New Delhi: In the backdrop of the Narendra Modi government’s abrogation of Article 370, Prasar Bharati is in talks to see if Jammu and Kashmir’s much-loved Radio Kashmir should now be called All India Radio (AIR).
Sources in the Prasar Bharati told ThePrint that it is carrying out an informal exercise to see if renaming it is a “feasible option”.
“Any such change will be subject to the Government of India’s approval. Right now, an internal exercise is being carried out to check the viability of a name change after several queries were raised on social media about this,” said an official of the Prasar Bharati.
Prasar Bharati is the parent body of state-owned broadcasters AlR and Doordarshan.
A ‘strategic’ name
Historically, though, the name Radio Kashmir, which has stations in both Jammu and Srinagar, has nothing to do with Article 370. The reasons for its name were strategic.
In a conversation with ThePrint, Rajesh Bhat, author of the book Radio Kashmir-In Times of Peace & War, said the radio stations have a strategic cause — to counter Pakistan’s propaganda and broadcast Indian information. The name, hence, is intrinsic to its cause.
Bhat had also served in Radio Kashmir.
He said that the first station was set up on 1 December 1947 in Jammu by the state government soon after the Instrument of Accession was signed. Its purpose was to counter malicious anti-India propaganda launched from radio stations based in PoK — such as Azad Kashmir Radio Trarkhal and Azad Kashmir Radio Muzaffarabad, among others.
Radio Kashmir, Srinagar, was subsequently set up. In 1953, both stations was integrated into the AIR”.
“While such broadcasts were backed by Pakistan and were actually helping them and antagonising Kashmiri Muslims, they said they are helpless as they are being broadcast from PoK. There was an understanding between India and Pakistan that the countries would not indulge in malicious propaganda against each other through any media,” said Bhat.
‘Real’ radio stations of J&K
The name Radio Kashmir was to tell people that it was the “real radio station” of the state. “The two stations played an important role in the India-Pakistan wars of 1965, 1971 and the Kargil conflict in 1999. They continue to play an important role in the ongoing proxy war between both countries,” Bhat added.
He also added that there wasn’t any “link” with this proposed exercise to scrapping of Article 370. “If Radio Kashmir had any link with Article 370, other AIR stations with names such as AIR Poonch, AIR Kathua and AIR Kargil would not have been operating in the same state under different names,” he said.
The transmitters in both stations were recently upgraded to 300 KW for clearer broadcasts — in Kashmir and across the border in Pakistan too.
‘Waadi ki Awaz’, a counter-propaganda programme currently broadcast in Radio Kashmir, starts with the sentence “Pakistan aur Pakistani makbooza Kashmir mein sunne walon liye yeh programme” (This programme is for audience of Pakistan and PoK).
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