Muzzling The Freedom Of Speech

The Kashmir Govt is at it again. Last week the police on Wednesday disallowed an academic programme in Srinagar where the professor, Dr Mridu Rai, who teaches at Trinity College Dublin, was scheduled to deliver a lecture, by invoking Section 144, which bans assembly of more than four people. “This is appalling that my voice was silenced along side with other speakers. It’s ludicrous. An academic lecture does not fall under Section 144. It was a simple conversation with people here,” said Rai. She further said that “If people like us are not allowed…it is a tragedy. My lecture indeed was referring to the fact how the greater violence is to ensure that voices are not heard, which in fact happened today,”  She is known for her 2004 book ‘Hindu Rulers, Muslim Subjects: Islam, Rights and the History of Kashmir’. This book created a major stir among academic circles in 2004 and remains a widely debated and quoted book in the valley.

On July 8th, when she was to attend this function in Hotel Mumtaz in Srinagar, the Police came to the venue and asked the Hotel authorities not to allow the function.  Pervez Imroz, convener of the valley’s well-known human rights body Coalition of Civil Society (CCS) said, “We were threatened by sub district police officer (SDPO) Sheikh Faisal Qayoom (Kothi  Bagh police station) to seal the hotel in case we went ahead with the programme’’. Ms Rai was scheduled to deliver a lecture on ‘’ Languages of violence, languages of justice: the state and insurgent Kashmir’’. It was organized as part of Pandit Rughonath Vaishnavi Annual Talk by the Coalition of Civil Society.

The opposition PDP also condemned the State Govt’s move to not allow Ms Rai deliver her lecture. “It is outrightly silly and condemnable. The government cannot target or disallow intellectual activity. It’s trying to squeeze the space where otherwise efforts are required to open up the same,” said PDP spokesman Naeem Akhtar.

The State has a history where the authorities have stopped human rights activists in the valley, but perhaps it is the first of its kind when an academic has not been allowed to deliver a lecture. In a way, it is another low by the Sate’s own low standards of not allowing free speech and a genuine critique of its policies. It is yet another case of the State muzzling free speech. The authorities in Kashmir hardly ever miss an opportunity to come down heavily upon basic democratic rights of the people. This high handed approach by the authorities not only highlights the insecurities of the Govt but is also a shocking infringement of freedom of expression. Such callous approach by the State only reinforces the feeling among Kashmiris that the civil liberties that people in India take for granted, will not be extended to the people of the State.

It makes no sense for the State Govt to cry from the rooftops that the situation in the valley has normalized. The return of the tourists in large numbers in the last few years coupled with reasonably higher voter turnout have been given as arguments in support that the people of the Valley don’t feel alienated. In the wake of this ban on a lecture by an academic, such claims by the State Govt ring hollow and make fun of its own claims of normalcy. Not only is this, but student politics, which is encouraged across University campuses in India, is sadly not allowed in Kashmir University. It is high time for the authorities to take note of this worsening situation and understand that such measures will only alienate an already alienated populace. 

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