life in journalism: telling it to the media like it is

I have written a post on this blog, many months back, about how media should not indulge in giving awards to anyone. I believe the best recognition a genuine person or entitiy can receive is by regular coverage of the work being done by that person or entiy.

In a latest incident, a media TV channel, CNN-IBN, nominated, for an award on human rights, to a Kashmir-based activists group. The group has not only rejected the award but given a sharp hearing to CNN-IBN that it would be better for the media to cover its activities in their reportage and not indulge in frivolous awards. 

Here is what the Kashmir-based group has stated in a statement:

http://kafila.org/2011/12/11/parveena-ahangar-rejects-cnn-ibns-nomination-for-indian-of-the-year-2011/#more-10877

his press release has been issued by the PARVEENA AHANGAR-led ASSOCIATION OF PARENTS FOR DISAPPEARED PERSONS

Srinagar, December 10, 2011:  On this ‘International Human Rights Day’, December 10, 2011, the APDP (Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons), Srinagar, wishes to state that there is something obscene and perverse in the manner the CNN-IBN has nominated our organization for the ‘Indian of the Year 2011’ award. Sometimes, human rights can be violated by merely mocking those who struggle for human rights.

The channel and its associates are promoting this ‘award’ in all their publicity material as a recognition for “architects and ambassadors of Brand India”. The APDP would like to forthwith REJECT and condemn this gratuitous nomination of our organization for this award which smacks of being yet another attempt by corporate Indian media to cover-up and neutralize the crimes of the Indian state in Kashmir.

We believe there is something sinister in the way our organisation, which has been relentlessly struggling for core human values like freedom, dignity and justice in the Valley in the face of brutal state repression – largely condoned by the corporate media – has been drafted into the eclectic ‘menu card’ of shortlisted nominees just to buy some credibility to the ‘award’. The CNN-IBN or its associates certainly did not consult us before including our name on the nominees list.

The nomination states, ‘The award recognizes the Indian(s) whose contribution to the country in a calendar year has strengthened the foundation of our society and has helped build Brand India in the process. The pinnacle of Indian achievement….’

Applied in the context of our organization, this is patently absurd. The APDP’s struggle for justice and accountability has never been about “building Brand India” but about questioning and challenging Brand India and its trampling over the rights and lives of the people of Kashmir. We refuse to allow ourselves to be co-opted into that brutal system and demean our struggle for ‘rights’ by being foisted upon with some self-styled award. Particularly, when it seems obvious that our name is on your list merely as a ‘decoration’ to help prop up your credibility.

The award citation describes APDP as an organization ‘relentlessly highlighting the issue of missing persons in Kashmir, and forcing the government and rights groups to acknowledge and act’.

Describing the cases of enforced disappearances in Kashmir as that of ‘missing persons’ and claiming that due to efforts of APDP the government and its agencies have acted and acknowledged the issue of enforced disappearances in Kashmir, is both misinformed and misleading.

We wish to place on record that there has been no formal response from the government agencies or institutions on the issue of enforced disappearances in Kashmir. The APDP have identified the perpetrators of the crimes, and there are thousands of cases pending in the Srinagar High Court seeking sanction for prosecution of the accused. However, draconian laws like the AFSPA (Armed Forces Special Powers Act) in Kashmir continue to provide them complete impunity. To claim that the government and its agencies have responded to these gross acts of human rights violations and has ‘acted’ or punished the guilty is a blatant falsehood.

This nomination is a farce. Such nominations take away from the struggle that we as the Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons have been fighting for past two decades. It also makes a mockery of the trauma and sufferings of the Kashmiri people.

The only real ‘award’ the news channel can bestow upon us is consistent and honest reportage of the heinous crimes committed by the armed forces in Kashmir and highlight the struggles and sacrifices of the people of Kashmir for justice and freedom.

We demand that CNN-IBN forthwith remove our name from their nominee’s list.

PARVEENA AHANGAR
Spokesperson,
Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons (APDP)

life in general: prashant bhushan, anna hazare, kashmir and plebiscite

Today is Sunday. Three Sundays back, on 25 Sep 2011, Prashan Bhushan [an active lawyer, advocate at the Supreme Court of India and an active member of what is referred to as Team Anna (the group of people behind Anna Hazare's anti-corruption campaign)] was speaking at a "Meet the Press" program organised by Kashi Patrakar Sangh at Varanasi. Whether he was speaking on behalf of Team Anna at that press conference I am not sure (this Times of India newsreport dated 25 September is all that I could find on the web and it is not clear on this aspect).

Anyway, someone must have asked him a question on Kashmir to which his response, most likely in his personal capacity and not as a representative of Team Anna, among other articulations included his point about a plebiscite that could be held in Kashmir to ascertain the people of Kashmir's thinking about whether they wanted to stay as a part of India or to become an independent country.

Last week, on Wednesday, 12 October, Bhushan was physically attacked by three persons of an extremist group called Bhagat Singh Kranti Sena, as a protest over his 25 September remarks on Kashmir plebiscite.

The next day, on Thursday, 13 October, a few public supporters of Anna Hazare, were brutally beaten up by other activists of Bhagat Singh Kranti Sena on the road outside a court where the bail application of Bhushan's attacker was being heard.

Yesterday, on Saturday, 15 October, Anna Hazare says he strongly disagreed with Bhushan's views on Kashmir and so he and other core committee members of Team Anna, excluding Bhushan, will decide on whether Bhushan will continue to be considered a part of Team Anna or be excluded. See newsreports here and here.

The above is the background.

Now my views:

I not only agree with Bhushan on a plebiscite in Kashmir but I think there should be an official plebiscite policy whereby once every 50 years there should be a plebiscite in every state of India to determine whether the people of a state wanted to continue to be a part of India or become an independent country (no third option of joining any other country should be given and it should be made illegal to become a part of any other country afterwards in case a choice of independence is made). For the plebiscite to be valid, a minimum voting turnout of 75% has to take place and of the votes given at least 75% has to be for becoming an independent country (if less than 75% of votes given is for independence then that state continues being a part of India). In case, a state chooses to become indpendent, it should be legally bound to hold a reverse plesbicite after 50 years whether its people want to revert back to India or remain independent.

I would prefer seeing every country in the world (including Pakistan) have a similar plebiscite policy with regard to their different states/districts, and if any country does not have such a formal policy the United Nations should exclude them from its membership.

But it is perfectly fine for anyone to think that Kashmir is an integral part of India and that there should be no question of a plebiscite. Bhushan has a view. I have mine. They have theirs. There is no need for violence. Bhushan's views or mine are not seditious because he, and me, are not telling Kashmiris to take up arms to have a plebiscite. We are sharing our thoughts on what we think is fair and we certainly do not want to incite anyone to violence to implement our thoughts. So, there is no question of sedition. I, for one, as a voter registered in Bombay in Maharashtra, will in any plebiscite held in Maharashtra, will vote for it to continue to be in India and not become an independent country.

Coming to Anna Hazare's threat of expelling Bhushan from Team Anna, I find it to be representative of Hazare's support for authoritarianism and his tendencies to be un-democratic. Bhushan would not lose anything in not being a part of Team Anna, but Anna Hazare would lose a honest and hard-working supporter in his campaign against corruption.