Speaking Truth to Power

Anuradha Bhasin hit the national headlines with her challenge in the Supreme Court on the Government disconnecting Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) from India and those living there from each other by turning off the internet as part of its massive crackdown to usher in Naya Kashmir with the evacuation of Article 370 of all meaning. It was a courageous standing up to authoritarianism by Bhasin, a senior editor distressed by her inability to pursue her professional calling as a consequence of all communication conduits lapsing between her and her team in Kashmir. The Government won that round, and reluctantly and in ‘due course’ allowing light back into and on Kashmir, and that too only in fits and starts.

Bhasin does the Indian nation another favour in writing up this book, a body blow to the Government’s narrative on Kashmir. Even though one and a half crore tourists visited the region last year and the statistics of those meeting violent deaths in the insurgency there are comparatively negligible, no one is under the illusion that the situation in Kashmir has stabilized. No wonder the Government advisedly keeps the security forces in places that it had pumped in prior to its move on Article 370.