People's Democracy

Resentment In AIR, Doordarshan

And Information Offices

S K Pande

IT had to happen some day and it is on the roads now. The humble and loyal officers of the network of Indian Information Service (IIS) officers at all levels are on the streets seething with anger There is a revolt in the information services of the government of India at its headquarters in New Delhi and departments in other places – from Shastri Bhavan to Doordarshan to AIR –all are affected as disenchanted officers openly talk of mass suppression, saffronisation and outside interference. Ironically, all this is happening in the very offices from where some of the “India Shining” campaigns were launched.

Some even talk of professional ‘khaki pants’ wrecking the limited autonomy of Doordarshan and AIR while others speak openly of a government  plan to wreck the Prasar Bharati and Information services in the name of 24 hour election news services and with it the careers of hundreds of officers at the cost of government’s blue eyed journalists.

Matters came to a head on February 26, when even the soft-spoken Principal Information Officer, Sahib Singh, in an act of solidarity, joined a dharna of IIS officers.  A man of few words and never a rebel, he said: “I stand by you and you can use me as you will”. The security personnel and the police seemed dazed for a while.

The government’s senior most spokesman, the Principal Information Officer, ‘doesn’t usually make news, his job being that of a communication facilitator. But Sahib Singh squatted outside the office of the information and broadcasting secretary, Pawan Chopra, along with dozens of others, protesting against the centre’s  policies. Mr Chopra is reported to have lost his cool and used strong language with the officers. (Sahib Singh faced the axe from the government, which in an order on March 1 removed him from his post of Principal Information Officer, Press Information Bureau and placed him on compulsory wait in PIB until further orders)

Another officer, never known to speechify had to caution: keep the doors open for negotiations, to help save the information service and the new recruits in these dark times.

The rumblings within the Indian Information Service, the government’s spokesmen, have reached serious levels and along with Sahib Singh, several top officials of the Film Festival Directorate and the Directorate of Advertising and Visual Publicity participated in the dharna. All of them are members of the IIS and were protesting against ‘injustice’. Their demands include the  immediate revival of the IIS Board for better “cadre management” or the creation of better posts, the filling of vacant IIS posts in Prasar Bharati and similar media units and the reinstatement of IIS officers who have been moved out of there or bundled out like “old beddings no longer required in a modern era”.

After an earlier meeting with IIS officers, the I&B secretary had written to the chief executive, Prasar Bharati, K S Sarma, a week ago, asking if the number of IIS officers at DD and AIR – currently about 240 – would be maintained.

Sarma told the ministry that 240 jobs for the IIS would not only continue, but there would be more vacancies in the future. “There are any number of vacancies at different levels and the posts vacant are not even getting filled up”, he wrote. With the 24-hour radio news channel starting very soon, there is a demand for at least 20 more officers. However there is a deliberate effort to violate all norms in order to bring in government’s favourite journalists.

Without wishing to be named, those in dharna said for the last two months almost a trickle of outsiders has become a flood. One even charged that behind it was a particular TV journalist with his ministerial contacts.