“Coup”: Journalists shocked after police aided takeover of Kashmir Press Club

On Saturday, there was an unusual presence of police and paramilitary outside the Kashmir Press Club (KPC), located in the Posh Polo view market. An armored white ambassador pulled up in the club premises, escorted by a police detail.

Donning a white jacket, Saleem Pandit, a journalist working with the Indian newspaper Times of India —escorted by police — came out of the car and the conference hall of KPC.

Around nine more journalists were present inside the hall, expecting Pandit.

Reporters in the premises started talking to each other apprehensively when word spread that an interim body of the KPC had been formed by these journalists.

Within an hour the group arbitrarily announced themselves an interim body with M Saleem Pandit as the president, Deccan Herald journalist Zulfikar Majid as general secretary and Arshad Rasool, editor of Urdu newspaper Daily Gadyal as treasurer of the club.

Many journalists called the action a “coup” to make the press body align with Indian authorities.

“GOI doesn’t want a debate on the oppression unleashed in J&K. Deliberately delaying KPCs registration is an attempt to throttle real issues flagged by local journalists here. The free press is the fourth pillar of democracy but BJPs policies seek to undermine & demolish it completely,” tweeted former chief minister Mehbooba Mufti after the takeover.

Scenes of police personnel guarding outside, CID officials in civvies inside the premises, has upset the journalists in the valley.

Soon after the meeting, a message popped up in an official WhatsApp group of KPC where it was announced that “various journalists across Kashmir valley unanimously decided to form an interim body of three members with M Saleem Pandit as president, Zulfikar Majid, bureau chief of Deccan Herald as General Secretary and Arshid Rasool Editor Daily Gadyal as Treasurer of the Club till elections are held in a free and fair manner.” 

“The previous committee delayed the elections for unknown reasons and the Club was headless, thereafter for around six months, putting the media fraternity in unwanted trouble,” the statement from the new body reads.

When asked whether the existing elected members knew what was going on, the General Secretary of the elected body, Ishfaq Tantry told Maktoob media that they were not aware of their nefarious designs as they were busy with the re-registration process.

“In fact, we were in the midst of initiating the process for electing the new body,” he said. 

He added, “The disgruntled group never approached or consulted with the incumbent KPC body.”

The Club is a private body of the journalists of Kashmir established under the Societies Act and is governed by its own Constitution and by-laws. 

“Nowhere the established law provides that a minuscule group would self-appoint themselves as the management when an elected body already exists and is functioning,” said Tantry.

According to him, the elections got delayed as the re-registration was pending.

 “Moreover, the actions of this disgruntled group, some of whom are not even members of the club, is totally illegal and unconstitutional,” he said.

Pandit, who is now the president of the interim body, told reporters ‘to have faith in him as his motive is to make the press club wonderful.’

The need for an interim body, he said, was because “the press club was in a mess,” he said.

On the other hand, on Thursday, the KPC had announced that the re-registration process was completed by authorities after a six month period. The club simultaneously announced that elections for a new KPC body would be held on February 15.

A day later, however, it stated that the Jammu and Kashmir administration had put in abeyance the re-registration of Kashmir Press Club.

The Kashmir Press Club in a statement said that the club received an order from the Registrar of Firms and Societies, Kashmir informing them that the re-registration certificate was issued to the club on 29/12/2021 under Society Registration Act, 1860 has been kept in abeyance.

Many Kashmir-based journalists expressed anguish over the “illegal and arbitrary takeover” of the Kashmir Press Club.

They said those Journalists had open support from the local administration. 

“The administration, by allowing a few disgruntled elements to hoodwink the Club constitution, bylaws and flout all norms of law, has set a wrong and dangerous precedent,” the joint statement read. 

They termed this move, in which a group of journalists self-appointed itself as an “interim body,” as “uncivil, illegal, unconstitutional and without any precedence.”

The Press bodies have also decided to take legal recourse against the perpetrators. 

The bodies also appealed to the press bodies across the country including Press Council of India, Press Club of India, Federation of Press Clubs and Editors Guild of India to take a ‘strong note of how the local administration is supporting lawlessness and throttling a democratic media body. If such incidents are allowed to happen with a Press Club in Kashmir this can be precedent for future.’

What this step means for independent journalists

After the sudden takeover of KPC, many journalists showed their anger on Twitter by calling the move unethical. 

Various journalists spoke to Maktoob media about their fears after the takeover of the press club. Most of them are concerned about the forced seizure of the Press Club. 

“If some people can take over the club by force, they can also decide to arbitrarily cancel the membership of journalists based on their work,” said a freelance journalist anonymously.

He said that Kashmir is in the midst of a press crackdown and journalists don’t know when they will find their membership suddenly cancelled. 

The previous leadership at the club had our confidence that, when authorities played stubbornly, the club would issue a press release detailing the given situation.”

Another freelance journalist, Majid Maqbool said, the statement that “various journalist organizations across Kashmir valley unanimously decided to form an interim body of three members”, is yet to be proved. “Which organizations are these? This sudden and unconstitutional takeover of KPC undermines the democratic and independent spirit of the press club much before the elections could be held”. 

Times of India journalist Pandit was also the first interim president of KPC but lost the first club elections held in 2019. During the Saturday meeting, the group of journalists led by Pandit also questioned the last elections, labelling it as “not free and fair”.

In July 2019, a protest was held by Journalists against Pandit after his story in TOI termed members of KPC as Jihadists. 

With placards reading Pandit is ‘a disgrace to journalism’, protesting reporters said he had tried to malign the image of the scribe body of which he was an erstwhile president of.

Quratulain Rehbar is a freelance journalist based in Kashmir. She reports on human rights, gender, health and insurgency. Her stories have been published in Indian and foreign publications like VICE, The Caravan, TRT WORLD, Firstpost, article 14, The Wire, Behanbox etc