With Home Minister Rajnath Singh calling up Chief Secretary B B Vyas to close down 34 TV channels and come up with a compliance report, the state government’s home department swung into action and asked Deputy Commissioners of all the districts of Kashmir valley to block all the 34 channels and report compliance within 24 hours. Since Home Minister Rajnath Singh instead of approaching the Chief Minister, the head of an elected government in the state, choose to call up the Chief Secretary, the Chief of administration in the state, the indications coming from the central government are generating a feeling that elected government headed by Mehbooba Mufti stands sidelined and state administration is under the direct control of the home ministry. Interestingly Home Minister Rajnath Singh imposed the decision of blocking 34 TV channels on state administration through Chief Secretary but not the Chief Minister and more so after Governor N N Vohra briefed Prime Minister and also the Home Minister himself on the current situation in Kashmir. With the imposition of the decision of imposing ban on 34 TV channels through Chief Secretary the central government has publicly announced its intervention in the affairs of a popular government run by PDP in alliance with BJP under the leadership of Mehbooba Mufti. The restoration of peace is in fact the domain of the state government and Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has to only supplement the efforts of state government in the restoration of peace without restricting its role and administrative jurisdiction in the law enforcement process. Ironically the Ministry of Home Affairs is imposing its own decisions on a popular government run by PDP in alliance with BJP under the leadership of Mehbooba Mufti but does not show any willingness to look into the concerns of the state government on disproportionate use of force by army and paramilitaries in crowd control policing in restive parts of Kashmir valley.
Unfortunately the central government run by BJP instead of taking advices from the state government on the restoration of peace through dialogue and reconciliation is imposing its own decisions over the state just to discredit a popular government the part of which is BJP itself.
Not only the Prime Minister but also BJP Chief Amit Shah and Home Minister Rajnath Singh are contradicting the Chief Minister over the issue of political outreach in Jammu & Kashmir. Instead of imposing ban on 34 tv channels better it would have been for the Prime Minister to seek a report from the elected Chief Minister Mehbooba Muft on her government’s failures in restoration of peace in the state. Unfortunately the central government run by BJP instead of taking advices from the state government on the restoration of peace through dialogue and reconciliation is imposing its own decisions over the state just to discredit a popular government the part of which is BJP itself.
