SRINAGAR, Oct 19: Jammu and Kashmir Estates Department sealed the office of Kashmir Times in Srinagar that was allotted to it in a government building in Press Enclave that houses several other newspaper offices in similar buildings. The newspaper owners claiming that the due process of law was not followed. Kashmir Times owner Anuradha Bhasin told over the phone to media agencies.
Bhasin said they had heard murmurs about the government planning to evict them from the building at the Press Enclave a month back, but there was no formal communication from the J&K Estates Department.
We had approached the Estates Department and asked them to please serve us the order, but they gave us nothing. Then we approached the court, but no order has been given even there, she said.
She said the locking up of the Srinagar office of the newspaper was something similar to her recent eviction from a flat in Jammu.
“The government has the right to evict an allottee, but there is a certain criterion and they have to follow the due process,” she said.
Bhasin termed the move as “vendetta” against her “for speaking out against the government and moving the Supreme Court against media restrictions in Jammu and Kashmir after the Centre abrogated Article 370 in August last year.
The day I went to court last year, that very day, the state government advertisements to Kashmir Times were stopped, she said.
Former chief minister Omar Abdullah tweeted, “This explains why some of our “esteemed” publications have decided to become Government mouthpieces, printing only government press handouts. The price of independent reportage is to be evicted without due process.”
Former chief minister Mehbboba Mufti retweeted the tweet of Kashmir Times Executive Editor, Anuradha Bhasin, and quoted, “Anuradha was one of the few local newspaper editors in J&K who stood up to GOIs illegal & disruptive actions in the state. Shutting down her office in Srinagar is straight out of BJPs vendetta playbook to settle scores with those who dare to disagree.”
Further, Bhasin added that this is an attempt to silence her as she has been critical of the Centre and the policies of the state administration. “There is clearly a pattern. This is open harassment but I want to say one thing – I am too strong to be cowed down,” she said.
Whereas, the authorities’ version on the matter is awaited.