Where Freedom Is Outlawed newsclick.in

Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) had crossed well over 100 days of lock-down and it is close to a fortnight of near-complete power cuts in the region, despite the ongoing winter chill. Yet it is apparent that Kashmir has receded from the media frenzy. News gets scarce. The tendency to blame others, pretend and pass-off setback as a success, or to organize propaganda jaunts for extreme-right representatives in order to fool the Indian people into believing that India enjoys tremendous support in the world, does not bode well—for India, and even less so for Kashmiris. Doing so denies the people—and Kashmiris in particular—their right and freedom to express themselves through speech or peaceful assembly, or to raise their concerns against what is being inflicted on them. It also means that the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) government, for all its strengths, is weak and has made itself vulnerable by remaining dogmatically tied to its ideological goal of changing the profile of Kashmir. As a result, when the political solution disappears, what remains is cruelty, coercion, and control.