{"id":2212,"date":"2014-12-09T12:28:25","date_gmt":"2014-12-09T06:58:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/?p=2212"},"modified":"2014-12-09T12:32:41","modified_gmt":"2014-12-09T07:02:41","slug":"indian-corporate-media-and-kashmir-election-setting-an-agenda","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/editors-take\/indian-corporate-media-and-kashmir-election-setting-an-agenda\/","title":{"rendered":"Indian Corporate Media and Kashmir Election- Setting An Agenda"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/fb:like>
<\/h6>\n

PUNCHLINE<\/h3>\n

Z.G. MUHAMMAD<\/h4>\n
<\/div>\n
\n

 <\/p>\n

Psephology is not my cup of tea. So, unlike some of my friends, I have no predictions to make about the results of the ongoing Assembly elections in the state.\u00a0 I have no idea, if the \u2018faded-green\u2019 outsmarts the \u2018scarlet-red\u2019 or the scarlet-red beats the saffron or the saffron outmanoeuvres both the green and the red. Two phases of the five the phased elections are over. The official figures maintain that the voter turnout in these phases have been unprecedented. The assertions may be true or untrue. I am not to contest these figures. I am not bothered which party had an edge in these phases.\u00a0 It is the debates on the corporate television channels about the voter turnout that set me thinking. These debates continue to dominate these channels at prime-time even days after second phase ended.
\nIn \u2018setting an agenda\u2019 these television channels are not different from corporate media in other parts of the world. And their \u2018institutional setting\u2019 is not different than elsewhere. But, when it comes to Jammu and Kashmir, anchors of most of the corporate television channels do not only become in the words of a Professor friend, \u2018judge, jury and hangman\u2019 only but, to use Noam Chomsky\u2019s phrase they become \u2018commissars\u2019 \u2013 \u2018to set up and maintain a system of doctrines and beliefs which will undermine independent thought and prevent a proper understanding and analysis\u2019 and strengthen the \u2018States discourse.\u2019
\nIn their enthusiasm, many times, the \u2018hyper-nationalists anchors\u2019 of the corporate channels\u00a0\u00a0 challenge the stated position of New Delhi on Kashmir, perhaps unintentionally\u00a0 and\u00a0 throw open fresh\u00a0\u00a0 debates on the question of accession of the state with\u00a0 India. The debates on all the television channels after the first two phases of the 2014 Assembly elections not only\u00a0\u00a0 illustrate the point but also subtly suggest that in their heart of hearts they also doubt New Delhi\u2019s stated position on the question of accession.
\nThe officially claimed seventy and seventy one percentage polling during the first two phases in the State\u00a0 sparked\u00a0 frenzy in a section of media in New Delhi. In their excitement some anchor-persons and panelists on the television channels saw it as referendum in favour of accession of the state with India and a verdict against the \u2018Freedomists\u2019- and their politics. Castigating the post-1990 boycotting the elections by the \u2018Freedomists\u2019 they not only suggested that the electorates have made them bit the dust and but also pronounced them as having become irrelevant.\u00a0\u00a0 Ironically, the panelists on most of the channels swayed by the voter turnout were just betraying their ignorance about the great game of hide and seek of the electoral politics in the state since 1946.
\nThe highly excited anchors and \u201cintellectual- academic-panelists\u201d in their excitement surprisingly denounced the \u2018Accessionists\u2019- for their regional political agenda and saw the long queues outside the polling booths as a verdict against their regional political doctrines- autonomy or self-rule\u00a0 and vote in favour of \u201cnational level parties i.e. the Congress or the BJP.\u00a0 Such discourse perhaps could trick audience in India or inflate TRP of the television channels but Kashmiris during past sixty seven years have graduated to higher level of political wisdom\u00a0 to quote Chomsky,\u00a0 have \u2018undertaken a course of intellectual self-defence to protect themselves from manipulation and control.\u2019 It is this intellectual self-defence that despite political machinations and suppressions have enabled them to preserve and protect their political narrative for over eighty three years.
\nTruly, the debates on the corporate channels have no impact on Kashmir. But when these are dispassionately analysed these mostly go against New Delhi\u2019s stated position on Kashmir. India\u2019s stated position has been that in accordance with laid out principles of partition the accession of the state done by the Maharaja Hari Singh is \u201cfinal and irrevocable\u201d. And the State Constituent Assembly has ratified the same in 1957.
\nSince 1996, after every election not only television anchors,\u00a0 panellist in TV discussion but even politicians have been crying hoarse that people of Kashmir have voted for Indian democracy and have ratified the accession and rejected the \u201cFreedomists\u201d.\u00a0 These assertions, in itself manifest the doubts lurking in the minds of the anchors, panellists and politicians about the veracity the document of accession signed by Maharaja or Jammu and Kashmir Constituent Assembly endorsing the same.\u00a0 More than five hundred states were integrated into India in 1947 but there is no discourse about these states after Assembly election are held in these state that they have\u00a0 ratified\u00a0 the integration with India.
\nThe doubts lurking in the minds of the anchors and the panellist are not unfounded, these are deeply in the history of Jammu and Kashmir. In 1948, on the strength of \u201cdocument\u201d signed by the Maharaja India took the Kashmir Dispute to the Security Council. Notwithstanding, being a signatory to the UN resolutions, India tried to wriggle out of these resolutions and suggested partition of the state as out -of -court solution.\u00a0 Not only Mountbatten, Nehru and important officials even Sardar Patel considered partition as a suitable solution. \u2018On 7 August 1948, he suggested to Alexandra Symon of the British in New Delhi that perhaps partition might, after all, be the best answer to Kashmir problem.\u2019 India wanted UNCIP to come up with this proposal but the Commission was working on holding of plebiscite in the state.
\nIt is historical reality that the 1951 and 1957 resolutions of UN have categorically stated that the action taken by the Constituent Assembly, \u201cwould not be taken as disposition of the state.\u201d
\nNotwithstanding, the stated position, after almost every election in Jammu and Kashmir, India has been engaging with Pakistan for settlement of \u201cKashmir Dispute.\u201d In this column, it may not be possible to recap entire history of dialogue between India and Pakistan, after almost every Assembly election for finding a solution of Kashmir outside the UN. The 1996 election followed by back channel diplomacy culminating in to Lahore Declaration or 2002 were followed President Musharraf and Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh meeting in 2004 on Kashmir- opening of Jhelum Valley was biggest CBM, could be recent examples.
\nHad elections any impact on the political status, leaders of India and Pakistan would not be meeting to negotiate a solution after the elections.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/fb:like><\/span>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

PUNCHLINE
\nZ.G. MUHAMMAD<\/p>\n

 
\nPsephology is not my cup of tea. So, unlike some of my friends, I have no predictions to make about the results of the ongoing Assembly elections in the state.\u00a0 I have no idea, if the \u2018faded-green\u2019 outsmarts the \u2018scarlet-red\u2019 or the scarlet-red beats the saffron or the saffron outmanoeuvres both the green and the red. Two phases of the five the phased elections are over. The official figures maintain that the voter turnout in these phases have been unprecedented. The assertions may be true or untrue. I am not to contest these figures. I am not bothered which party had an edge in these phases.\u00a0 It is the debates on the corporate television channels about the voter turnout that set me thinking. These debates continue to dominate these channels at prime-time even days after second phase ended.
\nIn \u2018setting an agenda\u2019 these television channels are not different from corporate …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[203,205,204],"class_list":["post-2212","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-editors-take","tag-indian-corporate-media","tag-kashmir-dispute-and-indian-media","tag-z-g-muhamma"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2212"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2212"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2212\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2213,"href":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2212\/revisions\/2213"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2212"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2212"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2212"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}