THE KASHMIR SPILLOVER?

As protests, sloganeering, stone pelting surfaced on mainland India streets, Kashmir’s Standard Operations Procedure (SOP) was literally in vogue with arrests, firing, internet ban and snapping of cell phone services. Many think that as Kashmir story moved out of the Valley, it is Kashmir dominating the spaces, processes and the policies.

- Masood Hussain

Kashmir has ceased to be in Kashmir. That is perhaps why the readers of Kashmir newspapers feel a sort of emptiness in the print space. The Kashmir story has moved out of Kashmir.

The trend was perhaps summed up by commentator Pratap Banu Mehta. “The BJP thinks it is going to Indianise Kashmir,” Mehta wrote in The Indian Express. “But, instead, what we will see is potentially the Kashmirisation of India..”

These lines did not take much time to become a reality. In wake of the Citizenship Act and the subsequent amendment to it, the protests started initially in the northeast and then in one of the many universities in Delhi. There were instances of stone-pelting, firing, tear smoke shelling, killing more than half a dozen so far. As the tensions escalated, authorities imposed restrictive orders over assembly under Section 144. There were preventive arrests as well. This situation triggered a debate, perhaps for the first time, about the illegality of imposition of Section 144 in quelling a situation that is guaranteed by the constitution.

As the situation changed, the Standard Kashmir Operation (SOP) made appearance almost everywhere. Cops in Delhi open fire and denied and it took media quite an effort to establish that the firing had taken place. Politicians who wanted to assemble and protest were rounded up and released late in the night. As the situation deteriorated further, authorities snapped the cell phone telephony and the mobile internet.