The lying machines
Truth becomes the first causality in any conflict. This is what we were told when we were acquiring the skills to be future journalists. And since then numerous examples came our way when we experienced the hard fact of how truth is suppressed and made to be a causality.
But witnessing truth to become more than a causality can happen in Kashmir only and no one has any power to undo things. We were told on the evening of August 4 that curfew has been lifted in Kashmir region except for the fact that restrictions will continue owing to the Covid-19 threats. But everything opposite to the official declaration happened on ground the next day.
Though, restrictions in Kashmir are nothing new for the masses here. We have been living through them since long and no one can be in a better position than an average Kashmiri who can define and make one understand what restrictions, curfew or imposition of Section 144 means for us.
In short all such terms prove to be a warning for us not to venture out of our dwellings and stay where we are. This despite the fact that many among us may have an emergency situation at hand. Many among us may have an impending assignment that cannot wait for the official dictums to be fulfilled.
But all this has no takers here as the administration has learnt the art of lying and making the commoners here to believe that the decisions to cage us in our homes are being taken for our welfare alone.
We are right now living under the shadow of Covid-19 and like the rest of the world we too have been threatened and cajoled to believe that the deadly virus is out there to devour us and consume us. But what we have not been told is that the rest of the world has focused and shifted their concern on educating people to learn to live with the virus.
The world has learnt that lockdowns and shutdowns were a temporary phase just hired or capacity building so that the healthcare infrastructure can be upgraded. But the lockdown has been given a different connotation in Kashmir.
The administration here in this part of the world has mastered the art of lying and they do this without showing any regard to the needs of the people especially when we have been going through a tumultuous phase for almost three decades now.
The people here have been so exhausted by the shutdowns, lockdowns and what not. But at the end of the day the administration too seems to be enjoying and living through the bad patches the people here are going through.
Rather than focusing on mere shutdowns the administration should also think about securing livelihoods of the masses. Theoretically, we may be living in a welfare state but ironically this welfare state concept is devoid of any welfare measures for the common man.
KV Network
