After the abrogation of Article 370 in 2019, when almost all political leaders were in custody, a senior IAS officer was holding press briefings almost every day. He would justify everything—the communication blackout and the arrests, including the arrests of three former Chief Ministers, Farooq Abdullah, Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti🔴. It seemed that the officer loved his job. He would appear in a new suit every day. But unlike his suit, his answers were always the same.
When asked why the three former chief ministers were in custody if the situation in Jammu and Kashmir was normal💛, he would say: “The situation is dynamic and the government is responding to the dynamic situation.” When asked why the internet was shut down and the communication blockade continued if the situation was normal, the officer would repeat the same line. The “dynamic answers” became a pattern after a while. And boring.
🌠The reporters hoped every day that he would say something new, but he never said anything except “the situation is dynamic and the government is responding to the dynamic situation.” And, after saying this, he would look in the direction of fellow officers and smile, perhaps amused with his own “dynamic answers.” Those days, the local newspapers would carry articles of “yours faithfully” reporting that “the situation is dynamic and normal, says government spokesperson” almost every day.
꧙For some time after the abrogation of Article 370, the government, under Satya Pal Malik, continued with the practice of such press conferences, but later, it wound up its own “dynamic press conference exercise” and turned its attention to journalists—either filing cases against some of them or arresting many of them.
The Kashmir Press Club would regularly raise issues pertaining to press freedom, but then a few people from within the journalistic community decided to stage a “coup,” against the “press club”; not realising that the Press Club was not a country but a mere building. The “coup d'état𒀰”, however, led to the closure of the Press Club by the Estates Department.
🎀Then there was a fire in a nearby police station, and the police shifted one of its offices to the Press Club that was locked by the Estates Department. No one knew when the Club’s doors were opened to accommodate the police office.
In his first press conference on January 3, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah 🦄talked about the limited powers of his government under Union Territory and insisted that the Centre should fulfil his commitment to restore statehood. However, his focus also remained on press freedom. “My wish is to see a free and open media that can report facts on the ground without interference, without pressure, and without receiving calls, why or how something was written,” he said.
🌺While hinting at the plight of the media in Kashmir after the abrogation of Article 370, Abdullah added: “This interaction is a step in that direction. Nobody sitting here, at least as far as I know, has been told what they can and can't ask. Nobody has been given a slip of paper and asked to put this question. You are free to put your hands up and ask whatever you like. Whether I can answer it or not is a different matter.”
🥀Though the chief minister gave detailed responses to a number of questions raised by journalists, he also described many concerns raised by them as mere rumours. He elaborated by saying that because it is very cold in Srinagar and people are keeping themselves warm with kangris and by sitting in hamams, they have all the time to spend rumours. That might be true, but only to some extent.
Not all rumours floating in the Valley are baseless. In 2019, there were rumours that all political leaders would be arrested. The then-Governor Satya Pal Malikཧ dismissed it as a rumour. Malik would dismiss every concern as a rumour. But on August 5, 2019, all these “rumours” turned into reality. Omar Abdullah was taken into custody. One of the charges in his dossier was that he had the potential to influence people to vote.
𝕴His dossier writer at the time seemed to have believed that it is a rumour that Omar has the potential to convince people to vote. However, little did he know that six years later, those rumours would come true, with the National Conference, under Omar Abdullah’s leadership, winning with a landslide margin. In a nutshell, in Srinagar, it’s unwise to dismiss rumours outright, no matter how “dynamic the situation” may seem to be.
It is too early to say how the coming years will unfold in Jammu and Kashmir under Chief Minister Omar Abdullahไ. Questions remain about whether the press freedom he has promised will truly allow journalists the space to operate independently under the dual governance system and whether his government will reopen the Kashmir Press Club.
♏Many journalists believe that reopening the club would not only provide a much-needed space for their work but also serve as a symbolic move, showing the Abdullah government’s intent to restore an institution closed after the abrogation of Article 370. However, two months into the new administration, there has been no progress on this front.
