Tag Archives: Jammu and Kashmir

Bad ideas, Debates, Government, Identities, Politics, Right watch

Shyama Prasad Mukherjee’s Role: Official Myths on J&K Busted

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Dear Prime Minister, nothing about Jammu & Kashmir is as your party sees it

Syama Prasad

Economist and activist Jean Dreze, who has co-authored books with Nobel laureates, such as Amartya Sen and Angus Deaton, was in the headlines for a placard he carried to a protest rally in Delhi earlier this week. His placard challenged the government’s most critical justification for its controversial move to scrap Article 35A and read down Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir (J&K). The placard displayed statistics that compare J&K with Gujarat, which is Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah’s home state. Dreze clearly showed how Gujarat lags behind J&K on a raft of development indices.

Although Dreze’s data beautifully punctures the government’s claim that J&K’s special status was a hindrance to its progress, Modi in his address to the nation on Wednesday night repeated the same argument, based on dubious claims. For instance, his claim that J&K lags behind other Indian states in matters of health services, education and so on, is patently incorrect.

Figures recorded in the National Family Health Survey (NFHS) has extended the debate further and shown that J&K already excels many other Indian states on several human development counts. Once again, this underlines that all talk about how “development” will reach J&K after Article 370 is made redundant is sheer humbug.

The propagation of false information brings home the fact that the government has gone very far to generate legitimacy for its decisions in J&K. In his address to the nation, Modi also said that his government had “fulfilled the dreams of [BR] Ambedkar as well as [the then Home Minister Vallabhbahi] Patel”.

( Read the full article here : https://www.newsclick.in/index.php/shyama-prasad-mukherjees-role-official-myths-jk-busted)

Bad ideas, Debates, Empire, Everyday Life, Frontiers, Government, Movements, Violence-Conflict

State Violence against Peaceful Assemblies in Kashmir: JKCCS

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Guest Post by Jammu & Kashmir Coalition for Civil Society (JKCCS)

Over the last week – August 29 to 5 September, of uninterrupted curfew in Kashmir, the government’s unbridled use of force on peaceful public meetings/rallies, which are either funeral processions of the civilians killed by government forces or peaceful political rallies where people demand their right to self determination, across Kashmir valley has resulted in injuries to 1215+ people, many of whom are injured by pellets shot guns. The violence used by government forces against un-armed peaceful rallies deflates its claims that its forces only resort to violence when they are pelted with stones. Contrary to government claims, the use of force against the peaceful demonstrators acts as a provocation to people and youth in particular who then retaliate by stone throwing on Indian forces. The sheer number of peaceful pro-freedom rallies held in the last week alone symbolizes the nature of the current anti-India uprising which has seen lakhs of Kashmiris on streets to voice their demand for right to self-determination. Such attacks are against the internationally, and domestically, recognized fundamental rights of peoples to peaceful assembly and association, and freedom of opinion and expression, including India’s obligation under the ICCPR. Continue reading State Violence against Peaceful Assemblies in Kashmir: JKCCS →

Frontiers, Law, Violence-Conflict, Empire

A review of human rights in Jammu & Kashmir in 2012: JKCCS

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This brief has been put out by the JAMMU AND KASHMIR COALITION OF CIVIL SOCIETY

TOTAL KILLINGS

The year 2012 has just passed, and yet again like previous years, the government of Jammu and Kashmir has disgracefully claimed the year to be peaceful. This hyped peace is void of justice & peace and is packed with violence & injustice. In the year 2012 the people of Jammu and Kashmir in routine have witnessed unabated violence, human rights abuses, denial of civil and political rights, absence of mechanisms of justice, heightened militarization and surveillance. The figures of violent incidents suggest that 2012 as usual has been the year of loss, victimization, lies, mourning and pain for the people. Continue reading A review of human rights in Jammu & Kashmir in 2012: JKCCS →

Centre watch, Frontiers, Bad ideas, Excavation, Law, Violence-Conflict, Empire

Full report: Alleged Perpetrators – Stories of Impunity in Jammu & Kashmir

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Given below is a report put out this morning by the Srinagar-based INTERNATIONAL PEOPLES’ TRIBUNAL ON HUMAN RIGHTS AND JUSTICE IN INDIAN-ADMINISTERED KASHMIR [IPTK] and ASSOCIATION OF PARENTS OF DISAPPEARED PERSONS [APDP].

Given below is a press release and the executive summary of the report.

Continue reading Full report: Alleged Perpetrators – Stories of Impunity in Jammu & Kashmir →

Bad ideas, Centre watch, Frontiers, Law, Violence-Conflict

JKCCS welcomes Supreme Court order for disbanding SPOs

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A press release from the JAMMU AND KASHMIR COALITION OF CIVIL SOCIETY
8 JULY 2011: Jammu and Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society (JKCCS), welcomes the recent judgment delivered by the Supreme Court of India in which it has struck down as ‘unconstitutional’ the practice of arming local tribal youth of Chattisgarh as Special Police Officers (SPOs) in order to fight the Maoists. It has asked the Chattisgarh state government to:
·         immediately stop using SPOs,
·         recall all firearms distributed to them,
·         desist from funding the recruitment of any other vigilante groups,
·         ensure the filing of FIRs into criminal activities committed by them, and
·         offer protection to those who need Continue reading JKCCS welcomes Supreme Court order for disbanding SPOs →
Excavation, Frontiers, Law, Violence-Conflict

MILITARIZATION WITH IMPUNITY: A Brief on Rape and Murder in Shopian, Kashmir

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This release dated 19 July comes from the International People’s Tribunal on Human Rights and Justice in Indian-administered Kashmir (IPTK)

Enclosed, please find our brief on the events and investigative process in Shopian, Kashmir, connected to the brutalization and death of Asiya Jan and Neelofar Jan in end May 2009, in which the state security forces have been implicated.

While investigations have emphasized the procedural conduct of the police in their handling of the investigation, they failed to focus on the actual crimes that were committed, or the conduct of state institutions. The investigations in Shopian have not focused on the identification and prosecution of perpetrators or on addressing structural realities of militarization in Kashmir that foster and perpetuate gendered and sexualized violences, and undermine rule of law and justice. The investigations have instead concentrated on locating ‘collaborators’ and manufacturing scapegoats to subdue public outcry. ‘Control’ rather than ‘justice’ has organized the focus of the state apparatus, including all processes related to civic, criminal, and judicial matters.

What is the ‘truth’ of the matter, who are in the know, and what is being shielded?

We were compelled to write this brief to mark the inability of the state apparatus to deliver justice. We urge civil society institutions and international human rights groups and those working with issues of social justice to seek accountability.

In writing this, we have visited, and been in contact with, the family of Asiya Jan and Neelofar Jan, and civil society leaders and organizations in Shopian, and in Srinagar. We are grateful for the collegiality extended us, and especially to those that placed themselves at risk to offer us insight.

You can read here the full report.