It is plainly wrong that the Jammu and Kashmir government should impose a blanket ban on the Internet and data services in the Kashmir Valley on Friday and Saturday, the day of Id-ul-Zuha (Bakrid) and the day after. This impinges on the right of free expression without any reason. The authorities are clearly worried that during Bakrid sympathisers of secessionist groups will seek to flout a J&K high court order of earlier this month which invoked a 120-year-old state law banning the slaughter of cows and the sale of beef.
The order had been right away challenged by the communal and secessionist leader Asiya Andrabi, who urged her followers to slaughter cows for meat, and videos of this were uploaded. Ms Andrabi was taken into custody for flying the Pakistan flag and has been released since. Mahatma Gandhi’s dictum should serve us here. A staunch Hindu, he was against banning beef as he believed this would interfere with the “way of life” of some. Recently the Bombay high court and the Supreme Court also criticised the idea of bans and stopping people from eating what they would like when the Jains wanted their holy days to be declared meat-free in Mumbai.
CM Mufti Sayeed’s real worry is that uploaded videos of cows being sacrificed could be communalised in Hindu-majority Jammu by interested parties, and this would bring his government under pressure from the BJP, his alliance partner. This has nothing to do with national security. Also, cows can be slaughtered even after Bakrid. Will the Net then be banned for good in Kashmir?
