Srinagar: Government on Monday took over the Kashmir Press Club, land and building, in City Centre, Lal chowk, Srinagar, and handed it over to the estates department. This comes two days after a group of journalists led by Saleem Pandit, accompanied by armed police, took over the press club on January 15.
According to a statement issued by KPC, Saleem pandit who is a senior journalist and bureau chief at Times of India took over the press club as interim president on Saturday, 15 January. The statement further reads, “it is an open fact that the Kashmir Press Club at Poloview Srinagar, founded in 2018, with immense efforts of the Kashmir based journalists who had unanimously handed over the responsibilities of the Club to veteran journalist M Saleem Pandit, who works with The Times of India (Tol) as the founding President,”.
However, the move was called ‘illegal’ by a large number of journalists and has been widely condemned by journalistic bodies. “What has happened today at Kashmir Press Club is a brazen attempt by the government to install a regime of its choice illegally and by force,” tweeted Kashmiri journalist, Bashaarat Masood.
Another journalist Parvaiz Bukhari in his tweet said, “A set of ‘journalists’ in Srinagar enabled by local administration capture the hard-earned #Kashmir Press Club with police and paramilitary troops present and throw out an elected body. Reveals a lot about the prevailing climate in which journalists work in the embattled region!”.
The former chief minister of erstwhile Jammu and Kashmir Omar Abdullah in his tweet said, “There is no government this “journalist” hasn’t sucked up to & no government he hasn’t lied on behalf of. I should know, I’ve seen both sides very closely. Now he’s benefited from a state-sponsored coup.”
On Monday government issued a statement regarding the closure of the Kashmir press club and handing over the premises to the estates department. The statement reads “government is concerned over the emergent situation which has arisen due to the unpleasant turn of events involving two rival warring groups using the banner of the Kashmir Press Club.”
“The factual position is that KPC as a registered body has ceased to exist and its managing body, too has come to a legal closure on 14 July 2021, the date on which its tenure came to an end. In its failure to register itself under the central Societies of Registration Act, further compounded by its failure to hold elections to constitute a new managing body, some individuals of the erstwhile club have been committing illegalities on several counts, least of which are false portrayal of being owner-managers of an entity which is no longer in legal vogue,“.
“Meanwhile some other members have created an interim body using the same banner suggesting a ‘takeover’. However, since the original KPC itself has ceased to exist as a registered body, the question of any interim body is rendered infructuous. In these circumstances, issuing of notices and communication by any group using the rubric of erstwhile Kashmir Press Club is illegal,” the statement adds.
It is pertinent to mention that Top Journalists’ bodies, including the Editors Guild of India (EGI), Press Club of India, and Mumbai Press Club (MPC), on Sunday expressed dismay over the “forcible” takeover of the Kashmir Press Club (KPC) by a group of journalists, and demanded the restoration of the Club’s registration as a society and early elections.
| 
