PUCL condemns forfeiture of 25 books in IIOJK as ‘arbitrary & brute exercise of power’
New Delhi: India’s largest human rights organization, the People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), has strongly condemned the decision of the administration in Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK), led by Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha, to forfeit 25 books authored by prominent Kashmiri, Indian and international writers.
According to Kashmir Media Service, in a statement issued by PUCL President Kavita Srivastava and its General Secretary V. Suresh, the organization termed the order “an arbitrary and brute exercise of power by the state uncanalised by the discipline of the Constitution”.
“What the state is seeking to tell the citizens is that any opinion which is not the opinion of the state cannot be tolerated. This is a form of totalitarian thinking which is unacceptable in a constitutional democracy,” said the PUCL statement.
“By the mass forfeiting of books, the [IIOJK] government is utilising a colonial, British-era law which was designed to suppress demands for Indian independence,” the statement added.
PUCL said that among the 25 books forfeited are books by Anuradha Bhasin, Sumantra Bose, Tariq Ali, A.G. Noorani, Arundhati Roy, Ather Zia and a host of others, books that give a flavour of the realms traversed covering history, memory, poetry and politics.
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“These books represent a vibrant intellectual culture of thinking and writing about Kashmir. These viewpoints may be deemed unacceptable by the Indian establishment, but they are viewpoints which are protected speech under the Indian Constitution. The forfeiture notice is an attempt at stifling collective memory and preventing thought in Kashmir,” said the PUCL statement.
“By clamping down on these books, the attempt to stifle the very heart of intellectual life: which is to seek knowledge and form opinion by gathering thought from all, including contrarian, sources,” it added.
“What is not apparent from a reading of the Government notification is a reasoning as to the grounds for forfeiture. What the notification has is a bald, bare and sweeping assertion with no reference to how any of the twenty-five books have contributed to ‘radicalisation of youth in J&K include distortion of historical facts, glorification of terrorists, vilification of forces, religious radicalisation, promotion of alienation, pathway to violence and terrorism etc,’” said the PUCL statement.
The PUCL demanded an immediate withdrawal of the forfeiture notice of 25 books by the Jammu and Kashmir government.
