Now, India-Pakistan sniping finds new theatre: Radio waves

  • | Sunday | 23rd September, 2018

For three decades, according to AIR officials and border residents, Punjabi Darbar has been running propaganda against India, including promoting the Khalistan cause. Now, with the aid of clearer transmission via FM, AIR officials hope to counter Pakistani programmes and reach both Indian citizens and their Pakistani counterparts. Officials at AIR Jalandhar believe this will allow them to reach a large audience across the border with clearer programming.“We will not counter Punjabi Darbar with propaganda. Then there is ‘Majhe Di Mehak’ which gives details about development in border regions of Indian Punjab, medical and education facilities and infrastructure.Traditionally, these programmes are tweaked when tensions between the two countries escalate. The host would talk about development in the border areas and how people in these regions were helping the forces and were ready to crush Pakistani aggression.

AMRITSAR: At the village of Gharinda, 5 km from the Indo-Pak border at Attari, a 20-kilowatt frequency modulation (FM) transmitter is about to become the latest weapon in a war of wits and perception between the two countries.The transmitter, which will begin Amritsar’s first FM radio broadcast from September 24, will cover a radius of 90 km, reaching not only Indian listeners, but also across the border in the heartland of Pakistan’s Punjab, including Sheikhupura, Muridke, Kasur, Nankana Sahib and Gujranwala among other notable places.The Indian government’s move, overseen by All India Radio (AIR), became necessary after years of the Pakistan government broadcasting a radio programme called Punjabi Darbar. For three decades, according to AIR officials and border residents, Punjabi Darbar has been running propaganda against India, including promoting the Khalistan cause. Residents of Indian Punjab are used to hearing voices from the past: speeches of militant leader Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, killed at the Golden Temple in Operation Blue Star in 1984, are still aired.The half-hour programme is relayed every day from 7 to 7.30 pm and begins with Sikh religious prayers. In one of the broadcasts heard by TOI, the host expressed "grave concern" over the condition of roads and bridges in border areas of Indian Punjab and also gave an instance of seven schoolchildren dying after a bus fell off a bridge in a village in 2016. The host even quoted a person claiming to be living in the village who had written a letter to Punjabi Darbar expressing concern over the poor condition of roads.Intelligence sources who monitor Pakistan’s radio propaganda say that before the internet era the radio station across the border would pick up news from Indian newspapers, which they believed could embarrass India or provoke separatist sentiments. AIR sources say Punjabi Darbar was heard in the whole of the Majha region in India bordering Pakistan, but now its reach is limited to villages close to the border due to outdated technology.Now India has decided to shut down its old amplitude modulated (AM) radio service and switch over to the clearer FM technology for its nearly five-decade-old Des Punjab programme. Officials at AIR Jalandhar believe this will allow them to reach a large audience across the border with clearer programming.“We will not counter Punjabi Darbar with propaganda. Instead, we will promote quality programming. We have received letters from listeners in Pakistan in the past. With the FM venture, we will reach our own citizens in the Majha region and across the border,” says Santosh Rishi, assistant director (programmes), at AIR Jalandhar.Every day, for two-and-half hours, Des Punjab will be broadcast on FM 103.6 . The programmes will include long-standing favourites like ‘Jawab Hazir Hai’ which answers listeners’ letters, ‘Ni Risa Punjab Dia’ which talks about unique characteristics of Punjab, ‘Guldasta’ which is based on Punjabi literature and ‘Rabta’ which talks of a shared Punjabi culture and ways of life. Then there is ‘Majhe Di Mehak’ which gives details about development in border regions of Indian Punjab, medical and education facilities and infrastructure.Traditionally, these programmes are tweaked when tensions between the two countries escalate. During the Kargil War, Des Punjab had included a new segment – ‘Tiji Aakh’. The host would talk about development in the border areas and how people in these regions were helping the forces and were ready to crush Pakistani aggression. Now, with the aid of clearer transmission via FM, AIR officials hope to counter Pakistani programmes and reach both Indian citizens and their Pakistani counterparts.

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