Shahnawaz Khan
This is not the first time that Chief Minister, Omar Abdullah has talked about democratic means of protest. In the last six weeks, the flamboyant and fluent chief minister has often stressed on peaceful and democratic means to protest. It is a different matter that his words coincide with strict administrative measures that choke any leftover democratic space.
According to an official statement Abdullah told a gathering in Handwara on Wednesday that, “When effective democratic means are available to register protests and make ones viewpoint across, there is no reason of perpetrating violence and putting general public to hardships and difficulties.”
It is, however, no coincidence that the same week police filed an FIR against doctors who has sat on a very peaceful mode of protest. Scores of trucks carrying relief materials from Shopain to Srinagar were intercepted by police and the people accompanying the relief trucks were detained.
District Magistrate banned the transmission of a local cable television. And prior to that barred newspapers from carrying the statement of separatist Masrat Alam circulated in a CD. Last week there were even reports of police and paramilitary preventing people wearing white dress from going to mosques on a Friday when separatists had called for registering protest by wearing white.
Not to mention, undeclared curfews continued to be clamped in many localities in Srinaagr to prevent people from joining sit in protests, or that hundreds of children are facing harassment from police for alleged stone pelting.
Minister Medical minister R S Chib felt no qualms in telling newsmen that police has booked a case against some doctors, who according to him were instigating protests. All their fault was that they carried some placards while sitting on protest, which by all standards is a peaceful and democratic method.
They have been booked under various sections of RPC like 147 (guilty of rioting) 188 (disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant).
In a place where the administration sees relief trucks as a threat, and may be violation of public order, and sends people wearing white back home, the chief minister talking about democratic means of protest only sounds like a bad joke. Bad, because the situation is ground is in no way humorous.
Expect that the chief minister’s words are aimed more as a public relations exercise for his Delhi audience, these statements make no sense here.
These only raise the question, what methods are you talking about Mr CM? Wearing white! Sit in! Peaceful procession! Raising slogans!
Obviously the chief minister knows English better than anyone else over here, and may know of some better meaning of the phrases he uses. But then there is a phrase in Kashmiri, “Kar Angreez!”, used satirically to refer to someone talking things that make no sense.
I won’t use the phrase for our half English chief minister even if it fits, but all I would say is, Stop Joking Mr CM.
