His reply came in response to a social media post by a netizen urging “@OmarAbdullah unban the books. Unban the books. For the rest of your life you will be known as the coward who was scared of books. Unban the books”.The Government has ordered a ban on 25 books alleging that the works promote “false narratives, glorify terrorism, and incite secessionism.”The banned works include late legal luminary and political commentator late A G Noorani’s ‘The Kashmir Dispute 1947-2012’, prominent author and activist Arundhati Roy’s ‘Azadi’, political scientist Sumantra Bose’s ‘Kashmir at the Crossroads’ and journalist Anuradha Bhasin’s ‘The Untold Story of Kashmir’ after Article 370.Other noted works include ‘Do you Remember Kunan Poshpora’ by Essar Batool & others, ‘USA and Kashmir’ by Dr. Shamshad Shan, ‘Freedom Captivity (Negotiations of belonging along Kashmiri Frontier)’ by Radhika Gupta, ‘Mujahid ki Azaan’ by Imaam Hasan-Al Bana, ‘Kashmir in Conflict (India, Pakistan and the unending War)’ by Victoria Schofield, Seema Kazi’s ‘Between Democracy and Nation’ (Gender and Militarization in Kashmir) and ‘Independent Kashmir’ by Christopher Snedden.Reacting to the ban on books, former CM and PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti said, “Democracy thrives on the free exchange of ideas”.
Source link
