Propaganda, either in favour or against, is a very effective instrument of shaping public opinion in modern times. With the highly developed information technology that we have today, propaganda has received impetus and also opened vast scope for moulding public opinion. In particular, in democracies, which are based on the public opinion to shape polices, propaganda has become the primary instrument. We have electronic and print media to carry forward the propaganda campaign. During World War II Germany had set up very strong and devastating propaganda machine to which Allies had to respond adequately. Both electronic and print media are generally pressed into service to carry propaganda machine forward. Countries believe that they should have a very strong publicity outlet to keep the world and their own people informed on various crucial matters.
Countries that have a long history of mutual hostility have also taken measures to upgrade their propaganda machinery by inducting highly expert resource persons to carry forward the propaganda. The example of Indo-Pak hostilities and unlashing of propaganda to counter each other’s claims is good to cite. Ever since its creation, Pakistan has been indulging in anti-India propaganda so effectively that today a new born Pakistani totally ignorant of past history begins to hate India just because he has been told all sorts of untrue and negative things about an Indian.
This necessitates countering the propaganda unleashed by the adversary. And this has to be done through the means of print and electronic media. We have a long Line of Control with PoK. Large chunks of people live on both sides of the dividing line. There have been internal turmoil’s in Kashmir and Pakistan has always tried to derive extra mileage from this situation by unleashing false and baseless propaganda just to whip up the sentiments of the unsuspecting people. Particularly in the case of Kashmir, which they tried to take by force of arms several times but failed miserably, the game of propaganda is played deftly by Pakistan. In view of this hostile measure, the authorities in the Union Ministry of Information and Broadcasting decided that we should have strong counter propaganda machine, which would expose the falsehood of Pakistani media. Consequently in 1994 the then Union Minister of Information and Broadcasting, during his visit to Poonch, reacted to the demand of the people there and announced that a radio station would be set up in Poonch to counter the propaganda of the hostile neighbour and also to serve the culture of local population. This was a good idea and consequently steps were taken in that direction. But the radio station in Poonch never really took off. The main reason is that despite the staff sanctioned for the new radio station, adequate strength of staff was never made available. As a result the situation could not function as was desired. At present, Radio Station Poonch has a sanctioned post of Director, three Transmission Executives and one Programme Executive besides other staff but it is actually manned by one Programme Executive (PeX) assisted by one TreX. Evidently with such a small staff it cannot deliver as desired and the people are not satisfied that Radio Poonch has done any commendable job. Moreover, it broadcasts for a very limited period in a day. People are not satisfied that it really serves their purpose.
No better is the condition with the Programme Generating Facility (PGF) of DD Kendra Rajouri which was inaugurated in 2011 and built at a cost of 80 crore rupees. The DD branch was supposed to project the cultural life of the people in historical perspective in the regions of the twin districts of Rajouri and Poonch. This DD station is also a victim of under staffing. Consequently it does not solve the purpose for which it was installed and the question arises that why then did the government invest such a big sum of money in a non-productive endeavour.
We would like to impress upon the Union Information Ministry to provide the two information centres of Poonch and Rajouri adequate staff immediately so that the real purpose of the entire scheme is pursued. We need to counter the fierce and false propaganda of Pakistan by projecting factual picture of things happening on our side of the LoC.
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