite its willingness to indulge in
> dissimulation, in the interests of free and fair debate. I have NO sympathy
> at all for the Panun Kashmir position, but I do believe that it has a right
> to express itself. Clearly, however, the Panun Kashmir position does not
> believe what I believe - that people who hold a different point of view
> should have the right to express themselves. While I can make room for Panun
> Kashmir in my imgaination of what it means to have space for a conversation
> on Kashmir, Panun Kashmir, clearly can make no room for the likes of me, let
> alone for the timid and tepid (but nevertheless welcome) steps taken by
> channels NDTV and CNN-IBN towards at least the semblence of an open-ended
> dialogue on what is happening in Kashmir.
>
> best
>
> Shuddha
>
>
>
>
>
>
> On 30-Aug-10, at 12:05 AM, gowhar fazli wrote:
>
>   Panun Kashmir urges Govt. to take appropriate steps against some
>> electronic channels
>> by Vijay Kumar    August 27, 2010
>>
>>                          Jammu, August 27 (Scoop News) – Panun Kashmir
>> (PK)deplores and urges GOI to take appropriate steps against some electronic
>> channels like NDTV, CNN IBN etc, for their subversive programmes under the
>> guise of discussions and discourses on Kashmir Issue unlike objective,
>> unbiased and true reporting of print media at local and national level.
>>
>> In a statement Dr.Agnishekhar expressed their concern and anguish over
>> present day government not taking exception to the pro-separatist policy
>> pursued by these said channels.
>>
>>                 The meeting of office bearers of PK presided over by its
>> convener Dr.Agnishekhar, PK feels that the NDTV, its biased anchors like
>> Barkha Dutts and Sagarikas of CNN IBN have not behaved as responsible member
>> of fourth estate instead the channel are propagating and supplementing the
>> agenda of forces inimical to sovereignty and integrity of the nation. These
>> channels are misusing the freedom of expression granted by constitution of
>> India and are emboldened by the criminal silence of the polity of this
>> nation.
>>
>> Statement said that On one hand these channels willfully ignore and
>> sideline the plight and geo-political urges & aspirations of Kashmiri
>> Hindus, Jammuites and Ladakhis and on the other hand cause of separatists;
>> Islamic Jehadis; people who spit venom against the nation; forces hell bent
>> upon to crate the second partition of the country; biased human right
>> groups; and so called civil liberty activists are nurtured and promoted well
>> by these electronic channels.
>>
>> These channels choose not to invite the genuine and mainstream political
>> representative voices of Kashmiri Hindus, who are equally the stake holders
>> of Kashmir Problem & its solution; and are busy fighting separatism and
>> Islamic Jihad aimed at dismemberment of this country,said in a statement.
>>
>>                 Dr Agnishaker alleged that   NDTV has been playing a
>> partisan & biased role while reporting the events and news from time to
>> time. One such glaring example is the treatment meted out to the path
>> breaking statement of former United Nations Secretary General Mr. Kofi Annan
>> issued in Pakistan that the UN resolutions on Kashmir Issue are redundant
>> and outdated. This statement of national significance was made subservient
>> to Tahalka.com’s revelations in recent past.  The recent Hindu bashing under
>> the garb of so called Saffron Terrorism has figured prominently on the air
>> but the activities of Bangalore Blast accused Madani already convicted in
>> Coimbatore blasts found a passing reference on the channel. The recent
>> bashing of Sikhs by jehadis in Kashmir found no prominent space in such
>> Channels.
>>
>>                           He said, the recent discussion and discourses on
>> Kashmir especially by Barkha dutt and her histrionics promoting the voices
>> of Azadi, bashing of security forces, anti-india compaign are the issues of
>> great concern for these channels. Ms Barkha dutt and her ilk have played
>> havoc with image and integrity of this nation when foreign couples residing
>> in Kashmir were invited as panelist in the discussion to plead the cause of
>> separatists and malign the patriotic security forces of India, while as the
>> voices of nationalistic panelists was gagged and edited.
>>                     Panun Kashmir feels either the GOI is making ground
>> fertile for granting the undesired and objectionable political dispensation
>> to Kashmiri Muslims which will lead to secession of state from India, or it
>> is using and patronizing the electronic channels like NDTV which are acting
>> on the behest of forces which are at war with the civilizational ethos of
>> India. Panun Kashmir will approach Press Council of India to register their
>> protest against these channels for their unethical practices. PK appeals to
>> the people of India and business houses in particular to reconsider their
>> ties with NDTV and IBN for their activities endangering the sovereignty and
>> integrity of the nation.
>>
>>
>>
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>
> Shuddhabrata Sengupta
> The Sarai Programme at CSDS
> Raqs Media Collective
> shuddha at sarai.net
> www.sarai.net
> www.raqsmediacollective.net
>
>
>
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-- 
Kamal Hak
"Zuv Shum Braman Ghara Gasa Ha"