Dear Reader,

The media in Kashmir has been beset with the challenges of reporting amidst ‘contested narratives’, where they are forced to perpetually toe the government line, and at the same time keep an eye out for not falling foul of the ultras.

Now, as Article 14 reports, a new diktat from the government has made the media’s task even more onerous, with broadsheet newspapers being instructed to use only officially sanctioned terminologies, which virtually amounts to newsroom censorship - a throwback to the days of the Emergency. Use ‘Terrorists’ instead of ‘militants’, ‘Prime Minister Modi’ instead of ‘Indian Prime Minister’, and ‘government’ instead of ‘Indian government’, are the new instructions. Plus, official press releases are to be carried verbatim, transforming the Kashmiri newspapers into replicas of government handouts.

HW News reports that the proposed delimitation to the Lok Sabha constituencies is skewed against the southern states as they have been relatively successful in containing their populations as compared to the northern states. This comes in light of the Madras High Court’s remark last week that the reduction of Lok Sabha seats in Tamil Nadu in 1967 from 41 to 39, due to delimitation, was “unfair and unreasonable” and amounted to penalising the states which had successfully taken measures to control its population.

After India’s best-ever performance at an Olympics, in Tokyo, it is now the turn of our sportspersons at the Paralympics to make India proud. Medals at the Paralympics, like the Olympics, come with their unique challenges and odds.

The incredible story of Avani Lekhara, who just became the first Indian woman to win a gold at the Paralympics, tells the tale. A profile by Feminism in India published when Avani Lekhara was setting out for Tokyo, before her triumph, recounts the story of her indomitable will and courage after being confined to a wheelchair at the age of ten, following a car accident.

While we savour the success of our Olympians and Paralympians - the blood, sweat and the triumph - all is not what it seems. Success of Indian sportspersons has “both revealed and concealed systemic flaws” in sports administration in India. The India Forum says that post-Tokyo, officials and political leaders have revealed the all too familiar “sycophancy, glory-hunting, mediocre management, patriarchy, chauvinism and casteism” - all at the athletes’ cost.

And, as India marks 75 years of independence, in a fascinating story, The Bastion looks at how ‘songs of protest’ composed in the refulgence of the freedom movement against oppression and tyranny still continue to resonate, endure and inspire.

For these stories and more from the grantees this week, please read on.

Warmly,

Sunil Rajshekhar
IPSMF