MODI GOVERNMENT’S SUPPRESSIVE MEDIA AND REPRESSIVE STRATEGY IN IIOJK

WebDesk June 12, 2023 2 minutes read

India portrays itself to be the largest functioning democracy and secular state in the world that guarantees freedom of expression and provides protection to its citizens whereas reality is the opposite. In Kashmir, journalists have often been under threat. Threats to life intimidation, assault, arrest, and censorship have been part of the life of a typical journalist. Since 2019, Modi led BJP government under the Jammu and Kashmir Public Safety Act (PSA) has detained various journalists on false accusation, on the pretext that they have been misguiding common masses by circulating fake news against the government and its policies. India’s entrenched use of brute force and coercion to forcibly silence those raising voices against its horrendous crimes and egregious human rights violation in IIOJJK. Numbers of internationally acknowledge Kashmiri journalists arrested included Fahad Shah, Aasif Sultan, and Sajad Gul. Besides this, in the latest development, India has started to arm civilians in Jammu to fight terrorists under the garb of VDGs. India is arming 1000s of civilians in the Jammu area of Indian Kashmir with old UK-made 303 rifles. Weapons are issued to civilians to protect their villages and remote areas. The VDGs comprising of the Indian government’s selected and trained ‘civilian’ network used to harass, intimidate, track, and kill Kashmiri Muslims and suppress the freedom movement. India is using news tactics to grab the properties of Muslim leaders to stifle the voices of Muslims. As part of a political vendetta, Indian law enforcement agencies have started a crackdown against the Muslim leaders and pro-freedom people of IIOJK. Since the 5th of August 2019, the IIOJK authorities seized a number of assets and belongings to pro-freedom Kashmiris to break their resolve. However, such moves have failed to deter the Kashmiris from pursuing their internationally recognized right to self-determination. All the Indian blatant violations and HRAs have failed to suppress the voices of Kashmiri people demanding their right of self-determination as per UN resolution.