India circulates images of normalcy during communications blackout in Kashmir, but they don't stand up to scrutiny, emilyschmall writes.
This image made from video released on Aug. 10, 2019, by the Jammu and Kashmir government purports to show life returning to normal in Srinagar, Indian controlled Kashmir. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist-led government presented an order in parliament Aug. 5 revoking the autonomy of India’s only Muslim-majority state, followed by a bill to split Jammu and Kashmir into two federal territories.
Government officials have filled the communications void by asserting the changes have widespread acceptance in Kashmir, across India and internationally — a portrayal that hasn’t stood up to scrutiny. The response was meant to signal Modi’s hard-line stance on Kashmir, where soldiers are authorized to shoot civilian demonstrators with marbles and pellets,The Indian government has also regularly cracked down on communications, especially in the Himalayan region where most people oppose Indian rule and want independence or a merger with Pakistan.
As New Delhi deployed tens of thousands of additional troops early this month to reinforce its control in Kashmir — already one of the world’s most militarized regions — India’s foreign ministry escorted foreign journalists, including a reporter with The Associated Press, to a Hindu pilgrimage site elsewhere in the region. Officials billed it as an opportunity for journalists to see a side of Kashmir beyond the protests and clashes.
On Twitter, Jammu and Kashmir police slammed the video as “completely fabricated and incorrect,” a description repeated by India’s home and foreign ministries. The government later conceded that the news video wasn’t fake but continued to maintain that no protest involving more than 20 people had taken place, despite video evidence to the contrary.
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