What happened to Rs 1000 Cr sent for ‘fighting Pakistan’s propaganda’?

Kashmiri officers shouldn’t discredit Prasar Bharti in J&K

Ahmed Ali Fayyaz

SRINAGAR, Jun 1: Since 22-year-long secessionist insurgency in Jammu & Kashmir has been officially declared as Pakistan’s proxy war, nobody in this country is expected to ask a question and get an answer over the tons of money spent in the name of “fighting Pakistan’s propaganda”. That everything has gone down the drain is best evident from two facts: Doordarshan’s and Akashvani’s reach is the maximum but their influence and credibility is indisputably the minimum in the strife-ravaged state. Street upheaval of 2008 and 2010 would not have happened if only 10 percent of the allocation would have been spent in right direction.

Like inhabitants of many other regions and states, Kashmiris have been complaining of “no representation” in several organizations of the Government of India. At least, Prasar Bharti’s fact sheet in 2011 does not support the grouse. Recently appointed CEO of the Corporation, Rajiv Trakroo, is said to be one whose forefathers migrated from Kashmir and settled in UP. Son of the soil, Khursheed Ahmad Ganai, an IAS officer of 1982-batch, has lately joined as Joint Secretary in the union Ministry of Information & Broadcasting.

With nobody holding the rank of Director General after Aruna Sharma’s unceremonious exit earlier this year, two of the seven DDGs (Programme), namely Ashok Jailkhani and Fayyaz Sheharyar, are residents of Srinagar. DD’s consultant on Kashmir, Jawhar Wattal, is also reportedly a Kashmiri.

With abundance of “representation” from the Valley, Doordarshan (DD) and All India Radio (AIR) now need accountability with regard to the taxpayers’ money being allocated and spent in the name of “fighting Pakistan’s propaganda on Kashmir”. Policymakers in New Delhi have perpetuated the culture of no accountability under the smokescreen of “national interest” for over two decades of insurgency. Some of them had a blurred vision of perspective planning but quite a number of them were transparently beneficiaries of the loot-and-scoot.

It was perhaps because of this “national interest” that the publicity and money hungry officials and politicians launched the much hyped “Kashir Channel” for four times from 1995 to 2004. Then Minister incharge I&B, Priyaranjan Dasmunshi staged a drama at SKICC, in presence of Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad, in 2006 by “launching” an FM radio channel nobody has listened to in J&K till date. It was simply a relaying arrangement.

Special propaganda packages, running into hundreds of Crores, were announced for J&K at least three times in the last 12 years. Officials, both serving and retired, insist that total volume of the money that came from New Delhi for “defeating Pakistan in the propaganda warfare” from 1990 to 2011 is, by no calculation, less than Rs 1000 Crore. Vested interests fought over location of DD Kashir headquarters as the actors from Delhi feared that they would lose an empire if the channel operated from Valley. Their tailored argument: “Anti-national elements will loot this money without fear in Srinagar”. Vested interests from J&K finally reconciled to the headquarters being in Delhi for a many considerations.

Beneficiaries of the anarchical situation included high profile men like Dileep Padgaonkar whose Asia Pacific Communication Associates (APCA) laid hands on a daily breakfast show. It ran for years, albeit without fighting Pakistan’s propaganda. A group of Srinagar-based producers later paid huge kickbacks and got a similar current affairs programme allotted from Delhi. They include one whose real brother then operated as an active militant of a dreaded pro-Pakistan guerrilla outfit (later eliminated by counter-insurgents). It did not carry a story when DD’s DG was on a visit in Srinagar and two poor employees got killed in a rocket attack on Civil Secretariat. Both the shows carried repeated segments on the city’s dogs and drains.

When DDK Srinagar decided to do the breakfast show with its in-house arrangement, it lost no time in outsmarting the private producers in 2008. By the time CBI conducted a raid and launched a lackadaisical investigation, producer of the show had already acquired 9541 segments, on 1914 tapes, clandestinely from a select group of freelance producers. According to insiders, it was only a tip of the iceberg. They swear none of the producers and Directors who remained posted at DDK Srinagar or DD Kashir, is owner of properties less than Rs 5 Crores.

(To be continued……)

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