Monday, Sep 27, 2004
India opens up Kashmir to Pakistan scribes
By Siddharth Varadarajan
NEW DELHI, SEPT. 26. Reversing India's long-standing policy of keeping Kashmir strictly off-limits for journalists from across the border, the United Progressive Alliance Government has issued visas for Jammu, Srinagar, Anantnag and Gulmarg to 18 Pakistani scribes.
The journalists, who are part of the South Asia Free Media Association (SAFMA), will spend five days in Jammu and Kashmir and will be free to meet anyone they wish to during their stay. The unprecedented tour will begin on October 3 when the journalists enter India at Wagah and proceed to Jammu by road. They are scheduled to fly out of Srinagar on October 8. Glasnost
Senior officials say this will be the first-ever visit to the State by Pakistani journalists since 1948 and is a concrete expression of the glasnost New Delhi is seeking to introduce in its relations with Islamabad. "If somebody wants to write critical stuff, they're probably doing it sitting in Pakistan anyway," an official told The Hindu on Sunday. "Besides, all the information that is out there - on human rights, for example - is what the Indian media itself is putting out."
Appointments for the Pakistani group in Srinagar have already been fixed up with the Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister, Mufti Mohammed Sayeed, the Geelani and Ansari factions of the Hurriyat, Yasin Malik of the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front and Shabir Shah of the Democratic Freedom Party. In Jammu, the visiting journalists will meet leaders from the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Panthers Party, besides the Congress and the Peoples' Democratic Party. Also scheduled is a visit to a refugee camp for Pandits forced to migrate from their homes in the Valley more than a decade ago. In Srinagar, it is possible the group will have the chance of interacting with representatives from the security forces.
The team includes two correspondents from Muzaffarabad in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. The rest are leading personalities of the Pakistani media such as Rehana Hakim, editor of Newsline, Talat Hussain, anchorperson at ARY TV, Imtiaz Alam of SAFMA, Aamer Ahmed Khan, editor of Herald, Ejaz Haider of Friday Times and Marianna Babar and Nusrat Javed from The News. Though Pakistani journalists have not had access to Jammu and Kashmir, the Indian Government places no restriction on journalists from other countries visiting the State. On the Pakistani side, non-Indian foreign journalists may enter Pakistan-occupied Kashmir only if they have a no-objection certificate from the Interior Ministry. This restriction, however, does not apply to the Northern Areas.
Promptly approved
While the Union Home Ministry has in the past baulked at suggestions that Pakistani journalists be allowed to visit Kashmir, officials say the SAFMA proposal was promptly approved by all agencies concerned, including the Jammu and Kashmir Government. At the same time, they stress the upcoming visit is only one of a number of goodwill gestures India is making and that the opening up envisaged is broad-based rather than Kashmir-centric. SAFMA hopes the Pakistani visit to Jammu and Kashmir will be followed up later this year by a similar visit to Pakistan-occupied Kashmir and the Northern Areas by Indian journalists. Indian scribes have been allowed into Pakistan-occupied Kashmir only very occasionally since 1964; the last visit was during the wedding of Amanullah Khan's daughter and the late Abdul Ghani Lone's son in 2000.
Indian officials say the decision on granting of visas was taken a few days before the meeting last week between the Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, and the Pakistani President, Pervez Musharraf, and was not linked to the New York talks in any way. Judged against the official policy of the past five decades, India's decision to open up Kashmir to the direct scrutiny of Pakistani journalists promises to be no less momentous a development. Though the delegation has a busy schedule of meetings, some visiting journalists are bound to break away and interact with ordinary people. But officials are not worried that the "man on the street" may talk of `azadi.' "We have nothing to hide," said a source.
Given the complexity of the situation in Kashmir, which does not lend itself to easy comprehension in one or two visits, the Government is considering the possibility of senior Pakistani journalists making more frequent visits to the State.
Copyright © 2004, The Hindu.