The situation calls for president’s rule and early elections

Management Guru Arindam Chaudhuri Dean Business School IIPM

DR. MALAY CHAUDHURI, Chief Consulting Editor, The Sunday Indian

Looking at the television pictures of Khejuri, a block under the district of east Midnapore, West Bengal (situated next to Nandigram, made famous by the killing of 14 people in 14 March 2007), I can't help asking myself the question: Am I living in India or in some distant part of Africa, where killings happen every now and then, propelled by ex-colonial powers for neo-colonial interests of their own? It has been written in all leading papers of West Bengal that truckloads of people enter villages in Khejuri armed with weapons, primitive as well as modern, backed by ‘harmads’ (CPM goons hired by the party for specific purposes, brought from neighbouring states or districts). They are supported by the local police either actively or by remaining passive allowing them to destroy, burn down houses, kill people who oppose them. It is written in CPM's paper Ganashakti that these people actually lived in Khejuri before the Lok Sabha elections of 09.

In that election, Trinamool candidates won the majority of the seats and a Trinamool party member became the MP of Khejuri. In the post-election scenario, many cadres and active supporters of CPM were evicted from their respective villages as they had participated in various shenanigans organised by the "party" amounting to politico-social tyranny of villagers (for example, not allowing labourers to work in the fields of those boycotted by the party for one reason or the other). Apparently, these displaced persons are now returning to their respective villages, but led by CPM ‘cadres’ and ‘harmads’. Displaced villagers should of course come back to their houses, supported and guided by the local police to protect them from the onslaught of those who drove them away. These displaced people cannot however come back with the support of party cadres or harmads and that too with weapons of all kinds. What happened in the villages of Khejuri is a sort of a civil war. If this happens and continues to happen in different areas of West Bengal villages, then it certainly calls for intervention by the central government, which should consider imposing President's rule, if necessary, and setting up the stage for the upcoming elections, which is the root cause of the rise in the killings. When the local police cannot impose the rule of law, the Centre has the duty to uphold the Constitutional rights of the citizens. It seems various political calculations to perpetuate present administration at the Centre have prevented the Central government from imposing law and order in one or the other part of the country, throwing the citizens of those parts to wolves of various hues – sometimes Stalinists of West Bengal, sometimes semi-communal political forces in Mumbai and elsewhere.

If 60,000 central reserve forces can peacefully organise voting that is free of rigging in a state like Bihar now, and even in Bengal a year and a half back organising elections in five phases, it seems that a maximum of three lakh central reserve force will be required to maintain law and order in a state of the size of West Bengal or Bihar. Assuming an expenditure of Rs 2,50,000 per annum per person on wages and weapons, it will cost only Rs.7,500 crore per annum, which is only a little more than one per cent of central government's annual budget. This expenditure is a must and most necessary if rule of law is to be maintained whenever one part of India goes outside the purview of civilised democratic norms.


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How Marxists are creating killing fields in Bengal of the type never seen before in india... And why the centre must immediately call for elections.

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"Horror was the onset of Sanguinary Convulsions," said Winston Churchill while commenting of the Great Kolkata Riots before Independence. Today’s Bengal reminds one of Churchill's words. And it is the Marxists who are giving credence to his one-liner. The violence let loose all over state for the past many months, especially in the districts of south Bengal where the main state Opposition has established a strong foothold, can only be compared with that witnessed by the state in the early 70s.

In all probability, the Communist Party of India (Marxist)-led Left Front will lose the electoral battle in the forthcoming Assembly election in the coming summer. And, the dispensation and its leading partner can't seem to accept such an inglorious defeat with dignity after an uninterrupted rule of 34 years. As a last-ditch attempt, the Stalinist forces are trying to terrorise people into submission. The famous statement of Edvard Radzinsky on Joseph Stalin comes to mind: “Terror is the quickest way to new society”.

CPI(M) claims to have democratised the power structure to the grassroots level through the panchayat system. While this is true to some extent, the Stalinist party has spread two other things at the same time – corruption and armed cadres. While organised corruption has helped the party to amass huge wealth in terms of real estate, armed party cadres have helped to keep people’s mouths shut. In one way or the other, this has been admitted even by senior CPI(M) leaders themselves. Only a few days back, chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, while addressing a party rally in the North 24 Parganas, called on his party cadres to keep distance from these two evils. One can remember the erstwhile chief minister Jyoti Basu openly admitting that Badshah Alam, who attacked Mamata Banerjee and fractured her head, was a CPM man. Only a year back, the then chief secretary, admitted that huge tracts of land were being grabbed in Rajarhat by the power of guns (in hands of CPI(M) cadres). Daylight action in Nandigram on March 14, 2007 by “chappal-wearing police” has established this fact beyond any doubt even in courts of law. The situation prompted the then Governor of the state and Mahatma’s grandson, Gopalkrishna Gandhi, to describe it as one of ‘cold horror’.

The recent spurt in violence started with a failed attack on Khejuri-Nandigram from Shunia Char (reclaimed land on river) on November 24, 2010. About 200 armed men (Harmads) entered Kamarda village and started hurling bombs. They burnt Trinamool Congress party offices and started indiscriminately firing in the air. Their motive was to terrorise Trinamool supporters and gain control over their lost ground. But spontaneous and united opposition from villagers forced them to flee. The villagers were led by chief of TMC youth wing and local MP Subhendu Adhikari. Armed cadres tried again and again. But they had to retreat each time leaving several people injured in the process. Both side used bombs and firearms. The attacks have taken place despite the MP and MLAs writing in advance to the police, the chief minister and the chief secretary apprehending such attacks.

Just after the chief minister's war cry at a party rally, “Hoi Bampantha, noi mrityu (Either Leftism or death),” trouble erupted in Raina and Mangalkot of Burdwan district. Purnima Majhi’s face is today unrecognisable after Harmads charged bombs on her face in Mangalkot. Her only offence was to stumble upon a group of bomb-makers in the middle of the night while she was on her way to the paddy field to relieve herself. Two other Trinamool activists, Hasmat Mollah and Kajal Mallick, succumbed to CPI(M) attacks. Since the Lok Sabha polls, in Burdwan district alone, about 26 Trinamool workers have been killed in political violence. Close on the heels of the Mangalkot incident, armed CPI(M) cadres attacked as many as three villages in the Khanakul, Arambagh and Purshura areas of Hooghly to ‘liberate these villages’ from Opposition hold. Trinamool activists had to flee in face of the waves of attacks surrounding their villages. Interestingly, in all the cases, the state police played either the role of a mute spectator or that of passive protector of the Harmad goons. The vernacular press carried reports of political clashes in Nadia, Murshidabad, North and South 24-Parganas. Trinamool Congress cadres were targeted at Sashan in North 24 Parganas, some of them died.

In Birbhum district, the CPI(M)-backed Harmads not only targeted Trinamool activists but also supporters of Left Front ally RSP. The RSP has bitter relations with CPI(M) in South 24-Parganas too where a kin of a RSP minister was killed along with few more RSP activists and their houses were burnt during the last Panchayat elections. Similarly, another Left Front partner, CPI, is facing Harmad attacks in parts of Hooghly and East Medinipur districts. The Arambagh-Purshura-Khanakul area saw pitched battles between CPI and CPI(M), some CPI supporters fell to Harmad attacks.

What is beyond the realms of rationality is that senior leaders of the Stalinist party are themselves making provocative statements in public and inciting cadres. While the chief minister – who after the Red bloodshed in Nandigram had said that the people got “paid back in their own coin” – uttered “either Leftism or deaths”, state secretariat member of the party Gautam Deb, who is minister in-charge of public health engineering, challenged the Opposition several times in the open. Land and land reforms minister Abdur Rezzak Mollah is calling upon “black-haired well-built youths of villages” to manage polling booths during the forthcoming election. Addressing a rally, he said the party could return to power if these youths guaranteed at least 20 Assembly segments where the Left Front were likely to be defeated.

This, according to several commentators, is not only heating up the already charged atmosphere but also instigating youths to be more aggressive. The students’ wing of CPI(M), which is already facing routs in half of the colleges which they were used to grabbing without any contest, are getting engaged in verbal duels and beyond with rival students' bodies. The other side, the Trinamool Chhatra Parishad and Chhatra Parishad (NSUI’s state wing) are being dragged into the turmoil too. A student of Andul Jagajjanani College in Howrah has lost his life. Another student of Ashutosh College has lost one eye and is now undergoing treatment in Hyderabad. About 50 cases of students’ clashes over union elections have been reported. In many cases, clashes took place when senior party leaders were present. Professor Rajat Majumder says, “Whom do you blame when the hands of the politicians are blood-stained? They can try to wash those but will not be successful.”

“Now, the situation has become such that even government staff are not being spared,” says Dhruba Sen, leader of a Left-wing state government employees’ organisation. “The BDO of Itahar was manhandled by CPI(M) leaders. The injured BDO filed an FIR with the police and seven CPM leaders were arrested. Their offence was non-bailable but on the very next day, they got bail. And now the policemen are saying they did this for the BDO’s safety. The BDO rejoined duty and soon requested the district magistrate to transfer him somewhere else as he felt insecure in Itahar.”

Let's turn our attention to Lalgarh or the greater Jungle Mahal area where Harmads from several adjoining districts are active in the open and are being allegedly shielded by the police. A report few months back listed 52 camps and counted presence of 1620 Harmads in 7 blocks of Jhargram. A latest unofficial report claim about 90 Harmad camps (86 according to Union home minister P. Chidambaram) and more than 2,500 armed CPI(M) Harmads. Eminent novelist Jaya Mitra questions: “This is the CPI(M)'s version of the Salwa Judum. Salwa Judum has been banned by the Supreme Court but the CPI(M)'s Red Brigade continue to operate with impunity.” Local scribes of different newspapers claim that more than 100 people were killed by the CPI(M) in less than a decade before the Lalgarh revolt. And after the Joint Force entered the scene, killings have increased manifold, they hold. Now, CPI(M) and Maoists both are killing villagers. There was only a brief let up while the Police Santras Birodhi Janasadharaner Committee (Peoples’ Committee against Police Atrocities) was controlling the area.

Sources in the Union Home ministry say that as the joint paramilitary forces are in action, the Union home ministry has to keep a watch on the situation there. Central Intelligence agencies are reporting directly to Delhi on a daily basis. Governor M.K. Narayanan, an ex-IB sleuth and a former National Security Advisor, is also reportedly keeping eyes on developments. Being reported from several sources, Chidambaram wrote to Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee on December 21: “In an apparent effort to regain lost ground, a sizable number of armed cadres were recruited, trained and deployed in West Midnapore district. There is evidence to show that Harmad camps are mostly located in CPI(M) party offices and houses of local CPI(M) cadres. It is a matter of grave concern that these cadres have been provided with firearms...”

The Union home minister also mentioned, “Besides, in the run up to the elections, there has been a perceptible increase in clashes between supporters of the CPI(M) and the TMC (Trinamool Congress). According to our figures, up to December 15, 2010, TMC cadres who have been killed and injured number 96 and 1,237 respectively. Likewise, CPI(M) cadres, who have been killed and injured number 65 and 773 respectively. And Congress cadres who have been killed and injured number 15 and 221 respectively. These numbers present an alarming picture and point to a virtual collapse of law and order in parts of West Bengal.” He also raised the vital question which has been raised by the state Opposition over a year: What is the need of Joint Forces in Jungle Mahal if CPI(M) deploys armed cadres to maintain law and order?

An angered and cornered chief minister sent out more of a political and less of an administrator’s reply where he contradicted figures of Trinamool. Conspicuously, the chief minister remained silent on the issue of CPI(M)’s armed camps but objected to the use of the language ‘Harmad’. Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee also contradicts the casualty figures of her party, “I have the list of names of 246 party workers who have been killed since the parliamentary elections,” says the railway minister.

To get a proper picture, casualty figures among Maoists, Police Santras Birodhi Janasadharaner Committee (PCPA) and security forces also should be taken into account. Official figures say about 328 Maoists & PCPA supporters and 27 Jawans have lost their lives up to December 26 this year. In fact, West Bengal stands second to Chhattisgarh in inflicting damage on Maoists. Rights activists and intellectuals claim that most of those killed as ‘Maoists’ are innocent villagers. “CPI(M) is branding those non-CPI(M) youths as ‘Maoists’ to gain their political mileage,” says Prof. Sumit Chakraborty, convenor of the Lalgarh Mancha. The reason behind such violence is not too hard to find. The area returns 44 legislators to the state assembly. Majority of these seats elected CPI(M) and its allies even in the last polls. However, the result may turn against the ruling front this time if a free and fair election is held. Looking at the state of lawlessness in West Bengal, Mamata Banerjee's call for early and immediate election seems more plausible today in light of the Union home minister P. Chidambaram's latest missive to Writer's Building.

While the political parties fight their never-ending bloody battles in quest for power, the Maoists continue their policy of annihilation and the State continues to militarily combat ‘Leftist Extremism.’ Only, the innocents become the victims of the game. Their blood flows. Their houses burn in the fire of revenge. Their children bear the burnt throughout their lives. May be Nabarun Bhattacharya’s famous poem of the 70s can help restore sanity: “Ei Mrityu Upatyaka Amar Desh Na / Ei Raktasnato Kasaikhana Amar Desh Na (This Valley of Death Is Not My Country / I Disown This Blood-Drenched Slaughterhouse As My Nation).”

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The new draft of the Seeds Bill has enough loopholes which can be exploited by multi-nationals

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Seeds of discontent

The third draft of the Seeds Bill has been presented in the Parliament for consideration. The bill was first drafted in 2004. Prior to this, after much criticism and protest from several farmer groups, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Agriculture (PSCA) had made a few amendments in the draft and had presented the new bill for consideration in 2008. However, it did not come to fruition as the 14th Lok Sabha was dissolved. Now its third draft is under deliberations. Sadly, this new draft too has ignored several recommendations by the PSCA. It appears that the Agriculture Ministry is unwilling to temper with the clauses which are in the interest of multinational seed firms.

When in 2004 the draft of Seeds Bill was being made to replace the old Seeds Act of 1996, the impression was given that the new bill would open the way for importing good quality high yield seeds. Slyly, a clause was inserted which allowed seeds to be exported too. The entire game plan was to utilise the cheap Indian labour for producing seeds in India and to export them, and then again import the same on much higher price. To make all this process hassle free for multinationals, the government had planned to recognise and permit any Seeds Standard Authority to carry it. It was to be done under the pretext of the recommendations by the PSCA.

The present bill has included horticulture, lumbering, medicinal plants etc under agriculture only. So any kind of seed or plant product that is manufactured for the market will need to be registered. For registration, the bill has the provision to set up a National Seeds Committee. The president and other members of the committee will mostly be drawn from among government employees. There will be token representation of farmers too, but in reality, bureaucrats will dominate the committee. Although agriculture is a state subject, the seeds committees of the states will only have advisory roles.

While the farmers will continue to buy and sell seeds traditionally and need not register, the branded seeds will have to go through multilevel tests. The brands that will conform to the standards set in the test can only be registered. The seeds for the types of crops that are annual and biannual will be registered for 10 years and those of multi-years use for 12 years.
In between these years, the seed can be tested only once to confirm the characters that it originally had. New standards have been set for labelling the seeds that will give details of the procedure through which these seeds can be utilised properly and optimally. For example, on the label of a particular wheat seed, it will be clearly mentioned that after watering it so many times, applying so much fertilizers and protecting it from weeds and pests, it will lead to so much yield.

The seed examiners will have the duty to enforce and implement all the laws and provisions of the Seeds Bill 2010. They will have the right to raid and confiscate the premises and stock of a particular seeds seller, with permission from the District Magistrate, if the particular seller is caught selling unregistered, adulterated seeds, or seeds that do not conform to the set standards. However, these are ideal situations. The reality is, every state in this country has sellers selling adulterated and sub-standard seeds, right under the nose of government officials. Nobody cares about complaints from the farmers and compensation to them in case of bad quality seeds is almost unheard of.

The biggest problem in this bill is the lack of transparency in the entire registration process. There is no provision under which one can know the name of the person who has developed a particular seed, the place where it has been developed or the current ownership of a particular variety. Numerous cases have come up where poor farmers are duped and the ownership is fraudulently taken away by someone else and a third person starts producing and selling it. For example, Bikaner Narma, a particular variety of cotton was developed by a farmer in Bikaner, Rajasthan, but was later used by somebody else for commercial purposes. Similarly, Mahico, the country’s biggest seed firm, started by selling sawani bhindi, a variety of ladyfinger grown by Pusa Institute. Mahico bought the seeds from Pusa and kept on producing and selling them year after year without giving Pusa the royalty or license fees. Today they have their own scientists, laboratories and other infrastructure and have partners like Monsento, and virtually rule the Indian seeds business.

The onus now lies on the Indian parliamentarians to take steps which are in the interests of the farmers. The MPs need to amend all the anti-farmer clauses before passing the bill. That’s the only way the exploiter multi-nationals and their bureaucrat henchmen can be stumped in their own game.

The views expressed by the author are personal

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Introspection on the 2010 journey reveals hidden lessons

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Was 2010 different?

Alice Bloch, a UK-based author, once said “We say we waste time, but that is impossible. We waste ourselves.” It is applicable to a nation as much as in the case of an individual. This is the 51st week of 2010 and our last issue of the year – this makes it all the more important for us to look back and introspect the rocky road that India traversed with high expectations and promises.

Revisiting the victories: Firstly, India secured the non-permanent membership in the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) after a gap of 19 years with an overwhelming majority. This was not a victory in the literal sense, as Japan is already serving as a non-permanent member, Kazakhstan withdrew itself and there were several weak contenders. However, India can use this win as a platform for strengthening diplomatic ties with other important nations as well as usher in the much needed reforms in the UNSC. Moreover, it can also clear some UN developmental loans. The second positive lesson was in snatching the 2nd position in medal tally in the 2010 Commonwealth Games with 101 medals. It boosted the confidence levels of Indian athletes and sports associations. Thirdly, India securing the top rank in test cricket was the icing on the cake. Indian history rarely has had such celebrations to boast of in one go. And most importantly, leaders of the world's most influential nations including US President Obama, French President Sarkozy, British PM David Cameron, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and Russian President Medvedev have visited India in the same year. India's increasing pace of growth has finally managed to create a magnetic field attracting the who's who of the world.

And now the dark side: With 8.5 per cent expected growth rate, inflation remained an omnipresent problem. Both the general inflation rate of 10.16 per cent and food inflation of 16.49 per cent during June remained to be the highest among G20 nations. This continues to be a matter of great concern. But the biggest shocks of the year were the numerous corruption cases. From the Rs.1.76 lakh crore 2G scam, to the mammoth irregularities in the Commonwealth Games, 2010 proved to be the biggest shame year for the nation.

India also continues to rank first in terms of murders. The death in road accidents, sexual harassment, domestic violence, cyber-crime, crime against women too are on a rise. Separatist movements remained unstoppable and unresolved – Kashmir remains a burning example. More than 23 days of Parliamentary logjam cost the nation a whopping Rs.146 crore. The maximum number of citizens (above 250 million) in India's history remain undernourished. We have more poor and illiterate today (around 500 million) than ever in our history. India houses a third of the globe's poor people. Atrocious and abominable are the only words reserved for such an achievement by our successive governments. May 2011 be better...

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The Importance of being Bant Singh

IIPM Excom Prof Rajita Chaudhuri

The past decade has seen an upsurge of Dalit resistance in Punjab and the struggle of Bant Singh has brought fresh hope for exposing the ‘hidden apartheid’ in the state. Nirupama Dutt travels to his village of Burj Jhabbar in the cotton belt of Punjab to know the man and the movement

Film actor Ajay Devgan presents his story on a popular television channel. Musicians like Chris Mcguiness and Taru Dalmia travel to do a music project with him. Recording companies from Mumbai want to bring out his album. He is also slated to participate in the Jaipur Literature Festival in January 2011.

Who after all is Bant Singh? He was just another leader of agrarian workers who also sang revolutionary songs and struggled to make ends meet for his wife and eight children in the past decade. What happened to make him a heroic symbol of Dalit resistance in Punjab? Bant was born in a Mazhabi Sikh family. Mazhabis were former ‘untouchables’ who were inducted into the fold by the Gurus as Sikhism rejected the Hindu caste hierarchy. Yet the malaise of caste was to permeate the fabric of Sikh society with the hierarchical shift as the Jats were the landlords and the Dalits the agrarian labourers.

Bant could hold his own as he was politically aware, choosing not to work as an attached labourer. He instead sold cosmetics and toys besides rearing hens and pigs. He continued to be politically active, organising labour, helping them come out of never-ending debts through court cases and demanding fair wages. As vice-president of Mazdoor Mukti Morcha, a wing of the All India Agricultural Labour Association (AIALA), he irked landlords who were used to undisputed serfdom. He sent all his children to school and did not allow them to work in the Jat fields.

The turning point came in 2002 when his minor daughter Baljit Kaur, a student of Class IX, was gang-raped. He did not let it pass as is the custom because the rape of a Dalit girl by a Jat boy is common. Bant decided to fight for justice and three persons, including a woman accomplice, were sentenced to life imprisonment. “I was offered money to withdraw the case but I did not want to compromise on the honour of my daughter. We struggled for justice and got it.” However, he had to pay a heavy price for taking on the Jats. He was physically attacked several times. Then on the evening of January 5, 2006, seven Jat boys brutally beat him up with iron roads. His arms and legs were pounded to pulp. He lay for several hours in the fields till he was taken to Mansa Civil Hospital where the doctors were indifferent to him. After 36 hours, once gangrene had set in, they said they could not treat him. Bant’s comrades raised money and moved him to the PGIMS in Chandigarh.

The doctors had to amputate his two arms and a leg. When Bant was given this news, he said bravely: “I still have a tongue and I will continue to sing against oppression”. Indeed, he did surprise the doctors as well as the patients by singing out loud and clear the revolutionary songs of Punjabi poet, late Sant Ram Udasi, from his bed. Two months later, he came out of the hospital to address a public rally in Chandigarh. In different hospitals for over two years, he continued to sing.

His great courage brought attention to his spirit of resistance. The media came to him, the police upgraded the case to Section 308 of the IPC and the accused were arrested. Relevant sections under the SC/ST Act were added to the case. The attack on Bant was aimed at terrorising him and all other Dalit labourers but the outrage was such that thousands of them started coming to the rallies held in his support all over Punjab. His courage and songs gave hope to others. The culprits were jailed for seven years.

Sanjay Kak, who was asked by Bant’s comrades to make a film on the man, says: “I had not gone to make a film but it was Bant who made it by the sincerity of his emotions and the angst against the oppression of centuries.” The seven-minute film called Bant Can Still Sing is counted among one of the most eloquent films made by Kak. When I got to meet Bant at his home in Burj Jhabbar, I found him resting on a charpai under a kikar tree in his courtyard. He was quick to greet me with a broad smile. Raising his amputated arm, he hailed me with a Laal Salaam. Soon he was singing inspiring songs and telling me about his campaigns for farm labourers. “They wanted to silence me but I have been able to give out the message far louder than before,” he says. The strength to fight back, he says, came from his ideals, Guru Gobind Singh and Shaheed Bhagat Singh. True, the Dalits had been terrorised when Bant was beaten to pulp but now the Jats too are wary about the excesses for there could be other Bants who will fight back. This is what makes him the hero of Dalit resistance in Punjab.

A Laal Salaam indeed to this man who has turned the tide after centuries and about whom journalist Amit Sengupta says: “In a tangential sense, the ideology of upper caste domination has been pushed to the wall by Bant Singh’s sacrifice and valour. He has become a revolutionary icon, a catalyst for change, a protector of human and fundamental rights, a symbol of defiance against archaic symbols of feudalism and slavery, a physical reality of a dream which is not so impossible.”

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The local media in Kashmir is expanding at a staggering pace though the sailing has not been smooth for local journalists and media organisations

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Assertion amid restrictions

Till the late 1980s, J&K had such less newspapers and magazines that they could be counted on the fingers of one hand. Of these, only Aftab and Srinagar Times, both Urdu dailies, were popular among the masses. When insurgency erupted in the Valley, people needed their daily fix of news. They were eager to remain abreast of developments around them.

State-run Doordarshan and Radio Kashmir were the only accessible sources of news but excessive government control on these media institutions undermined their credibility. People turned to international media, primarily BBC, to get a clear picture of the situation in Kashmir. The then correspondent of BBC World Service, Yusuf Jameel, became a household name in the Valley. Every household would tune into the early morning and evening BBC bulletins.

“People would trust every word the BBC would broadcast. It was too demanding. I could hardly afford any off-the-mark coverage. But my reporting things as they were won me more foes than friends,” recalls Jameel.

Now, two decades later, more than a hundred newspapers, including 25 English dailies, hit the stalls every morning in Srinagar. There are 81weeklies, both offset and litho printed, and 12 monthly and fortnightly English and Urdu news magazines too being published from the Valley alone. About 80 dailies and 132 periodicals are published from Jammu.

The buck does not stop there. According to officials, hundreds of applications for new registrations are pending in the offices concerned in both Jammu and Srinagar. Almost every second month sees the launch of new publications. Most of these newspapers, priced at two to three rupees, survive mainly on government advertisements.
The growing literacy rate, which at present hovers a little above 65 per cent in J&K, has also widened the readership base during the last two decades. At the same time, new technologies like the Internet, networked computers and other hardware and software applications have also helped in producing newspapers in large number with better print quality. Apart from that, more than 20 cable news channels have been launched across the state in the past few years. All of the news channels — more than a dozen — are off the air in the Valley though after the state authorities announced a temporary ban on them four months ago.

GK Communications, with two of its largest circulated daily newspapers, Greater Kashmir (English) and Kashmir Uzma (Urdu) is considered to be one of the biggest media organisations in the state. Both of its newspapers are simultaneously published from Jammu and Srinagar. GK also has a vibrant online edition, which has a large number of visitors across the globe. Similarly, Kashmir Media Group (KMG), which publishes Rising Kashmir (English), Buland Kashmir (Urdu) and Sangarmal (Kashmiri), is also taking shape as a large media group in the Valley. English papers such as Greater Kashmir, Rising Kashmir and Kashmir Times and Urdu language ones like Kashmir Uzma, Srinagar Times, Aftab and Buland are being extensively read.

Mass communication graduates from Kashmir University are being hired by local newspapers on good wages. “Kashmir University’s mass communication department was established in 1985. Since then, we have produced more than 600 journalists and most of them are well placed in local, national and international media organisations,” informs Nasir Mirza, a senior lecturer.

However, it has not been easy for media organisations and journalists to survive in an atmosphere of hostility and conflict. During the last 20 years, more than a dozen mediapersons have been killed in the line of duty.

Apart from such tragedies, Kashmiri journalists have seen the worst kind of aggression by security forces. This summer more than two dozen mediapersons were ruthlessly beaten up by police and security forces at different times while they were performing their duty. Srinagar-based newspapers have frequently been forced to stop publication by the government. During the civil unrest earlier this year, beating up and harassment of newspaper staff and repeated cancellation of curfew passes made their operations impossible. The newspapers have been stopped for an estimated total of thirty days since June this year.

The channel operators believe that they were targetted only for showing the facts. “The channels were screening only what was happening around. People were being killed and injured by the security forces. How could we have not reported such things?” asks Sanam Aijaz, managing director, J.K. channel.

The popularity of social networking sites has also increased during the last few years, especially among the youth. Many Kashmiris, including those living abroad, have created groups on facebook and Twitter to express their political opinions. During the recent unrest, tech-savvy youngsters used these sites to vent their anger. This attracted the attention of security agencies. Police arrested many young boys for posting “objectionable” remarks on Internet.

But the local media in Kashmir lacks in quality. “During past two decades the Kashmir media has grown enormously but quality is missing,” says Pervez Majeed, a correspondent with Delhi-based news magazine Sahara Time. “The conflict provided a breeding ground for non-professionals who are pursuing varied interests and are indulging in activities which can't be called journalism,” he rues.

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