Remove ‘SMS Ban' before 'AFSPA'
By Raman Sharma
Chief Minister
Omar Abdullah and his National Conference must stop rhetoric about the removal
of Armed Forces Special Power Act from Jammu
and Kashmir because now the people of the state do
not take time to understand facts and rumours. More the party and its leaders
talk about revocation of AFSPA, the more irritated people feel. It is hypocrisy
talking about revocation of AFSPA when the government is afraid even of SMS
(Short Message). Firstly, dare to remove SMS ban from pre-paid mobile
subscribers before issuing any irrelevant statement on such a sensitive issue
like Special Powers to the security forces. The 43-years-old Chief Minister has
time and again expressed his political desire on the revocation of the AFSPA
but he keeps a silence on the issue of removing ban from SMS service, he has
not even setting a deadline for withdrawal of SMS ban.
Though
Omar promises on his facebook page, "I can say with confidence that AFSPA
withdrawal will take place during the tenure of this government and that day is
also not very far." It is pertinent to mention here that so far neither
the Chief Minister nor his government has made any official written request to
the Center for withdrawal of the Armed Forces Special Power Act and this is
also mere a lip service to woo the innocent people.
The
Chief Minister and government must concentrate what is 'do-able' and I don't
think that the State Chief Minister is so helpless as he claims to be and if he
sincerely wants to remove the ban from SMS service this is quite possible and
it would obviously be helpful for him and the party to reclaim their image as a
pro-youth, pro-democracy. The decision of withdrawing or continuing AFSPA in
the state is a time consuming debate and cannot be done away within days or
months and it would also need long deliberations amongst not only the political
parties but also the security experts.
Here in J &
K there is a complete ban on Short Message Service (SMS) services of prepaid
mobile subscribers, in the year 2010 the Government ordered for a ban on SMS
services of the subscribers of all the telecom companies operating in the state
of J&K. But after a considerable period the government lifted the ban on
SMS services of post paid subscribers but unfortunately the ban on prepaid
subscribers remained enforced till date even after a lapse of considerable
period of around 3 years. The ban on SMS service was imposed by the government
on the grounds that it was being used to spread rumours and to incite violence
and hence posing a problem for law and order related issues. As per
Government's version with the SMSs the anti social, anti national elements
spread rumours and other false news/information of atrocities by police,
paramilitary and other security agencies and this led to violence and protest
including stone pelting by the people who get provoked by the false propaganda
against state through SMS.
No one can argue
that keeping law and order is the state's right and duty and decision of the
state government in safeguarding the security interest of the state and its
citizens is essential but putting a ban on the pre-paid subscribers only and
that too for a long period of almost 3 years is illogical and need to be
reviewed and quashed by the concerned competent authorities without any further
delay. In this era of advanced Information technology the selective ban on SMS
services of prepaid mobile subscribers is not only unconstitutional, non
democratic, useless and illogical but also become totally irrelevant especially
due to launching of new software's, application like Whatsapp, social
networking sites like face book, orkut and twitter etc. There is a wide spread
use of these messaging services like Whatsapp these days these applications not
only serve as text message carrier but also transmit images, videos, audios
files at a much faster speed and that too without any cost. This ban on SMS
service is only confined up to the poor people who cannot afford sophisticated
and smart mobile sets which are nowadays available in the market with a small
amount of 4 to 5 thousand rupees. Instead of cracking a whip on the anti-social
and anti-national elements and strengthening their own mechanism of monitoring
the activities of the suspicious persons who are instrumental in spreading the
rumours which poses a threat to the law and order situation.
The
state government has banned the SMS services of all the prepaid subscribers of
the state and thus made the common man a sufferer and deprived them of their
rights. The State Government justifies ban on the SMS services of prepaid
mobile subscribers of the state on the grounds that through SMS rumours and
false information spreads and which in turn incites violence and hence poses a
threat to the law and order in the state. This justification of the Government
on ban puts a grave question mark on the integrity, loyalty and patriotism of
all the prepaid mobile subscribers of the state of Jammu and Kashmir and thus
projects the subscribers of prepaid mobile in a very poor light and with
suspicions in public life and thus the ban on SMS is a clear violation of the
right of the prepaid mobile subscribers to live a dignified life. The
constitutional guarantee of equality is being flouted with impunity in the
state as both the prepaid and post paid subscribers are being treated unequal
by the order of the government to ban SMS services of prepaid mobile
subscribers of the state. Once again, I would urge the union and state
government to remove the ban from pre-paid SMS services and let the poor people
of the state also exercise their right to freedom of expression and
information.
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