Reacting to the “propaganda” unleashed by a section of national media with a design to malign Kashmiris,
|| NAZIR GANAIE
Nazir Ganaie finds out how national media reports Kashmir NIT campus unrest with a slant
The situation in National Institute of Technology (Srinagar) snowballed into major controversy a day after Peoples Democratic Party president took reigns of restive Himalayan state of Jammu and Kashmir as first woman chief minister. Trouble- is what comes following to the current PDP-BJP dispensation in State. The crisis began during India’s World Twenty20 semi-final clash against the West Indies. According to insiders that local Kashmiri students supported the West Indies, while all the others cheered for the home team. What began as slogan-shouting soon turned violent and clashes broke out.
The local students said that they had been “thrashed” inside the campus by non-local students. This led to anger within the Kashmir Valley, made worse by a report by a courier named Imtiyaz Sheikh, who complained that “outsider” students beat him up when he went to deliver a package at the campus. The non-local students however lashed out at police, saying Kashmir police “acted like militants.”
While Mehbooba including the Centre (Government of India) have clearly ruled out the shifting of the campus, however hundreds of non-local students remained away from appearing in exams.
The outstation students then expressed a “sense of insecurity” and attempted to leave the campus and skipped their scheduled exams. The situation at the NIT campus continued to be on the boil with agitated students forwarding their demands the government must ensure safety of all outstation students. While Mehbooba including the Centre (Government of India) have clearly ruled out the shifting of the campus, however hundreds of non-local
The deceptive calm prevailing inside the campus while as the Kashmir is facing worst times with the killings four unarmed person in north Kashmir’s Handwara area of frontier district Kupwara.
students remained away from appearing in exams. The deceptive calm prevailing inside the campus while as the Kashmir is facing worst times with the killings four unarmed person in north Kashmir’s Handwara area of frontier district Kupwara.
Reacting to the “propaganda” unleashed by a section of national media with a design to malign Kashmiris, a group of local students from National Institute of Technology (NIT) Srinagar alleged that some reporters from India based news channels were “inciting” non-local students for violence. They immediately urged the authorities not to allow any New Delhi media channel inside the campus and also force them to vacate from the main gate of the Institute.
“Some New Delhi based reporters call non-local students from their cell phones, asking them to march towards main gate. They do it to show that non-local students continue to protest against local police. Even some non-local students are not happy with the present mess and they just want peace in the Institute,” students said. “Initially, we appeal authorities to force these media channels out of them campus and also vacate from the main gate of the campus. Once, they vacate, peace will prevail,” they said.
These students alleged that some non-local students tried to march towards main gate on the behest of a camera crew. “Have they flown from New Delhi to disturb the peace here? We fail to understand what message they want to convey to the people across India,” a local student had said. It has been learnt that the Srinagar based Kashmiri reporters, working for New Delhi based news channel feel agitated after learning that their bosses, sitting in Indian capital bypass them. They said that some of the channels dispatched their reporters to Kashmir from many parts of India. A prominent English news channel had sent two reporters to Kashmir were seen camping outside NIT campus to dispatch the minute-to-minute happenings.
“An issue of trivial importance was unnecessarily blown out of proportion,” said a professor at the Institute, wishing not be identified or named. It was also learnt that news channels, including Times Now, NDTV, News X, India TV and ABP all ‘bypassed’ their local reporters over NIT reportage and deputed their parachute journalists to the valley. “The outside state reporters of some of the prominent channels are stationed outside NIT Srinagar to report what they call in a fair and unbiased manner,” a senior journalist, working for New Delhi based news channel said. Another senior correspondent and State Bureau head of one of the prominent New Delhi English channels, said, “There is always this debate over certain issues of national importance where we are bypassed with our Delhi staff. This is unfortunate reality,” said the journalist.
“As far as NIT unrest goes, not only police was see as pro- Pakistan even we are separatists for our head offices,” he added. What happened in the NIT campus is a temporary flare-up of emotions which would have died on its own but some of the “irresponsible” Indian media channels were hell bent to keep the embers burning. The observers say that this isn’t the first time that people in Kashmir have celebrated in the defeat of Indian cricket team and it is surely not going to be the last. However, what is worrying is the fact that this time around it seems to have taken a dangerous communal turn.
“I was shocked to see a report by a correspondent of Mail Today, Siddhartha Rai, who has written so malicious a report that it is enough to stir up the communal tension,” a student Ahmad Waseem from NIT said. Ahmad opined that in the report, the journalist has maliciously accused that local students have threatened non-local girl students with rape. “During the 2014 floods, when the NIT campus was inundated, it was not the Arnob Goswamis or Anupam Khers who rescued the non-local students,” said another student, Rameez Ahmad said. “It was the local students of Kashmir University who made arrangements for them.”
Reacting to the “propaganda” unleashed by a section of national media with a design to malign Kashmiris, a group of local students from National Institute of Technology (NIT) Srinagar alleged that some reporters from India based news channels were “inciting” non-local students for violence.
“The Arnobs, Khers and others will do a great favour to all by shutting their mouth and letting the students resolve this issue among themselves amicably,” he said. Later dozens of Kashmiri students who were studying in Vyas College of Engineering and Technology were beaten ruthlessly by the local students in Rajasthan during a cultural programme organized by the college authorities, however the issue didn’t make to the news channels.
Why this dichotomy over covering the issues by the handful of news channels, which is only adding fuel to the fire and not doing any service to the society. Independent Legislator, Engineer Abdul Rasheed, who also heads Awami Itehad Party (AIP), has asked national media and various political parties especially Congress to stop defending the un-defendable and unlawful activities of a group of students in NIT. He said that the national media and some communal forces need to understand that people of J&K are not seeking a resolution to the dispute on religious lines.
“National media covered NIT unrest with their preferences and prejudices,” he said. “Let those debating on national media not make a fool of themselves and try to hide the truth by calling these brave hearted secular scholars and students as anti-nationals.” “The real issue is that when you militarise the police force this is the result you get,” a journalist wrote in a recent write-up. “For long now, the police has been at the forefront to fight militancy, whereas elsewhere in the world the police is meant to maintain law and order within civilian areas.
Jammu and Kashmir police is no favoured name among most Kashmiris, and the present crisis is only proving them right.” Mehbooba, who took over as the first woman chief minister of the state also appreciated the “bold public statement” by Hurriyat patriarch Syed Ali Geelani who had appealed for calm at the college. Geelani had asked Kashmiri students at the college to take care of the safety of outsiders as “guests of Kashmir”. She said she had in her first meeting with her Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ministerial colleagues stressed on the need to “underplay some unfortunate and uncalled for incidents like NIT”.
Politicians from all across India spoke about the events unfolding at the NIT in Srinagar. Former chief minister and National Conference leader Omar Abdullah had said the matter needs “tactful handling” and the state government should look into it “without back seat drivers”. “Rushing in a team from HRD ministry coupled with the CRPF replacing J&K police speaks volumes about Delhi’s confidence in Mehbooba Mufti,” Omar wrote on Twitter. However Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) accused the former Chief Minister of rousing passions by uploading “misleading pictures’ on Twitter.
PDP Youth Wing President, Waheed-ur- Rehman Parra said it was “unbecoming of a former chief minister to use such contemptible tactics to provoke the situation in Kashmir.” “While the civil society and various other political quarters are playing a positive and responsible role to defuse the situation, it is surprising to see the former chief minister acting in such a reckless manner to provoke the situation and trigger passions against Kashmiris outside,” Parra said. Media observers opined that despite knowing the sensitivities of restive Kashmir region, the Indian media was blew NIT unrest out of its proportion.
They immediately urged the authorities not to allow any New Delhi media channel inside the campus and also force them to vacate from the main gate of the Institute. “Some New Delhi based reporters call non-local students from their cell phones, asking them to march towards main gate.
The issue being blown out-of-theproportion is dangerous not only for the institution but also for the state at large,” senior faculty at Media Education Research Centre, University of Kashmir, Nasir Mirza, said. “It should have been sorted by students themselves or at the most with some amount of mediation by administration.” Mirza said media has a constructive role to play to let the tempers cool down rather than help in flaring the passions. “The local and the national media should ensure the institution of journalism is not harmed by irresponsible reportage,” Mirza said. “Let the issue die its natural death. The students—local and non-local—should sit together, talk to each other and behave like friends.
This is the time weather in Kashmir is getting finer by the day, so forget the differences and enjoy your studies and stay. NIT was founded as a regional engineering college in 1960 and was under the control of the State government until 2004 when it was renamed and taken over by the Government’s ministry of human resource development (HRD). As per the new arrangements and the status of the institute, the admission to the college began to be based on a national examination, open to students from across India.
This has gradually changed the composition of students in the institute. At present, 50 per cent of the campus seats are reserved for students from outside the state of Jammu and Kashmir. The other 50 per cent is divided between students from the Muslim-majority Kashmir valley, the Hindu-majority Jammu and Buddhist-dominated Ladakh regions. Nearly 3,000 students currently study on the campus.
