This guy is the Joint Secretary of the Parliament of India & he’s stewing because four mostly unknown writers & activists haven’t been banned by Twitter? Who the hell is running India if a Pakistani journalist & three writers, including a woman on Medicare, has them going bananas? No one ever said you had to be smart to be a fascist.

(PS: he apparently has problems with counting too. He listed four, not three.)

Indian Ministry of Home Affairs busted for fake news peddling! After going on Twitter to accuse BBC, Reuters, & Al Jazeera of ‘fabricating’ stories of massive protests in Kashmir & claiming the alleged unrest was a handful of stone-pelting ‘miscreants’, the ministry spokesperson had to walk the fake news back when media came up with incontrovertible photographic evidence. Who the hell is running that ministry that they’re making fools of themselves before the entire twitter-sphere?

https://www.altnews.in/did-bbc-al-jazeera-reuters-fabricate-reports-of-unrest-in-kashmir/?

A strong polemic by Sidharth Bhatia, editor of The Wire, on India’s tactics to humiliate Kashmiris by this onslaught. As Indian scholar Jairus Banaji has pointed out, however, this siege is not primarily to humiliate but to acquire “unfettered exploitation” of Kashmir by powerful industrial interests closely associated with the Indian government. Humiliation & repression are to serve that overarching purpose. It is not a fait accompli as long as the Kashmiri struggle for self-determination remains undaunted & is supported by an international movement.

https://thewire.in/politics/kashmir-government-control-humiliate?fbclid=IwAR1CI4AeECfVvYTKcndBWSPliRUfQFzRrb22eXCpwF3hrI9Hv1p-45kcnuk

An Indian nationalist website called Rightlog reports that four of the eight accounts that India demanded Twitter suspend for ‘spreading fake news’ were immediately bounced. According to Rightlog, which has a flare for fake news themselves, “a motivated cabal of fake news peddlers are doing everything possible to bring India at the brink of a civil war…The Union Home Secretary stated that the closure of these Twitter accounts is an absolute must as they are “spreading rumours & misinformation to disturb the peace & calm in the Valley.”

Who knows if or for how long the four remaining ‘fake news peddlers’ will elude the censors. Marx once said history repeats itself first as tragedy, then as farce. In this case tragedy & farce are going on at the same time. The tragedy is the telecommunications blockade of Kashmir which places unendurable suffering on the Kashmiri people & their beloved outside Kashmir. The farce is in India attempting to silence a handful of writers & activists on social media who oppose that blockade. How pathetic & desperate can ‘the world’s largest democracy’ get?

Muzzammil Ayyub Thakur, director of the World Kashmir Freedom Movement, reports that 90-year-old independence leader Syed Ali Geelani, under house arrest for over a decade, has been taken from his home by Indian authorities. This was confirmed by an official in Kashmir.

(Photo of Syed Ali Geelani from files)

The Supreme Court of India ruled today that the Indian Army can continue to rule Kashmir with an iron fist & refused to lift any of the restrictions imposed, including the telecommunications blockade. We need to take this very seriously indeed because if India gets away with this without protests around the world, we can be absolutely certain that other governments will start pulling the same restrictions with us. Democracy is at stake & not just in India.

https://amnesty.org.in/news-update/blow-to-people-of-jammu-and-kashmir-as-sc-refuses-lifting-of-lockdown/?fbclid=IwAR0yectH-7c8gSoJuIgWOwEtEKiz4iup1ISbMzjUmMahr2TioVPOvThEQpA

Received an email today from Vuukle about this comment I made on Twitter: “Write that on my tombstone. It’s a proud moment in my life to be accused of opposing Indian colonialism & occupation & supporting the Kashmiri struggle for azaadi.”

Since I had no idea who Vuukle is or why they would be monitoring my comments on Twitter, I googled & learned that ” Vuukle has tied up with Google to help develop a method for publishers to better combat online trolls & derogatory & hateful comments on the online comment sections.” So it’s hate language now to oppose colonialism, military occupation, & genocide? It’s hateful to support the Kashmiri freedom struggle? Color that Modi-speak!

(Photo is email sent by Vuukle)

This is a very gruesome photo of a young Kashmiri girl hit with pellet munitions in the 2016 crackdown on protests. She was not a protester. Believe it or not, this is not the most gruesome photo of the hundreds of photos taken, mostly of young people whose lives are forever changed. Some images, some pellet injuries are unbearable to look at. Some will never recover from the injuries because the lead pellets cannot be removed from internal organs. Some will be blinded & disabled all their lives because they cannot afford the multiple surgeries required.

It’s important for us to post these images now to campaign against India’s use of pellet munitions on unarmed protesters. That is made imperative now that an Indian journalist reports hospitals in Kashmir are forced to turn away pellet injury victims so the casualty rates won’t be recorded to make the Indian Army look bad.

#StandWithKashmiriPelletVictims

Kashmiri Gothic: this ironic protest against pellet munitions almost seems too restrained now that we hear an Indian journalist in Kashmir report that hospitals are forced to turn away pellet injury victims so casualty rates will not be recorded. We know from the frequent protests of Kashmiri doctors & medical staff against pellet munitions that they would never turn away someone with pellet injuries. This monstrous act is entirely the responsibility of the Modi regime & Indian occupying army.

(This is based on the painting titled “American Gothic” by Grant Wood)