Srinagar: PDP MLA Waheed Para on Wednesday said that while the assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir were fought to end silence, fear and suffocation, fresh orders were issued to monitor and restrict social media in the Union territory.
“The election in Jammu & Kashmir was fought to end silence, fear, and suffocation. People didn’t vote for control, they voted for dignity, and the right to speak without fear. One of the loudest promises made was to scrap the media, social media gag policy,” he said in a post on X.
“Yet today, fresh orders to monitor and restrict social media are being issued selectively only in Jammu & Kashmir, nowhere else in India,” Para’s post read further.
He was commenting on the fresh exercise launched by the Department of Information and Public Relations, seeking details of the persons operating portals or working for any media outlet, including portals.
The initiative is part of a drive to weed out individuals notorious for spreading fake news and also resorting to malpractices such as blackmail, officials said.
“What is the Chief Minister’s stand on this? What does the @CM_JnK, who also holds the Information portfolio, have to say?” Para asked.
The MLA from Pulwama asserted that using “vigilance and monitoring” as a pretext to intimidate journalists and police public expression exposes a disturbing intent to “control narratives, muzzle truth, and drag Jammu and Kashmir further into surveillance.”
“Jammu & Kashmir deserves openness, not oppression; transparency, not targeting. This election was fought to restore trust and dignity, not to replace one silence with another,” he added.
