Following is the letter I wrote to Authint Mails owner/editor who removed my piece the other day on NDTVs Kehwa Stop. Dear Editor, I wrote a brief piece on NDTV’s Kehwa Stop program on 10th December which was published in your website, Authint Mail on the same evening. However, the piece was inaccessible in less than an hour. Initially I thought it was some technical glitch that my friends on facebook were complaining about, but on next morning I observed that the piece was removed for reasons known to you. The write up titled Delivering Kehwa from Delhi was a hastily written response to the show that was meant to portray on-going elections in Kashmir as a kind of hope and change. Also, it was about the people who had facilitated the Indian news channel, provided them the idea (platform) of a Kehwa stop, which Barkha Dutt conveniently compared to her program Chai stop which she conducted during Indian Lok Sabha elections, hence drawing parallels and making an implicit political statement. In my piece I wrote about how our “public spaces” are being “vitiated” by the likes of Barkha Dutt. I also wrote about people with “careerist objectives” and “material pursuits” who allow people like Dutt space. My assumption stands vindicated; the fact that you were compelled to bring the piece down, or did so on your own, bears testimony to the fact that spaces in Kashmir are indeed vitiated. Those who were offended or felt pricked my by words must have influenced you to remove it from your website. If not so, please tell me what made you to? If some people had problems with what I wrote, they could have written a response. I think that is the most civilised way, in the contemporary times, to engage in debate and discussion. May be I had gone too far in critiquing people, though I should add I had not mentioned anyone. Their response, if at all they had any, could have allowed me to think over what I had written in haste. I will wait for your response on this. I think I deserve to know what went wrong and where? I would also like to know if there are any other people involved in motivating you to remove the piece. I have written for your website quite a bit. I think it is time to call it a day, if my queries are not answered. Not indeed to my writing, because I will continue to do so with more vigour and passion. I promise to you one thing, I will come back with this topic again, exclusively and extensively. Regards, Basharat Ali.
Posted on: Fri, 12 Dec 2014 13:57:17 +0000
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